r/Music • u/peoplemagazine 📰People Magazine • 1d ago
article A$AP Rocky Reveals His Stance on AI Music as Rapper Says He Prefers to Do Things ‘Practically’
https://people.com/asap-rocky-reveals-his-stance-on-ai-music-prefers-to-do-things-practically-12176151?utm_campaign=peoplemagazine&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com&utm_content=post160
u/Dark_Tranquility Spotify name 1d ago
the “Praise the Lord (Da Shine)” singer said
This whole article was probably written by an LLM. Pitiful.
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u/lanicorain 1d ago
y'all haven't been reading much music journalism because it's been this formulaic and brainless for decades lmao
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u/Officialedmart 1d ago
Michael Jackson, the “Thriller” Guy, said….
(lol, it comes across as so condescending)
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u/ClickSubstantial7321 21h ago
I actually laughed at that pretty good I wouldn’t be mad to see something that blunt in an article
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u/robsbob18 1d ago
Songs a banger but skepta just keeps the same cadence as the hook for his 16. Just can't do it anymore.
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u/I_CUM_ON_HAMSTERS 1d ago
He’s doing a DMX tribute with the cadence on this song. Who We Be, that’s why he raps “I listened to X, I peeped the bars”.
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u/crumbsalt 12h ago
Did anyone read the article? I feel like people are just saying the usual “AI sucks” without commenting on anything he’s saying. For the record, he said he thinks AI can be used well as a tool (such as to isolate instrumental/vocal) but he doesn’t use generative AI to make his own music and prefers to work with real people.
He has a good stance on it, especially the stem isolation AI use; it’s not generative AI and can be used for really, really cool things (such as The Beatles making Now And Then using that technology)
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u/Spaghetti-Sauce 8h ago
Stem extraction is mostly on-device processing too. It isn’t the same AI as LLMs in any way (adding on/agreeing with you)
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u/Laoas 7h ago
I feel like we need to go back to calling that sort of stuff Machine Learning. Had a lot less stigma attached to it
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u/ganja_and_code 5h ago
To be fair, "Machine Learning" and "AI" used to be used pretty much interchangeably, and if you were to make a distinction between the two, it would just be "machine learning is a type of AI."
The real problem is that LLMs (one specific type of AI model) have basically commandeered the term "AI" for marketing hype, and now nobody seems to remember or care that we also have genetic algorithms, neural networks, random forests, decision trees, KNN, etc.
If we just called LLMs "LLMs" then we wouldn't have this "AI" misnomer situation.
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u/chief_yETI 4h ago
I feel like people are just saying the usual “AI sucks” without commenting on anything he’s saying.
thats how Reddit works.
You can farm free upvotes by saying "fuck AI" without acknowledging anything in the article at all.
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u/SwingKey3599 7h ago edited 7h ago
The thing is the technology has been good enough. They don’t need that shit. That’s just a training use case scenario that makes their investors/executives happy. we have had the tech to isolate recordings based on the frequency spectrum (instead of just time domain) since like the 60s/70’s
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u/crumbsalt 4h ago
The tech wasn’t this good before though, at least not from what I’ve seen. It’s not like it’s using GenAi or anything, these models are also using the frequency spectrum to extract stems and it sounds amazing. I’ve used it myself in fan mixes of songs and it has some artifacts of course but it’s really advanced now
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u/SwingKey3599 4h ago
they absolutely have been though. The software has been around the know how has been around the AI’s are using the same algorithms to extract the fundamentals. They’re just taking out the small amount of work that a human had to do to get rid of artifacts and they’re doing it themselves, but worse with the notion that bedroom producers will pay for it because it’s good enough.
You are essentially helping the AI companies train away a job that currently exists because it’s convenient for you to make your fan mixes. Which you do for what reason?
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u/crumbsalt 4h ago
Hm. Well I’m not too well-educated on this so I’ll read up on it. And I do ‘em for fun, mostly! Like, im working on a “restoration” of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, adding back a bunch of cut material and whatnot. I’m not too good at it but it’s quite a fun project to do
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u/SwingKey3599 3h ago
OK, so you’re using AI to help you do something for fun, you should absolutely not be using it for that.
