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Coventry rapper collaborates with mum of murdered teen Depzman on viral YouTube video

A Life too Young is a song with an accompanying music video that uses deepfake technology to create a lifelike hologram of murdered West Midlands rap artist Joshua Ribera.

The creative team behind the video Depzman – Life Cut Short video are Elliot Lee & Rory Peyton Jones. They were inspired to recreate a lifelike hologram of Joshua Ribera, a music artist by the name Depzman using deepfake technology after being inspired by technology used in a similar same way, with the artist Tupac.

Having approached Alison with the idea, the creatives reached out to people they were interested in collaborating with. Elliot, originally from Coventry approached Coventry rapper ShadowCV, an artist whose day job it is to work alongside young people at Cardinal Newman School in Coventry, as a music mentor, to write the lyrics.

All the creatives involved including; ShadowCV, PhazeFX, Troadz and SBTV alongside Elliott and Rory, have given their time and permissions for the video to used as part of Alison's campaigning work to prevent knife crime. Alison Cope, Joshua's mum told ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ CWR " I owe them every ounce of gratitude". She's been speaking with Letitia George and ShadowCV about the reasons why she decided to ahead ahead with creating the video, which has now gone viral across the world.

Release date:

Duration:

9 minutes