Kendrick Lamar Uses Deepfakes to Add Will Smith and Kanye West in New Music Video
Kendrick #Kendrick
Kendrick Lamar just continues to produce absolutely incredible work.
His latest music video for the song The Heart Part 5, released on Sunday, uses deepfake technology to digitally add the likenesses of rappers like Will Smith, Kanye West and Nipsey Hussle over Lamar’s face as he raps. At one point he even morphs into O.J. Simpson.
You can watch the whole video below.
The song comes out ahead of his new album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, which is set to hit May 13. The song samples the classic Marvin Gaye track, I Want You.
But the video is something else. A single camera focuses on Lamar for its entirety, but his face morphs during key parts of the song. At one point he’s Will Smith, the next Kobe Bryant. Absolutely unreal stuff.
Deepfake technology is being used more and more in major productions. Just recently Lucasfilm hired YouTube deepfake expert Shamook, whose The Mandalorian deepfake, published in December, has earned nearly 2 million views for improving the VFX used to de-age Mark Hamill.