Marsha Blackburn has spent years telling Tennessee's music industry she'll protect artists from AI fakes. This week her campaign shared one.
On Tuesday, October 13, the day before early voting started in Tennessee, Blackburn's campaign reposted a video on X. It shows AI-generated versions of Blackburn, Rep. Tim Burchett, Sen. Bill Hagerty, state Sen. Brent Taylor and former Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs lip-syncing to Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" and copying his choreography from the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, WKRN reported. The caption: "Tomorrow. Ready to roll."
Blackburn is the Republican nominee for governor. Her explanation:
"A county commissioner that made the video and put it up, and I think Congressman Burchett reposted it. We re-posted it, and it's a funsie."
The law she fought for
Here's the problem with a "funsie."
In 2024 Tennessee passed the ELVIS Act, a law protecting musicians' voices and likenesses from being copied by AI without permission. In 2025, when Congress considered a moratorium on state AI laws, Blackburn fought to keep Tennessee's. WKRN quoted what she said then:
"We do not need a moratorium that would prohibit our state from stepping up and protecting citizens in their state."
And in Washington, Blackburn is an original cosponsor of the NO FAKES Act, introduced April 9, 2025. The bill would give people a legal right over AI-made copies of their voice and likeness and let them sue over unauthorized ones. When she reintroduced it with Democrats, Blackburn opened her statement by praising Tennessee's "incredibly talented creative community" and calling the bill a first step against the misuse of generative AI.
So Blackburn knows exactly what an unauthorized AI copy of an artist is. She has cosponsored a bill about it.
A lawyer says it may be "actionable"
Kaley Bonett, a Nashville entertainment attorney at Hall Booth Smith, told WKRN the video could raise concerns under the ELVIS Act:
"You can easily pinpoint that as [Lamar's] voice, and if that weren't enough, it also depicts [Blackburn] and some others doing the choreography in that stadium that was done at that show."
Because Blackburn is a candidate, Bonett said, the post is part of her campaign, and "it is an advertisement for services that is actionable under the ELVIS Act." Whether it actually breaks the law depends on whether Lamar gave permission. WKRN reached out to Lamar's team and to Blackburn's campaign. Neither had responded.
No apology
When FOX13 asked Blackburn in Memphis on Friday about concerns from Black Americans who said they were offended by the video and its use of Lamar's song, she said "there would never be any action that was intended to offend." She did not apologize.
Blackburn likes to talk about holding Big Tech accountable. We've already shown that line came right after AI and data-center employees gave her campaign more than $100,000. Now the senator who wants to protect artists from AI copies is using one to get out the vote.
What we know
On October 13, Marsha Blackburn's campaign reposted an AI-generated video of her and other Tennessee Republicans lip-syncing to Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us," and she called it "a funsie." Blackburn is an original cosponsor of the federal NO FAKES Act, which targets unauthorized AI copies of a person's voice and likeness, and she fought in 2025 to protect Tennessee's ELVIS Act, which does the same for musicians. A Nashville entertainment lawyer told WKRN the video could be "actionable" under that law unless Lamar gave permission. Blackburn did not apologize.
