Embattled entertainer Vybz Kartel, real name Adijah Palmer has made history as the first dancehall artist to deejay as an AI character in a music video. The dancehall star’s image appears in the music video for the song Sixteen with Rvssian and rapper Trippie Red.
Much different from an animated character, artificial intelligence has been part of music videos and the overall music eco-system for decades. However, in the last 12 months several language models and image generated apps like ChatGPT and Midjourney made it easier for creatives to embody true to life images, likeness and even voices.
Entreprenuer.com reported that “Through technologies like virtual reality, listeners will not just “listen” to music, but also virtually see their favorite musicians performing exclusively for them. Through wearable neuro-electrical stimulators, listeners will “feel” the music in their bones and muscles and regions of the brain. They may also be able to feel the sentiments and emotions of the artist through these stimulations”.
As Vybz Kartel serves his life sentence for murdering Clive “Lizard” Williams he sets the trend with his image being the first to be projected using AI. Kartel sits in a Louis Vuitton bullet proof vest with his facial tattoos barely showing and his eyes slightly squinted. AI Kartel’s hair is short haired and well-groomed. He is also slim and much younger looking.
A slight difference between the image shared on a social media account with his name on Wednesday.
— Vybz Kartel (@Vybz_Official) June 1, 2023
Will AI Replace Real Artists?
Lenford Salmon, cultural advisor to the Minister of Culture in Jamaica told WMV, “Artificial intelligence won’t just affect reggae music, it will affect all music in Jamaica, I believe it will be some time before technology fully replaces human artistic creativity. But I do believe the day will come.”
He further recalled, “There was a time when calligraphy could only be achieved by artistic geniuses with individual craftsmanship. Now that’s gone. The average word processing software gives you scores of fonts, and more sophisticated graphic software gives far more than was thought possible even a few years ago. Music creation could have a similar fate. Look how widely used auto-tune has become”.
To the naked eye, it may seem like AI is replacing creativity but it is indeed adding to the creative process and inspiring creative intelligence. Band member of Phony PPL confirms, “Every artists, musician will tell you writer’s block is real..so I think Watson is a good platform for when you in that rut like ‘I don’t know what to write’, you can just play a couple notes and it gives you some kind of inspiration and it go a whole other way than you may have thought.”
Another band member said, “its not like its gonna make a song for you or make it great if it wasn’t great in the first place but it will definitely give you more seasoning”.
Other artists, like Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon, are using AI for music videos. Duran told Billboard.com he is using an AI named Huxley. “Huxley is a creative A.I. that’s been developed by a bunch of people called Nested Minds. Really at the heart of all this is neuroscience. The way the human mind works. And what they’ve done with Huxley is they’ve kind of made an approximation of the way that people think thoughts are created inside the human brain”. The way Huxley works is they input the lyrics and images of the artists and it dreams of a new reality to make a music video. Explains Le Bon loosely.
Coupled and tripled with other technology such as Landr that can be used to mix and master a track with high quality for less than ten dollars these are game-changers for music creatives in reggae and dancehall.
BayC of Dancehall hit group T.O.K, he agrees, but says there are two sides to music; One being the sound and the other the feeling.
“In the sound area, I think it will be quite possible that AI will be used for a lot of commercial projects as a quick solution such as for advertisements and movie scores. On the feeling side that is where reggae music is built. The unorthodox approach that Jamaicans use in our creativity. I don’t think that can be modeled because it isn’t predictable or explainable. It’s just a feeling”.
Whatever the future of reggae and dancehall music entails, there will be differences in how it is made and how it will be consumed.
There are already speculations by music experts on whether the future will see music totally created by AI. If IBM has their way this will be a reality sooner than later. Richard Daskas of IBM said he would like to turn what some now call a demo record into a fully composed hit song using AI.
All the other major music and music streaming companies have invested heavily in algorithms that enhance their artificial intelligence ability.
In 2018, Warner Music Group acquired tech start-up Sadatone for the sole purpose of discovering future stars using algorithms. Sadatone developed predictable technology that combines social, streaming, and touring data to help identify unsigned talent according to Billboard.com.
In the same year, Apple also acquired music analytics company Asaii, to help them boost their A&R.
As more entrepreneurs, researchers and musicians find the need to integrate more AI into the future of music there may no longer exist a need for A&R and industry connections to get Reggae music and artists a global reach. Additionally, simple conversations online may lead record labels toward the next big thing in reggae music.
Brian Whitman, The CFO of Echo Nest, a company acquired by Spotify in 2014 wrote that “Every word uttered on the internet about music goes through our systems that look for descriptive terms, nouns, phrases, and other texts”.
That’s one side of how AI is changing the way music is consumed. The other side is the creation of music and music-related content. Currently, many creators either rely on fair use laws or opt not to use any music at all in their content for fear of a copyright flag on their YouTube account.
Music tech veteran Prashan Agarwal, CEO of India-based streaming service Gaana said in a comment in 2021 on entrepreneur.com, “not very far in the future, AI will create its own music using ‘Generative Adversarial Networks’ or GANs”.
After raising $115M in 2018, the company issued a statement saying it plans to use this new capital to develop artificial intelligence to create more personalized services and features for listeners.
Going by Daskas, Salmon and Agarwal’s predictions, to stay relevant and as more artists enter the music space with an urgency to find that elusive hit, artists will turn more and more to artificial intelligence and rely less on their artistic intelligence for commercial appeal.
Creative focused Reggae and Dancehall artists should not fear AI however, instead they should see it as a willing and able collaborator.
Tech expert Bernard Marr in assuring artists of an integrated future says “AI technology is transforming the music industry in a myriad of ways, but creatives shouldn’t be worried about losing their jobs and being replaced by computers. We’re still a long way from artificial intelligence being able to create hit songs on their own.
But as tools develop and the music industry learns how to use AI as a supplement to human creativity, our world will continue to sound sweeter and sweeter every year and artist will become more innovative.
Watch “Sixteen” music video up top.
Segments of this article are exerpts from the book Cultural Capital To Financial Capital by Donovan Watkis