You’re using it for the parts of the project that you should be doing yourself…
Not to mention, how do you think Pink Floyd themselves would feel about this project?
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u/crumbsalt 3h ago
I don’t think I could extract stems by myself without using any type of machine learning models, and for it to sound good. I feel like if The Beatles themselves couldn’t do it even given professional technology in the 90s and 2000s, I couldn’t be able to either lol
I don’t think they’d care? There’s a ton of em. Literally look up “The Wall extended” or “rebuilt” or “reconstructed” and you’ll find tons of em. I’m not generating new music and im not ruining their view.
The only thing im using “AI” for is to, like, get a guitar lick from a demo and splice it into the real song. Or to manipulate piano volume to restore it. Everything else im doing myself - splicing things together, picking my sources, like the chunk of it is being done just by me splicing things together. I’m not telling ChatGPT “hey make me an album” lols
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u/SwingKey3599 2h ago edited 2h ago
Brother, you don’t know anywhere near enough about production history or production to be talking like this. “The Beatles” didn’t do anything. The Michael Jackson estate did.
“Tons of them” meaning what, their work remixed using AI or versions of their work that they had professionally redone by people that they paid?
Roger Water's criticism of the AI industry and of the music industry in general should’ve been the first clue that this position of yours is completely untenable. Don’t fool yourself they would hate what you’re doing.
If you know this little about the actual techniques of production and stem isolation, then I don’t really think that you’re actually arranging these tracks yourself… you’re probably asking Claude to do it.
have you even actually tried to downloading isotope, eagle or any spectral software and listening to what their own proprietary algorithms can already do without asking AI or are you just trying not to spend money or time on work that you view as frivolous?
this is the thing that sucks about people that have fully embraced AI. They have no appreciation for how much work actually goes into what they’re making… and who the fuck knows how much electricity that you’re using to do these things.
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u/crumbsalt 1h ago
I’d just like to say, I do put genuine work into this and im not just using Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, whatever to make this project for me. I made the tracklist, I’m working on what edits I want to make, im gonna make the edits by splicing and pitch-shifting and whatnot, all of this work will be done by me because I am passionate about this album and its music and I want to restore it to how it could’ve sounded before all the vinyl limitations. The only thing AI is being used for here is for something that, according to me, cannot be done without any machine learning tools by humans even if they’re professional engineers. I don’t have access to the original multitracks, yknow? I’m using this tool (MVSep’s Demucs, BS Roformer) to extract the exact guitar frequencies from an already mixed, complete song.
Now, you clearly know much more than I do. I’m telling you this based on some Google searches I made and seeing the capabilities of these other platforms. And you’re very right, im not a professional producer, this isn’t my job, I’m barely really learning about production. And im probably much much younger than you so you definitely have more experience than me here. But hey, if you can help me find a way to extract guitar/vocal/drums/hidden synths from a song, without using any AI tools, have it sound clean with as little artifacts as possible, and have the result be fully isolated from any other tracks, I’d really appreciate it! That would be cool and I’d probably learn a lot.
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u/isnt_it_weird 1d ago
A computer doesn't know what it feels like to have a broken heart, be young and in love, or be willing to sacrifice for love. A computer is never happy, sad, depressed, anxious, angry. An artist can take those emotions and experiences and turn them into lyrics and music. A computer has the second part down (how to write lyrics and make music) but can't experience the things worth making music about.
There's a reason a.i. created content, especially music, is lacking in soul.
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u/sexytokeburgerz 23h ago
I’m a long time computer musician and despise overall gen ai in music.
That being said i think the soulfulness it lacks lies in uncanny valley. These models are trained on soulful music. They know what that sounds like.
The “problem” is, we have a baseline recognition of what voices are supposed to sound like. And it’s not always so good at that.
But i’m glad it has that problem for now.
