Ice-T considers himself a realist about AI.
The rapper and actor took to X to share his thoughts on the technology, weighing both sides. Speaking from a musician’s perspective, he outlined several frustrations surrounding the cost and outcomes of creating visuals for songs, noting that production is expensive while compensation from platforms such as Spotify averages about $0.007 per stream. Meanwhile, he added that fans are paying little to nothing to consume the content, frequently streaming it for free, a point he used to argue for AI’s merit.
“The days of the expensive videos are over. There isn’t an MTV. Ai is the only sensible way to add visuals to a song. You can hate it all you want. It’s the Future,” Ice-T wrote on X.
Ice-T added that concerns about the use of technology aren’t new to Hip Hop, noting that drum machines and synthesizers had also received criticism at their start.
“Hip Hop would not exist without tech,” he said in a separate post.
T.I. has credited a conversation with Dr. Dre for shifting his perspective on AI. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, he now sees AI as a competitive advantage rather than a threat.
“It’s almost like if everyone else has access to it and they’re using it and you’re not, then you gon’ be left behind. When I thought about it from that perspective, I kind of understood,” T.I. said on his podcast “expediTIously.”
