Marsha Blackburn Offers No Apology Over Kendrick Lamar AI Clip

Marsha Blackburn said she never meant to offend Black Americans with her campaign’s AI remake of Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance, offering a new defense without an apology.

The Tennessee Republican faced a direct question about that criticism when FOX13 reporter Rob Sneed caught up with her after a public safety roundtable in Shelby County on Friday. He also asked whether she understood the song’s lyrics and the reaction to the clip.

“We, there would never be any action that was intended to offend,” Blackburn said.

She again credited a county commissioner with making the video and said her campaign shared it because she thought it was fun. Her campaign’s stated priorities included affordability and public safety, alongside education, health care and infrastructure.

The answer added to a dispute that began when Blackburn posted the clip October 13 to promote early voting in her run for governor. The AI scene put her in Kendrick Lamar’s place and turned fellow Tennessee Republicans into dancers as “Not Like Us” played.

Her Democratic opponent, Jerri Green, had already criticized the use of AI in the campaign. Blackburn’s earlier description of the post as a “funsie” also preceded the new question about Black Americans who found it offensive.

The controversy touches a cause Blackburn has championed in Washington: protecting people from digital copies made without their consent. In June, she and Chris Coons announced that their NO FAKES proposal had cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her office described safeguards for voices and visual likenesses, with exceptions for protected speech.

Blackburn had also sought protection from AI campaign content herself. In July, she demanded that the American Exceptionalism Institute PAC remove an AI attack ad within 48 hours and disclose its use of the technology, WPLN reported.

That ad accused her of taking drug-industry money in exchange for legislation. Her letter denied that she ever accepted a bribe to pass a bill. The two disputes involved different uses of AI: one made an allegation against Blackburn, while her post recast a music performance as a voting pitch. Her spokesperson told WPLN that two TV stations had pulled the attack ad.