Marsha Blackburn’s Kendrick Lamar AI Ad Triggers ELVIS Act Warning
Originally published by AllHipHop Read the original
Marsha Blackburn’s AI take on Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl show drew a legal warning from a Nashville attorney, who said the campaign post could run afoul of Tennessee’s ELVIS Act if the rapper hadn’t approved its use.
Entertainment lawyer Kaley Bonett told WKRN that she viewed the clip as a campaign ad. She pointed to Kendrick Lamar’s voice and his halftime choreography to explain why clearance mattered.
Bonett is an associate at Hall Booth Smith, where she works on entertainment and intellectual property matters.
Blackburn said a county commissioner made the video, and she and other Republicans reposted it.
“We re-posted it, and it’s a funsie. Everybody got out and vote,” she said.
The senator posted the clip October 13 to promote early voting in her run for Tennessee governor. It cast her in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl role, with AI versions of other Tennessee Republicans joining the performance. Democratic rival Jerri Green criticized the post.
The earlier backlash also highlighted Blackburn’s push to protect artists from AI copies of their voices and faces.
On September 30, Blackburn asked the Senate to pass the NO FAKES Act without objection. She argued that artists, songwriters and other Americans needed protection from harmful deepfakes made without their consent.
The bill would create federal rights over AI replicas of a person’s voice and face, with a process to seek their removal from online platforms. Sen. Ted Cruz blocked that attempt, saying the measure needed stronger free-speech protections.
Blackburn pushed back. She said the bill already included language to protect political commentary, criticism, satire and parody. That exchange showed how permission and free speech had become central to her own case for federal action.
Tennessee’s ELVIS Act took effect July 1, 2024. It added voice protections to state law, covering both real and simulated voices that people can identify. It allows claims for certain uses made without consent and lets courts order them to stop.
The state law also allows news, public affairs, criticism, satire and parody when the First Amendment protects those uses. Those speech protections sit alongside the voice rights Bonett raised in her assessment.
Before its October 15 update, the station reported no response to its requests for further comment from Blackburn or Kendrick Lamar’s team.
