The Sunday before Kendrick would release his highly anticipated Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, the Compton-bred MC released the fifth installment of his “The Heart” series. The music video featured Kendrick deep-faking notable figures in culture and music, including Kanye, Jussie Smollet, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, OJ Simpson, and Nipsey Hussle. A recent New York Times profile on Lamar and Dave Free revealed that a couple more artists were deep faked but didn’t make it to the video.
South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, whose deep-fake company was used for the video, revealed in Lamar’s profile that he also had deep-faked Eminem for the video. However, in the end, Kendrick decided not to go forward with deep faking the two hip-hop legends.
“You see Kendrick turned into Tupac, Kendrick turned into Kanye, and I think we had Eminem,” Stone told the NYT over a Zoom call. The outlet further added that when he told Kendrick and Dave they could be among the first to use the technology for one of their videos, the pair reportedly responded, “What if we did the Jussie Smollett!”
However, it was not shared why Kendrick decided not to use Eminem’s likeness for the video. Despite the decision not to use Eminem’s likeness, the song has been nominated for 5 Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Music Video.