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u/TerminalVector 21h ago
It sounds like words but with nothing to communicate it'll always only ever feel flat or be stealing
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u/sexytokeburgerz 21h ago
The last love island season, a lot of ads…
I will say though, i don’t think anyone would be able to tell for the beats. Unfortunately it is that good. If you think you can tell, i believe it’s confirmation bias.
An uber driver of mine played some of his (instrumental) slop and it was indistinguishable.
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u/jjdnorthpark 1d ago
I think he’s referring not to the generation of music but rather AI as a tool to separate a vocal stem from an instrumental to be able record over it. If he takes the song he’s trying to remix and removed the vocal to send to the artist so they can then take his vocal and apply it to a studio version without the vocal AI isn’t used creatively.
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u/Ok-Industry120 23h ago
He just decided to speak a bit of rubbish
ASAP specifically meant tools to strip out beats or samples from songs. Which is not a particularly creative or value add part of the music creation process
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u/Bromigo112 20h ago
What if an artist uses AI to bring their ideas to life faster than they would have without it? What if a vocalist brings their song to life or creates a demo without needing to know how to produce? What if they write most of it but use the AI to fill in gaps like with drums and such? As in they use it as a music production assistant. Do you think the soul will still be lost even though it’s a human just using AI as a tool?
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u/airylnovatech 19h ago
They can do it, I'm just not going to like it because it erases intentionality with convenience, and I don't think people should make music because it's convenient.
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u/ccarr313 11h ago
Generative AI will always suck.
There are responsible ways to use the tech, that isn't generative. As an example, a company specializing in mastering software could use self learning algorithms to produce a filter to auto adjust levels in music.
That would be fine, it isn't operating on stolen ideas, or replacing the human element.
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u/Bromigo112 0m ago
You could argue that it’s replacing the human element of mixing and mastering by automating it. And I’m not saying it’s okay to use AI built on stolen ideas. I’m merely asking the question of if AI will be ok to use if rights holders come to agreements with these AI companies? I don’t think it’s that ridiculous to ask that question but apparently the rest of Reddit thinks I’m fucking crazy for it lol.
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u/Whaty0urname 8h ago
Notice on Facebook how every little event has that same AI produced poster? It just has that same vibe. It's like if one person decided how all posters should be designed.
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u/vinnyahhdiuhh 14h ago
Dude vocalists have been learning how to produce for many years before ai. All of these things are sheer laziness and a lack of passion for music. People who actually like making music don’t fill in gaps with ai drums and gen ai demos. Part of the greatness of music is how it takes work and skill and time and care and passion and effort, people who think like you confuse me heavily since it seems like you think all musicians want music making to be convenient and simple as possible when music absolutely should take effort and skill.
If you have no production knowledge, it’s not a reasonable excuse to use ai, it’s a big reason to learn how to make music if you really care.
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u/snackdesaque 18h ago
There's a feeling of, craft and self improvement, seeing the journey of an artist through time is special. Like seeing metallica's evolution from the 80s to the master of puppets to black album. Why would i for instance listen to an ai album when i can just make press some buttons and make my own ai album and poison some small town's water supply in the process.
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u/ZinZinZinZinZinZ 1d ago
we really need to be more precise as to what kind of ai we’re talking about. using generative ai to let a data center create a song for you and using an ai tool like izotope ozone for assisting with mastering are two very different things.
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u/Sundevil13 1d ago
Each step where we remove the opportunity for human creativity will incrementally lead to boring and stale “art”. AI as we know it is designed to imitate not iterate.
Tbf I have no idea what izotope is. Just my
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u/kdmfinal 1d ago
Audio engineer here, izotope is one of a handful of “Microsoft office” software suites for audio. They make software used for audio repair, editing, mixing and mastering. They’re as close to a “standard” as it gets, not to say they’re the only one.
They’ve been integrating more and more “smart” processing the last decade that are supposed to speed up the workflow for my peers and me. Some of it works great, some needs as much tweaking as just doing it manually.
I use it on every record, though less of the “smart” functionality and more the good old manual processors.
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u/ZinZinZinZinZinZ 1d ago
if you’ve tried the ozone 12 feature where you’re asked to play the loudest part of your song and ozone uses some kind of ai powered algorithm to master the song automatically, i’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on it. how close would you think it is in its current state to mastering done by an actual professional?
