AI in rap is like pineapple on pizza: people either love it or hate it. Still, that hasn’t stopped some of the biggest names in hip-hop from experimenting with it—results be damned. Drake tried to use an AI-generated 2Pac and Snoop Dogg for his “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which went about as well as you’d expect.
Ye’s been accused of stuffing VULTURES 2 with AI vocals (and later confirmed he was using AI for BULLY). Famed producer Timbaland is out here launching a whole AI music company.
Now, will.i.am (AKA Black Eyed Peas), who launched their own AI radio station last year, sat down with Gunna to talk about being a visionary, AI in music, and what we can expect next from the ATL native.
Gunna wants to get into his AI bag
In their sit-down interview for UPROXX, will.i.am asked Gunna (officially crowned the publication’s first Visionary) how he personally feels about AI.
“I fuck with it, but I’m not hands-on with it. I’m not against it; I’m gonna for sure tap in to it, but I’m taking my time,” the rapper said.
will.i.am then launched into a full-on Black Mirror monologue about how AI artists will run the game by 2030 — producing, writing, and starring in their own music videos. Gunna was so convinced, he practically started drafting a contract on the spot.
“I gotta sign me an AI artist, fast. Get with ’em, you can’t beat ’em,” Gunna said.
This isn’t Gunna’s first brush with machine-made rap. Back in 2022, he dropped a track called “Florida Water” with FN Meka. The AI rapper, Meka, didn’t exactly score Gunna any aura points, looking like a Tekken character with bars that Reddit could have ghostwritten.
It didn’t take long for Capitol Records to cut ties with Meka after clips surfaced of the digital rapper casually dropping the N-word—because apparently no one on the label thought to check if that might be a problem.
Now, Gunna is being torn up online (understandably) for wanting to dive deeper into using AI.
Nevertheless, maybe new music news can help soften the blow to his reputation.
Gunna Announces Last Album With YSL
Moving away from AI, Gunna revealed what we can expect from his upcoming sixth album. It’ll be his last under Young Thug’s YSL label, and it’s titled The Last Wun. According to him, there isn’t a specific theme or concept for the project.
“When I create, I go with what I feel. I might approach an album not even knowing the title yet and it’ll form. It’ll come to me just through life and just living. So for this album in particular, it’s no theme. It’s in current time of what’s happening with me,” Gunna said.
Still, he’s promising something more personal this time around. Not just music, but the visuals too:
[The visuals are] “showing more of me. Not just showing my face. It’s me showing, ‘This is what he likes to do.’ Versus me telling you, and you might know, like, ‘He goes to the gym.’ These next videos are going to show more real-deal lifestyle of me, but creatively,” he said.
Gunna also showed love to the fans who have been holding him down.
“First, thank you for being with me. And never give up. Don’t stop, especially when they want you to stop. Really keep going then. That’s when you really, really push. Pray until something happens. A lot of things will pull you down or get it your way… when you get over the hump, you feel stronger,” he said.
Here’s hoping one of those things pulling him down isn’t an artificially intelligent rapper with a PR crisis.
