The Ye-I Conspiracy: Is Kanye replacing himself with AI?

For many, the unveiling of an unreleased collaborative track with Kanye West was one of the highlights of Skepta’s Mains show at London Fashion Week last weekend but, for some die-hard Ye fans, it revived a year-old conspiracy theory surrounding the superstar artist. The track tentatively titled “Cash Cow” felt like peak Ye, featuring samples from Pink Floyd, Daft Punk, and garage deep-cut “Battle” by Wookie, as well as a vocal clarity that hadn’t been heard from the artist in years – so peak, in fact, that something fishy had to be going on.

West’s declining health and artistry in recent months has been widely reported, with Yeezy’s ex-Chief of Staff and disgraced far-right political commentator Milo Yiannoupolous alleging that the rapper had been hooked on nitrous oxide by celebrity dentist Thomas Connelly, who installed Jaws-inspired titanium grills for him earlier this year. The news follows West’s own admission that some of his lyrics are now ghostwritten, and recent song credits revealing that the legendary producer rarely solely produces his own music anymore. 

Connelly got Ye hooked on nitrous—laughing gas. It is my belief that Connelly sought to diminish Ye’s mental faculties so that Connelly and his business associates could extract millions of dollars from him.

— MILO (@Nero) August 7, 2024

Rumours soon began circling on the Ye-dedicated /r/GoodAssSub forum that the rapper’s recent verses had been touched up with AI, pointing to unnatural vocal jitters on the first verse of “Sky City”, as well as wider inconsistencies in his delivery between leaked versions of tracks and their final releases. These same digital-sounding jitters can be heard on the recent leak of “Cash Cow”, where West’s vocal appears to ominously dip out on the phrase “tap out” in the chorus.

For subscribers of the ‘Ye-I’ theory, the final nail in the coffin arrived late last night when a Reddit user appeared to uncover the software that West and his team may have been using: a Norwegian AI voice software called Weights. Hours later, a separate user named /u/Valuabele_Net2208 compared a leaked version of the track “Forever” – in which Kanye’s voice appears sluggish and slurred – with the crisp-sounding final version, and then ran the leaked versions through the Weights software. The results were almost indistinguishable. 

Much has been made in recent years of AI’s implications on music and creativity, with many warning that the advanced capabilities of the software might eventually remove the need for artists altogether. While this is a genuine concern, this is by no means the first time that such debates have surfaced. Similar fears were expressed with the advent of photography in the mid-19th century, with French painter Paul Delaroche reportedly declaring that “from today, painting is dead!”, and, later, with the introduction of auto-tune in the early 00s. 

Ultimately, both painting and singing appear to have survived these technological revolutions – in the late 1800s, painters like Pablo Picasso began incorporating more abstract elements into his work to adapt to the photorealistic capabilities of the camera. Meanwhile, at the turn of the 21st century, T-Pain’s pioneering use of auto-tune ushered in a new style of vocal delivery, infused with futuristic-sounding melodies and unique texture, without replacing the role of genuine vocalists. 

Up until now, AI in music appears to have followed the same trajectory – pushing for an evolution in the medium rather than the outright replacement of artistry. Metro Boomin’s AI-generated Drake diss “BBL Drizzy”, for example, is a key instance where AI vocal capabilities have allowed for increased expression, and was one of the highlights of the Kendrick vs. Drake beef earlier this year. Similarly, while West’s alleged use of AI software is admittedly lazy, it is still predicated on actual artistry – his lyrics still appear to have been written by a human (albeit potentially not Ye himself) and the synthesised vocals recreate the uniquely human quality that West had to begin with, associated with all the nostalgia of classics like Graduation and The College Dropout. 

SSJ Trunks kills Mecha Frieza pic.twitter.com/cb7VryBQGx

— ToonRami (@ToonRami) August 19, 2023

The Ye-I conspiracy does reveal a tragic decline for the hip-hop icon. When compared with their final versions, leaks of West’s recent releases often appear to be recorded with low-quality or little effort and, whether this is the result of health complications or laziness, the suggestion that they may have had to be touched up with AI recreations of his earlier work speaks volumes about how far he has fallen.