Culture 4 min read By Trevor Kendall
IAMDDB Accuses Israeli Government of Using AI Likeness Without Consent
The Manchester-based rapper says an AI-generated video posted to Israel's official social media accounts used her likeness without permission, and she has publicly rejected the message it carried.
IAMDDB has publicly accused the Israeli government of using an AI-generated version of her likeness without her consent, after a video featuring a woman resembling the Manchester-based rapper appeared on official state social media accounts. The post, which has since been deleted, was shared last week and showed a figure reciting lyrics that included the line «Colonisers? Say the name. Jews from Judea, it's in the damn name.»
The clip was reportedly captioned «GO BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM! We did.» Outlets including Manchester Evening News reported that the video was AI-generated, and that the figure in it bore a resemblance to IAMDDB as well as to a 2018 photoshoot she did for a Crack profile. The rapper, who was born in Portugal and is based in Manchester, responded directly on X, writing: «Hiya yeah so – why did you steal my identity for something I 100 per cent did not consent to?»
She expanded on that reaction in a statement posted to Instagram, saying she wanted to make it «absolutely clear» that she did not authorise, approve, participate in, or consent to her image or likeness being used in the video. «I have no involvement in its creation or its message,» she wrote. The rapper added that she has always approached her music and art «from a place of love, freedom, humanity and connection,» and that she does «not support genocide, the killing of innocent people, or the suffering of women, children and families.»
In the same statement, IAMDDB addressed her past decision to perform in Israel, saying the appearance was organised «at a time when I did not have the awareness or understanding of the situation that I have today.» She described herself at the time as «a young artist grateful for the opportunity to travel, perform and experience a part of the world I had never imagined I would see.» She continued: «Had I understood then what I understand now, I would have made a different decision. That performance should not be taken as an endorsement of any government's actions, past or present.»
The rapper framed the episode as a question of consent and artistic control, writing that her «identity, my artistry and my image are not available to be used without my consent to promote political messaging.» She said she was «deeply concerned by the use of AI to create the appearance of an artist's involvement in something they never agreed to,» and closed by asserting ownership of her public self: «My image is mine. My voice is mine. My values are mine.» She also wrote «FREE PALESTINE» and captioned the post as an official statement regarding the official Israeli account using AI-generated versions of her likeness without permission, adding, «Peace to the Middle East.»
The incident adds to a growing set of disputes over synthetic media and celebrity likeness, in which public figures find their faces and voices reproduced by tools they never agreed to work with. For an artist like IAMDDB, whose public identity is bound up with her music and her personal values, the dispute is less about copyright than about being made to appear to endorse a political message she says she rejects.
IAMDDB's latest album, «LOVE Is WAR, Volume 6,» was released in February 2024. Neither the rapper nor representatives of the Israeli government have offered further comment on the deleted post.
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