By Jonathan Landrum, Jr., Associated Press | When an AI-generated country song called “Walk My Walk” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s country digital song sales chart this month, it was credited to a fictional artist named Breaking Rust — a white, digitally generated avatar that didn’t exist two months ago.
But the song’s vocal phrasing, melodic shape and stylistic DNA came from someone who does exist: Grammy-nominated country artist Blanco Brown, a Black music artist who has worked with Britney Spears, Childish Gambino and Rihanna.
And he had no idea.
“I didn’t even know about the song until people hit me up about it,” said Brown, whose 2019 country rap hit “The Git Up” helped usher in a new, hybrid era of country crossover. He didn’t learn about the chart-topping AI track until his phone was flooded with messages from friends.
“My phone just kept blowing up,” he said. “Somebody said: ‘Man, somebody done typed your name in the AI and made a white version of you. They just used the Blanco, not the Brown.”
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The credits for the grit-filled, chant-heavy track “Walk My Walk” list Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor . .
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Read more about this “fake” song here:
https://apnews.com/article/walk-my-walk-blanco-brown-2c9bbde6e88434365640c50e2998cfe2
Meme from Blanco Brown’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1362105788606083&set=pb.100044200251009.-2207520000&type=3