Can Hip-Hop Become the Soul of AI? James Andrews on Life With Machines
In the future, could music artists sell their prompts at the back of the room?
Last week, we released episode seven of Life With Machines! Don’t miss this one because it slaps. Watch it on YouTube here:
Or listen on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s the Spotify link:
Welcome Note
Hey you,
Welcome back to Life With Machines. In this episode, I sat down with James Andrews, a media entrepreneur who’s been at the intersection of culture and technology for decades. From managing legends like Nas and Destiny’s Child to developing Web3 projects and AI digital twins, James has always been ahead of the curve. We talked about creativity, technology, and what it means to own your data—and yourself—in the digital age.
Creativity isn’t what it used to be—and maybe that’s a good thing. In this episode, James helps us rethink what it means to be a creator in a world where algorithms can do what once took years of practice. What does that leave for us, as humans, to bring to the table?
This episode has highlighted our need for humanity even more due to the LA fires that have destroyed and disrupted so much of the creative community in Los Angeles. James himself was deeply affected and his family is operating a GoFundMe to help with their recovery. Please consider a donation to that one or many others including support for incarcerated firefighters and the historic, Black community in Altadena.
If you’ve been enjoying this series, now’s the perfect time to share it. Let’s expand this thoughtful community one curious mind at a time.
Baratunde’s Take
Here are three ideas that have been simmering since my chat with James:
(1) Abstract Art
James laid out a provocative vision for the modern creator: you’re not just an artist—you’re a business, and your business isn’t limited to the things you make. It’s the way you think, the way you see the world, and, increasingly, the way you guide others to create. I was particularly struck by his argument that creators need to, essentially, abstract away from the final product and focus instead on the process, the lens, or the prompt that sparks the work.
This reminded me of something I said years ago when I was a guest on The Kindle Chronicles. I told the host I wanted to read books annotated by my favorite voices—like the Bible with The Onion’s notes or the Constitution with Jon Stewart’s commentary. That’s abstraction: taking a creator you admire and applying their perspective to an entirely different medium. James’ vision operates in the same space. What if you didn’t just admire Jackson Pollock’s paintings but could "Pollock-ify" your own work using his methods? What if a band didn’t stop at selling their music but also offered fans the creative prompts that shaped their sound?
In a future where AI can replicate a piece of art in seconds, maybe it’s not just about selling finished products anymore but sharing a point of view that others can apply to their own work. James sees this as a way to level up (or maybe level away?) from traditional notions of creativity. Whether or not you buy into that abstraction, it raises fascinating questions: What does a creator truly offer their audience? And what makes their contribution irreplaceable?
(2) The New Creator Economy
James sees a future where creators aren’t just performers—they’re CEOs of their own LLCs, building global brands and licensing their essence. But this dream of creators having ownership of their work fully—down to every remix or derivative—requires a new kind of infrastructure. For James, blockchain technology is the answer. Imagine a universal system that tracks where an idea originated, how it’s been used, and ensures credit and compensation flow back to the original creator. While I’m cautiously optimistic about blockchain’s potential, I share James’s belief that transparency and fairness must be at the heart of this system. It’s a big ask—technical innovation, regulatory frameworks, and collaboration across industries—but it feels inevitable if we want a future where creativity is valued, protected, and rewarded.
(3) Slinging Prompt Packs
One of the most compelling parts of our conversation was James’s argument for hip-hop as a guidepost for AI and creativity. Hip-hop has long embraced the kinds of things that critics of AI dismiss as unoriginal: repurposing, remixing, sampling. Or consider the way hip-hop producers sell beat packs—bundles of raw material for others to remix and transform. This remix culture may be why hip-hop artists are leading adopters of AI—they’ve been co-creating with machines for decades. It’s not a huge leap to imagine a future where creators sell prompt packs—tools designed to inspire and empower new AI-generated works. For James, at least, AI is just another tool of the sort hip-hop has been using from the jump.
The challenge, of course, is making sure we don’t lose the human essence—the soul—that gives our creations real value. Because here’s the thing: if my likeness and words and everything about me as a creator are replicable, then what is left of me to call my own?
Joy Buolamwini, founder of Algorithmic Justice League, had a dope response to this (ahem) prompt, saying:
Please weigh in with your thoughts on this question if you like engaging in comments on IG.
Life With Blair
BLAIR, our AI co-producer, had some thoughts after listening to my conversation with James. BLAIR seemed to like the idea that hip-hop’s remix culture parallels AI’s potential as a creative tool, and they also expressed some concerns about the legal frameworks that would protect artists. But BLAIR’s real moment came when I asked it to summarize the episode in a rap verse. The result? See for yourself.
Team Recommendations
Want to explore more? Here are some resources inspired by this episode:
Unmasking AI, Joy Buolamwini’s incredible book, a blend of memoir and critical analysis in which she shares her personal journey as a computer scientist uncovering biases in artificial intelligence systems, while also advocating for ethical AI development
Music Can Thrive in the AI Era, an article in WIRED by rapper Lupe Fiasco and Yale University computational biologist C. Brandon Ogbunu (now there’s a collab)
The Shift from Creator Economy to Meaning Economy: A New Era of Engagement, an essay by James Andrews on the evolution from the creator economy to a meaning-driven economy that emphasizes authentic engagement and cultural impact
Thanks for joining us on this journey. Let’s keep building, experimenting, and putting soul into the machines.
Baratunde