AI country hit ‘Walk My Walk’ built on Blanco Brown’s sound sparks questions of attribution, ethics

When an AI-generated country song called “Walk My Walk” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s country digital song sales chart this month, it was credited to a fictional artist named Breaking Rust — a white, digitally generated avatar that didn’t exist two months ago.

But the song’s vocal phrasing, melodic shape and stylistic DNA came from someone who does exist: Grammy-nominated country artist Blanco Brown, a Black music artist who has worked with Britney Spears, Childish Gambino and Rihanna.

And he had no idea.

“I didn’t even know about the song until people hit me up about it,” said Brown, whose 2019 country rap hit “The Git Up” helped usher in a new, hybrid era of country crossover. He didn’t learn about the chart-topping AI track until his phone was flooded with messages from friends.

“My phone just kept blowing up,” he said. “Somebody said: ‘Man, somebody done typed your name