The Deepfake Technology That Morphed Kendrick Lamar Into Kanye West And More In ‘The Heart Part 5’ Visual
Kendrick #Kendrick
The wait is over: Kendrick Lamar has dropped the first single, “The Heart Part 5,” from his highly anticipated album “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.” And, the technology featured in its visual deserves to be talked about.
Kendrick Lamar’s New Music Video
On May 8, the rapper started the week off with a bang after dropping the music video for his official comeback single, according to Pitchfork.
In the visual, deepfake technology — a form of artificial intelligence (AI) — is featured to transform Kendrick into some of the most publicly outspoken Black men including Kanye West, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, Nipsey Hussle, OJ Simpson, and Jussie Smollett.
Studio Deep Voodoo — led by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone — was behind creating the deepfakes.
As each of the celebs appear on the screen, “the lyrics often align with the person he’s resembling, discussing bipolar disorder when he’s West and murder when he’s the late Hussle,” the outlet explains. The video also alludes to Kendrick seeing himself in them as the opening quote is “I am. All of us,” attributed to oklama.
Upcoming Album Release
As previously reported by AfroTech, Kendrick made the announcement for his new album in an unexpected way. Via Twitter, he responded to a user who tweeted “Kendrick Lamar is officially retired” with a link to a website that revealed the surprise.
“The following statement was released today by oklama, through his company, pgLang, at 11:00 am PT in Los Angeles, CA,” the statement shared.
It continued: “All factual information for this release will come directly from this source only.”
“Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” is dropping on May 13.
pgLang
In 2020, Kendrick and his longtime partner launched their creative service company.
“pgLang is multilingual,” the company’s website describes. “Our community speaks music, film, television, art, books, and podcasts — because sometimes we have to use different languages to get the point of our stories across. Stories that speak to many nations, many races, and many ages. That is why our writers, singers, directors, musicians, and producers break formats when we build ideas and make them real for the curious.”