Artificial intelligence may be changing how records get made, but A$AP Rocky isn't interested in pretending every use of the technology is the same. Asked about AI’s increasingly visible place in music, the Harlem rapper distinguished between using it to assist the creative process and letting a prompt do most of the creating for you.
“It depends,” Rocky told Complex. He pointed to Fenix Flexin and Tyga, two artists who faced criticism this year after acknowledging AI played a role in their recent music, while admitting he didn't know enough about their individual processes to judge exactly how they used it.
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Rocky’s own comfort zone is much narrower. He prefers making music “practically,” but sees value in AI when it solves a technical problem. Using Ye’s Graduation track “Good Morning” as an example, Rocky explained that AI could separate stems from an existing recording if an artist wanted the instrumental without the original vocals.
“AI has a lot of negative connotations,” he said. “I don’t think when it’s used in certain ways that it’s necessarily a right or wrong thing.” His line seems less about whether AI touches a recording at all and more about how much creative responsibility it gets handed. “AI is supposed to be a tool in that sense,” Rocky explained. “If somebody does a totally AI-generated song where all they did was prompt something, then I think that that’s their thing. But who am I to say what’s standard and what’s not?”
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A$AP Rocky Still Wants People In The Room
Rocky’s preferred process becomes clearer when he talks about his own music. “I’m just doing me out here, and I’m doing my music practically, the right way,” he said. “I’m really tapping with musicians, producers, beat makers, just to convey my sound and develop my sound.”
That approach is carrying into the next phase of Don’t Be Dumb. After releasing the album earlier this year and completing a 49-date world tour, Rocky told Complex that a second disc is still coming. He teased only two guest appearances and said listeners need to hear the additional material before some of his upcoming moves, including unreleased work with Metro Boomin, begin to make sense.
He is also preparing “Shroom Clouds,” a new song and video slated for Friday. Rather than treating AI as a shortcut around that continued studio work, Rocky appears more interested in using technology when it can handle a specific task and leaving the actual construction of his sound to the people making it with him.
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