Songs of the Week spotlights great new tunes while also analyzing notable tracks that we don’t quite love. Find our new favorites and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist, and for other great songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, we survey the week in music with new tracks from Jamie xx, RAYE, and Drake. 

New and Notable: Music’s Uncanny Valley Sounds Like “Wah Gwan Delilah”

In 1970 Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori coined the term “uncanny valley” to describe the revulsion many people feel when we see something lifelike but not quite human. You can experience it in robotic faces that try to mimic human skin, the eeriness of wax museums, the discomfort of dead-eyed CGI, and in some skin-crawling AI videos.

It’s usually a visual experience, but I felt a nearly identical sensation hearing “Wah Gwan Delilah,” a Toronto-themed cover of “Hey There Delilah,” released by Snowd4y and listed as featuring Drake. Drake himself shared a screenshot of the song on his Instagram Story, though he didn’t say whether it was real.

One verse sounds like Drake, or like an AI pretending to be Drake, depending on who you ask. Billboard first reported that it “appears” to be genuine, but two days later had backpedaled a bit, noting that “to date, the two rappers have not confirmed or denied the AI rumor.” That same article reached out to two different AI tracking firms. Both labeled their tests inconclusive, highlighting that they found traces of AI in the mixing of the track but couldn’t determine much else.

If I had to guess, I would say his vocals are machine generated. Billboard described Snowd4y as a “parody rapper,” the song isn’t connected to the rest of Drake’s discography on the major streaming platforms, and if you listen to the lyrics, it sure sounds like a comedian trying to get yucks, not a superstar planning out a blockbuster cover (“I’m so cheeeeeeesed!”). But only a handful of people know for sure.

Drake was one of the first artists to embrace this new frontier, using AI-generated Tupac vocals to diss Kendrick Lamar. Since Tupac is dead, we could be certain that he didn’t lay down the verse himself. But as “Wah Gwan Delilah” proves, we won’t always be so certain. And if that makes you feel uncomfortable, well, that’s part of being human.

— Wren Graves
Features Editor