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Lil Baby Was Less Than Impressed With A TikTok AI Anime Filter’s Results: ‘Aw, HELL Naw!’

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Over on TikTok, various AI-powered filters have become all the rage. With the skyrocketing popularity of anime in the US, naturally, one of TikTok users’ favorite filters turns them into anime-style illustrations of themselves. But the results aren’t always predictable, as Lil Baby found out recently as part of his brand partnership with Axe Body Spray. As Baby and Axe are producing a manga for their upcoming “Fine Fragrance Collection,” it’s only right that the Atlanta rapper opted to try out the anime filter on TikTok — even if the results were less impressive.

“Let me check this out,” he says, as he fires up the filter. Unfortunately, the illustration it generates is … well … look, there’s a reason nobody wants AI writing scripts or making songs just yet. Baby’s reaction sums it up best: “Aw, HELL naw!” he exclaims. You can see it for yourself below:

@lilbaby

Make me look good y’all & buy @AXE @Walmart b4 6/15 to get Shonen Baby AXEPartner

♬ original sound – Lil Baby

Baby will have plenty of time to catch up on his favorite anime and manga when he goes on his It’s Only Us Tour at the end of July. With two months’ worth of travel ahead of him, now’s the best time for him to stock up on reading/viewing material for the road. His Axe manga, Shonen Baby, is due on 6/11.

Ice Cube Called AI ‘Demonic’ And Said That He’ll ‘Sue The Motherf*cker’ Who Attempts An AI Ice Cube Song

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Ice Cube knows the value of great writing, and his pen game is as respected as ever. LeBron James cited Cube’s lyrics to commemorate becoming the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in February, and Logic was compelled to cover Ice Cube’s “It Was A Good Day,” which Cube co-signed despite lukewarm (at best) fan reception.

Ice Cube does not co-sign the use of AI in hip-hop, however.

The iconic West Coast rapper visited the Full Send Podcast last week and was asked about “this new wave of rappers,” teeing him up to give a scathing review of AI.

Ice Cube’s thoughtful response began at the 47:35 mark:

“I like the beats. The artists are getting lost in autotunes, and now that you have an AI computer, I think people don’t want a computerized rapper no more. They want to hear your voice. I don’t know any rappers by they voice no more. I used to know all the rappers just – hear they voice, know who that is.

I think they need to figure out how to put that autotune down, and we need to hear what people sound like and if they’re as good because I think AI is demonic. I think AI is gonna get a backlash from real people — real, organic people — and so I think artists need to go back to using their real voice and making sure people know this is authentic and not made from a computer.”

When asked whether he was implying all artists now use AI, Ice Cube clarified, “I think autotune sounds computer-like, and I think it’s all starting to sound artificial because of AI.”

In case there was any remaining confusion regarding Ice Cube’s stance on AI, he later plainly stated: “I don’t want to hear an AI Drake song. I don’t want to hear that bullsh*t, and he should sue whoever made it.”

And if anyone dares to make an AI Ice Cube song, “I’m gonna sue the motherf*cker who make it, too, and the platform that plays it.”

Sting and will.i.am are among other artists who have shared their opinions on AI.

Watch Ice Cube’s full Full Send episode above.

will.i.am Sees A Future Where AI Is ‘The Group’ In Hip-Hop: ‘The Machine Is Gonna Do Everything’

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will.i.am has long held a reputation for being at the forefront of innovation in music. The Black Eyed Peas frontman has been quick to embrace technology, from a Bluetooth face mask to an AI-powered messenger platform for artists to collaborate. And as AI has come to dominate the discussion of the musical landscape, it’s only natural that will has some strong opinions on where the technology is headed.

will shared those views with UPROXX at the launch of his FYI messaging platform, giving his candid view and explaining why he thinks “the machine is gonna do everything.” Comparing AI to well-worn tools in hip-hop like turntables and beat machines, he envisions a future where AI is not just “the group” — writing, producing, and “performing” the music — but also the marketing, legal, and accounting departments, ensuring that algorithms maximize the efficiency of every aspect of the music industry, essentially replacing human beings in most fundamental positions, save for one.

“The future of popular music isn’t people,” he predicts. “But the future of social activism around music, that’s the only way I think we are still going to be needed.” He suggests such artists as Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Public Enemy, and Stevie Wonder as examples before warning that creating music to feed recommendation algorithms is going to become impossible. “The algorithm will out-algorithmic you.”

The antidote, he says, will be to create “organic” music that taps into human emotions more effectively than the machine-created variety. The future is full of possibilities and not all of them are particularly appetizing, but there’s no question: The genie is out of the bottle, and there’s no going back. will.i.am knows this and remains on the cutting edge, whether that’s pushing the genre into new markets like Formula 1 racing or just continuing to contribute his unique viewpoint in songs like “The Formula” with Lil Wayne.

Watch will.i.am break down the future of AI in music above.

AI Wrote A Truly Bizarre Rap As Meek Mill’s Dead Father And It Left The Rapper Saying ‘WTF’

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Artificial intelligence has progressed rapidly in recent times and has therefore increasingly found its way into our everyday lives. Meek Mill had an encounter with AI recently and it left him scratching his head.

Late last night/early this morning (May 10), he tweeted, “Ai wrote a rap about my dad and this what he said WTF.”

The tweet included a video of an apparently AI-generated rap song, called “Back From The Grave” and credited to Big Robbie; Meek’s father, Robert Parker, died from a gunshot wound when Meek was a child, which Meek rapped about on “Traumatized.”

The lyrics of the AI song go, “I died in a shootout, just tryin’ to feed my fam / But death couldn’t stop me, I’m back in the lab / My son Meek Mill, he’s the light of my life / Gotta watch over him, I’m back from the afterlife / I’m Big Robbie and I’m back with a plan / I’m comin’ back to life to see my fam / My soul’s come alive, I’m gonna make it right / Back from the grave, I’m gonna fight the fight.”

Check out the AI track above.

Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Timbaland Never Got To Work With The Notorious BIG So He Used AI To ‘Collaborate’ With Him Instead

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Over the past few years, rap fans have unfortunately gotten plenty of calls to debate the ethics of posthumously releasing an artist’s works — especially when it comes to collaborations that the artist may not have approved. With the advent of AI technologies that reproduce artists’ voices and likenesses, that debate has heated up a lot lately.

The latest figure in hip-hop to join the debate is Timbaland, who used AI to “collaborate” with The Notorious B.I.G. — someone he never got the chance to work with in real life before Biggie died. He shared part of the song, in which Big’s voice shouts out artists he never lived to see such as Nipsey Hussle and Young Dolph, on Instagram, saying:

We know that it’s a lot of talk about AI and we know how the feelings of violating certain things. But let me tell you something: I got a solution, I’m working on it. It’s gon’ be beneficial to everybody. I gotta share something I’ve been working on because I always wanted to do this and I never got a chance to. I always wanted to work with Big and I never got a chance to.

Fans on social media have received the “collaboration” with some trepidation — people who pay for Twitter Blue aside — pointing out that although the machine-learning algorithm can reproduce Christopher Wallace’s voice, Tim’s still just talking to a computer simulacrum.