Generally, I find all the deepfakes and AI use in music today — especially when it comes to deceased artists’ posthumous releases — ethically iffy, if not downright creepy. I’m willing to make an exception for Lyrical Lemonade’s off-the-wall “Doomsday” collab between Juice WRLD and Cordae, though. For one, Juice and Cordae were very tight in real life, and for another, both were extremely close with director Cole Bennett, who was instrumental to both of their careers.
But mostly, it’s because the project came out super tight, which is something you can’t always say for similar works. In this case, we get another opportunity to hear both young rappers at the respective heights of their game — something they got too few chances to give us while Juice was alive — as well as to hear Juice really rapping. Also, the deepfake effect in the video is used in a creative way, allowing Cordae to perform for the both of them as he morphs back and forth between his own face and Juice’s.
Eminem, whose song “Role Model” is sampled here, even makes an appearance at the beginning of the video and his association with Cordae and Juice is just enough to make you wonder whether it’s more digital trickery, or really the man himself showing love to the younger rappers (and Cole, who directed his “Godzilla” video).
Check out the “Doomsday” video above.
Cordae is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.