How Hip-Hop Artists are Using AI to Transform Their Sound

While Artificial Intelligence models like ChatGPT and Dall-E 2 promise to change the way we create art, Hip-Hop artists are retooling and developing AI to create new sounds and new ways of producing music. In this episode of Hip-Hop and the Metaverse we meet independent artist Vritra, former member of Hip-Hop collective Odd Future, as he tests out AI programs for a new song. He collaborates with computer scientist and musician Micah Brown, who has developed BrainRap an assistive AI platform, which listens to an artist freestyling, singing or writing and suggests words and phrases in real-time. Our host, Dr. Taj Frazier explores the benefits and potential pitfalls of these new technologies alongside experts in the field that shine a light on the biases and human flaws machine learning algorithms can carry. How can Hip-Hop show us the way to use AI responsibly?

Let us know what you think of AI in the comments!

[reecord]

so excited to be alive to witness the death of creativity and art

[fatangryvegan]

Wow! I have a creator of myself. I would never want anything like this.

[thestronggoodmusic]

It's like sampling music, using a piece of someone else's idea, painting or sculpting an image of something already in existence. AI was programmed to create from the input of information. AI can be programmed to provide various outcomes with the info given and we just might not like some of those outcomes. AI in the realm of art is another trained producer using other ideas to form another idea. Nobody wants their opportunity to make money taken from them by AI or another human so there's gonna be some backlash AI can help those who have challenges creating and it makes creating easier for those who already have those skills but just want to do it faster and will consider what the technology offers. This is gonna be an interesting period in history. We still get to control the input for AI & I haven't seen AI invent anything yet without input.

[nettricegaskins]

I see it as another form of sampling that is part and parcel with hip-hop (music) production from the golden era.

[flymypg]

I have music in my mind and heart, but have little talent. Music notation makes no sense to me. I can't keep rhythm. Yet in my mind I hear melodies, arrangements, accompaniments. I get bits and pieces of lyrics, but can't string them together. I want tools to help me move what's inside to the outside. Yet DAWs are a mystery, requiring way too much theory and ability.

I really think AI is the way to go, where I can write the "story" of a song, adding the few bits of the lyric and melody I may have, then the tool would help me fill in the gaps iteratively and interactively, until the song in my head is made real. Just as I can keep updating a text description with Stable Diffusion until I get the image I'm imagining, but can't draw.

AI tools will help the silent compose and sing.

[ponyote]

This was a really lovely video. Thanks.

[hueyyoung]

AI is not music music AI is not music 🎶 if you are going to be good at something you must come up with your own music. Yourself

[Parizchill]

So why are these producers getting paid when they’re using a A.I to create music for them. ? This is dumb and they should not get paid

[jc]

So, what happens when AI is learning from false info/lies/truth distortions? It seems that there is a great dependency on humans to distinguish fact from fiction (after centuries of being trained to believe that machines are meant to make our lives easier).

[roguegreyjedi]

You forgot to mention that not only do we not know exactly what these "AI" models are trained on, often the content they are remixing, as it were, is stolen, used to train the model without permission of the original artist. I can't stand for anyone promoting the use of such unethical tools.

[pbodyblaque]

From a creative standpoint, u can eliminate paying live musicians for work that can be done less expensive with an A.I. program, which would save ur overhead, if ur doing music for a hobby or a living. But on the negative, that natural sound that only acoustics can bring is taken away. See, this is when A.I. can be useful. But not cloning artists already in the game or creating bad narratives.👍🏾

[otisyoungblood]

Remember when you had to have actual skill and talent

[NOONE-bszh]

How Hip Hop artist succed in the seemingly impossible task to make their song even more souless

[Vaporechu]

a.i. is not the flex yall think it is... this is a shame

[benhillman]

Oh hey, it's that corporate wholesale theft and commodification of culture hip-hop has been warning about for 50 years 😅

[hueyyoung]

I got something for you in the beginning God created heaven and Earth for all races was created from the Earth . Humbled ourselves in the sight of one another the son of man for us all Brothers. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. Out of the mouths procedures blessing and hypocrisy. So if you have envy and strife in your heart, these things my Brothers they keeps us apart
This evil descended not from heaven above, it is earthly and it's killing our love. Huey got some more in the back. Ya do waiting to be put on wax. Mr. Snoop. Hit a brother.

[kid]

Soooo like what's with the influx of PBS promoting AI/Metaverse stuff? Did they get a nice little donation from someone?

[vswayz]

I don't think this is a good idea.😕