Check out AI-generated Renaissance paintings of Drake, Kanye and more

Rembrandt ft. Tyler, the Creator: the best collab of 2022 so far?

See these AI Renaissance paintings of rappers Drake, Snoop Dogg and Kanye
photo: Dalle2 Pics via Twitter
See these AI Renaissance paintings of rappers Drake, Snoop Dogg and Kanye
photo: Dalle2 Pics via Twitter

Rembrandt ft. Tyler, the Creator: the best collab of 2022 so far?

By Megan Wallace04 Aug 2022
2 mins read time
2 mins read time

We all love unexpected culture crossovers: whether it’s a Harry Styles course at Texas State University or an ice cream van selling popsicles in the shape of billionaires. But what if we told you that some of your favourite names from the world of music had joined forces with some of the biggest artists from the Renaissance?

Nope, sadly no-one’s managed to bring Leonardo da Vinci back from the dead, but an ingenious AI programme is creating unforgettable images of the likes of Jay-Z, Kanye West, Drake and Tyler, the Creator in the style of painters such as Rembrandt and Raphael.

The images recast these icons of contemporary pop culture in the mould of classical painting, dressing them in crowns, gilded finery and, in A$AP Rocky’s case, placing a halo around their head. Each musician’s face is reinterpreted following the distinctive style of each artist: from the realism of Rembrandt to the celestial transcendence of Bellini. The move unites the artistic geniuses of yesteryear with some of today’s most important musical masterminds — underscoring a long history of creative expression.

The ingenious pictures were shared by Twitter account Dalle2 Pics, which normally shares images made by a text-to-image generator called DALL-E 2. This time around, there was a twist: the images were actually created courtesy of Stable Diffusion, a not-yet-on-the-market tool from Stability.ai.

Twitter is full of other images created via similar AI tools, and it’s a testament to what artistic vision looks like when it has all the technological tools out there at its disposal. Some of our other favourites from Dalle2 Pics include a moodily lit Bart Simpson starring in a noughties Hype Williams-directed music video and stills of Dwayne The Rock Johnson in The Matrix — seriously, we’ve got to meet the person behind this account…

Check out some of your fave rappers as Renaissance paintings below.