Kendrick Lamar uses deepfakes to see through the eyes of Ye and others (2022)
Back on the video side of the spectrum, deep-faked music videos may have possibly reached their creative zenith last year with this video accompanying Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5.” The track begins with a quote reading “I am. All of us.”
Viewers see Lamar looking towards the camera against a burgundy backdrop saying “As I get older, I realize life is perspective.” Then, in a twist, when the song picks up Lamar’s face suddenly transforms into O.J. Simpson all while still singing the song. Over the course of the next few minutes, Lamar’s face transforms again to Ye West, Jussie Smollet, and Will Smith.
The key factor that makes Lamar’s video stand out is its subtlety. Unlike past deep fake videos that crudely transplanted images onto faces in a janky, slapstick rush, Lamar’s transformations are at times hardly even noticeable. One viewer watching the video with this writer didn’t even know deepfakes were involved on the first watch.
Lamar’s video was made in collaboration with Deep Voodoo, a creative deepfake studio run by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Deep Voodoo gained fame for their 2020 deepfake of then-president Donald Trump pathetically reading a rendition of Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. Now, it’s working with artists of all stripes to create “original synthetic media projects.”