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u/kdmfinal 1d ago
I have used it a few times for quick refs for clients but it’s heavy handed. Often needs to be backed off a good bit in each module. That said, it’s always a decent starting point!
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u/sushisection 1d ago
not OP, but audio mastering is an artform in itself. using ai to completely take over the mastering process loses some of that personality that engineers put in to their mastering.
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u/I_Love_Horse_Porn 23h ago
Depends on the professional. I used it on some mixes I did from some music projects that were okay and it helped. Like someone below said it kind of needs to be backed off. I went back and forth on it for a while but I’m not a professional but I studied it in college. I primarily work with Waves plugins.
Also a lot of people don’t understand what Mastering is. Mastering is primarily used to make sure the audio is balanced and sounds good across different speakers and mediums.
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u/DopesickJesus 1d ago
There’s “Ai” like Autotune, or something like a filter on instagram. Then there’s Ai like “make me a song with these words and sounds” and it generates it for you.
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u/vinnyahhdiuhh 14h ago
Auto tune isn’t ai, it’s pitch correction. It doesn’t learn anything or have a computer algorithm to generate or create, it has a set programming to force vocals to be in a certain key.
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u/DopesickJesus 5h ago
An automatic door is a form of Ai. But in the classical sense.
I guess with our new definitions, you’re correct. Antares metamorph then would better fit our new conventional idea of what Ai is. Sorry 🤗
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u/ZinZinZinZinZinZ 1d ago
i agree and that’s kind of why i made the comment. mastering is a pretty technical part of creating a song and not a part where a lot creative decisions are made. that’s why most artists send their tracks off to a mastering engineer and don’t do it themselves. if they now use ozone instead i don’t really see a problem with that. you could argue that by tweaking things in ozone themselves instead of sending the track to someone else there’s actually more creative input.
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u/sushisection 1d ago
to pushback a little bit. there is definitely room for creativity within mastering. not everyone wants a super clean master.
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u/locoattack1 1d ago
Yep. Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures only sounds the way it does because of a creative decision made by the person in charge of mastering/producing the song.
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u/sushisection 22h ago
one of my favorite albums of all time is Thickfreakness by Black Keys, and they recorded it in a warehouse with really shit equipment. the album sounds so grunge and distorted, its great
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u/_Apatosaurus_ 1d ago
most artists send their tracks off to a mastering engineer
Which is another skilled labor job that disappears.
Every major economic shift will leave people behind, but we should at least acknowledge how harmful that is to those left behind. We have the resources and ability to use AI to improve lives and society, but that's not how any corporation is using it.
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u/Fiverumble 20h ago
Yeah I think an artist with the ability to get it done by someone skilled probably should. But if you’re a struggling artist, that’s a barrier to entry that’s strictly financial, which could be cleared with a tool like that. I don’t think it’s black and white.
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u/fauxregard 1d ago
Great point. Huge difference between using it creatively, as opposed to just ensuring that the mix sounds clear on a range of devices.
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u/Enough-Scientist1904 1d ago
I think rappers are one of the first to embrace AI. The culture now days leans more to achieving the lifestyle. Most just want that catchy hook that will make them go viral in tiktok
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u/Abysskitten 1d ago
I mean hip hop relies a lot on sampling of pre existing music, this is actually just the next step. i could see someone prompting a great synth sample, cutting it up, and then adding their own beat and flair to it and rapping over it. i dont mind that, but not the 100% generated shit
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u/comradejiang 18h ago
Yeah, a computer doesn’t need to feed off real experiences if the shit in the lyrics is almost completely fake anyway.
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u/Numerous_Worker_1941 1d ago
I want my rappers who talk about drugs and killing people to take a moral stand!
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u/xXKingLynxXx 22h ago
He did though if you read the full article. He's not going to judge artists who use it to prompt full songs but he did at the same time call working directly with artists "the right way" of making music. He just says that AI tools can be useful for isolating vocals or instrumentals but he wants to make music the same way he always has.
