Legendary rap artist Snoop Dogg has just dropped the official music video for his single, Sophisticated Crippin’, from his album Iz It A Crime? And it’s packed to the brim with generative AI footage.
The music video starts out with a suited-up current-day Snoop Dogg having a conversation with a younger Snoop Dogg, wearing crip colours — older Snoop pleads that younger Snoop “keep crippin, but keep it ‘sophisicated crippin’”. If you’re somehow not convinced that these two Snoops aren’t made with a generative AI model, the next scene definitely will. The video cuts to the front of a music venue with “Snoop Dogg” in lights at the top, and random, gibberish text underneath to represent other artists.
The rest of the music video, directed by Jesse Wellens, seems to be mostly AI, too. Generated clips of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Warren G, Nate Dogg and Tupac and more all appear, alongside some classic photos of Snoop Dogg that have been ‘brought to life’ with the generative AI software.
Check it out below.
The video is sure to unsettle some viewers, with its uncanny valley-esque animation and bizarre twists and turns — not to mention the conflict over the use of AI in the film indsutry right now. Others, however, may see the inspiring side of the video, knowing they, too, are able to harness the AI tools Snoop and his team used to make music videos.
This isn’t the first time Snoop has used generative AI on an official music video. In April, the artist dropped the video for Last Dance with Mary Jane ft. Tom Petty & Jelly Roll, was made using AI image creation software developed by Temple Caché. However, according to a report by Little Black Book, none of the scenes in the video were completely AI-generated. “To achieve subtle details and ensure consistency across shots, each frame was touched by human artists – reanimated, composited and layered manually,” said Psyop’s head of studio partnerships, Andrew Linsk.
Snoop Dogg’s Iz It A Crime? is out now.