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u/One_Competition136 1d ago
What does Ja Rule think about 9/11?
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u/Active_Account 1d ago
Do you think that a musician's opinion about music production is irrelevant?
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u/nopalitzin 1d ago
Pass. A lot of that shit was cringe af, I remember clearly, people back then knew it was lame.
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u/ProphetsOfAshes 8h ago
“Ai BaD” now give me my virtual validation from strangers for parroting this
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u/laughingmood 6h ago
He lost me when he told dude to stop breakdancing at his show so he could make people create a pit who weren't already slamming to his show.
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u/Bubbly_Teaching_6111 1d ago
Wouldn’t using ai to create music be practically making music? As opposed to actually making music.
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u/marinatedvagina 16h ago
I don't know why people are downvoting you. If you look at it in the eyes of effort and money, it's very practical.
As a creative? It's not practical at all.
Edit- But also the point you're making has nothing to do with what he says in the article
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u/theHonkiforium 1d ago
"The electric guitar is not a musical instrument." "Electric guitars are an abomination, whoever heard of an electric violin? An electric cello? Or for that matter an electric singer?"
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u/SeasonsGone 1d ago
The problem with AI generated music is that prompt-based articulation is incredibly lacking in detail.
If I use AI to “generate me a vibey bassline for this beat” instead of actually making the bassline myself, I’ve relinquished a valley of detail about how that should actually sound to the tool and it will make whatever arbitrary decisions it wants to about the bassline.
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u/Ball_Analytics 22h ago
know what else folk thought had no feeling, digital music (computer compositions), then at some point the same way everyone can tell what AI music is they could tell what Autotune was (funfact they couldn't).
You can't police every change that comes about, adapt or wither away or just accept a smaller audience. Drawing a line in the sand does nothing to stop what's coming it just tells the rest of us where you'll be it makes the inevitable leap.
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u/More_Hold_5522 4h ago
A lot of these rappers seem to love AI. Now they don't have to pay ghost writers.
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u/digitalboom 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s ok, downvoting me won’t delete the ai out of the albums you listen to released this year I’m not a musician and don’t listen to much new music so 🤷♂️
It’s hilarious to see folks in here complaining about ai when it’s even in the latest Kanye music. Yall have been consuming it by major artists longer than yall will accept. This is the same argument people made about note manipulation in post production not realizing it had already been in use for years.
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u/PrettyYoungTiger 1d ago
Lol nobody has praised kanyes work since donda (2020) that contained zero ai. Even cartis dick riding fans were not happy about ai usage and would scan all his music to check if he used it. Music (art) is the LAST thing people will accept using AI for , which is a beautiful resistance to an inevitable evil.
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u/digitalboom 1d ago
People think they can spot Ai 😂 just by listening yet countless albums this year folks here have bumped have it and it takes Audio analysis to find but don’t tell them they are consuming Ai music, no way can they be fooled…
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u/Summer4Chan 1d ago
Or people in hobby/gaming communities checking and SKIPPING playing a mod if AI was used to develop it.
As a SWE, every electronic/online platform they use is leveraging AI now at this point. Most likely to a more vibecoded extent than they are willing to admit.
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u/digitalboom 1d ago
There is always the outrage crowd for every piece of tech, I have old relatives who won’t give up their vhs cassette collection.
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u/peoplemagazine 📰People Magazine 1d ago
TLDR:
- A$AP Rocky says AI can be useful for tasks like isolating instrumentals but prefers working directly with collaborators
- He says he does not judge artists who create fully AI-generated songs despite the backlash
- Rocky’s new single “Shroom Clouds” arrives Oct. 16 ahead of Don’t Be Dumb: Disc 2
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u/reputction 1d ago
Too bad he doesn’t prefer to not abuse women.
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u/wht-rbbt 1d ago
Ai music is fine. If you want to support an artist watch them live. If they don't perform live or can't, they ain't a professional musician
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u/Butt_Sauce 1d ago
He makes music?
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u/Confident-Visual7651 1d ago
If you need A.I to make music I’m going to pass on that 100% of the time.