Are AI-generated songs your own work? The answer given by The Roots
Even now that we can create songs with AI,
“Can a song made by AI really be called my own work?”
Do you ever feel this sense of discomfort?
In fact, there was a similar conflict in the history of hip-hop.
The 90s were the golden age of the sampler.
There were young people on the street who couldn't afford expensive equipment and challenged hip-hop using only the “live instruments” they had on hand.
That was The Roots.
In this article, we will use their first album, 'Organix,' to think about the essence of a creator that remains unchanged even when the equipment changes.
The limits of live sound and the fusion with samplers
Hip-hop at the time was in its golden age of sampling beats using the AKAI MPC or E-mu SP-1200.
Because they didn't have the equipment and tried to do hip-hop with their own unique live performance style, they were initially treated as heretics and hit a wall, being told things like “that's not like hip-hop” or “you're like a jazz band.”
So, what they chose was to “fuse” live performance with the feel of a sampler.
Questlove's exploration, in particular, was extraordinary.
In the beginning, he trained to play with machine-like precision to prove the legitimacy of hip-hop.
However, around 1996, he was shocked by the “deliberately off-kilter groove” that J Dilla created with the MPC, and his playing style changed dramatically.
A perverse reversal that remains in music history occurred: “Dilla, who uses the MPC drum machine to create human-like fluctuations,” versus “Questlove, who uses live drums, yet reproduces the fluctuations of the machine Dilla manipulates.”
He intentionally muted the sustain of the cymbals to create the chopped-up feel of a sample, and matched the timing of the kick to the magical, off-kilter feel unique to the MPC.
He never denied the sampler.
Knowing the limits of live sound, he thoroughly studied the grooves created by machines and installed them into his own body.
AI is the same. It's not about whether you use AI or not. It's about how deeply you can understand it and incorporate it into your own expression.
Just as Questlove studied the MPC, AI is also a subject for study.
The extraordinary intensity of 'Organix,' created as an extension of street performances
They were initially called "The Square Roots."
"Square" had the meaning of "serious" or "nerdy," and it was a self-deprecating name that reflected their then-unorthodox style as a hip-hop group that played instruments.
However, after a name conflict with a local folk group, they dropped "Square" and renamed themselves "The Roots."
They shed their skin from street oddities to professional performers.
And although they grabbed a big opportunity with a live show in Germany, they didn't even have any recorded music to sell.
So, they recorded what would later become their first album, "Organix," in a rush.
Rather than a meticulously calculated debut for a major label, this was a "beat tape" by a live band that vacuum-packed the heat of their street sessions and live performances just as they were.
This hastily made tape is packed with an extraordinary intensity that turns even raw, gritty noise into a part of the music, rather than just cleanly mixed tracks.
The Roots didn't think of albums as "works of art"
The most interesting thing about The Roots' creativity is their "perception of albums."
Their next work, their major label debut "Do You Want More?!!!??!," begins at "Track 18," following the 17 tracks of "Organix."
Furthermore, the masterpiece that followed, "Things Fall Apart," starts at "Track 54."
For them, an album is not an independent "work (a point)," but a "chapter (a line)" where one huge session continues.
Doesn't this feel very similar to the sensibility of modern beatmakers who face their DAWs every day and continue to create beats endlessly?
I felt that today's beat is a continuation of yesterday's, and that rather than stopping to create the perfect song, the act of continuing to create itself has become their groove.
What we can learn from The Roots precisely because it is the AI era
The Roots started by hitting buckets and pulled off the feat of using human bodies to reproduce the inorganic groove of a sampler.
On the other hand, how about today?
Now is an era where anyone can easily create tracks that rival the pros using AI.
The situation has reversed from the era of The Roots, where humans imitated machines, to an era where machines imitate human-like qualities.
When you make a song with AI,
"Is that really your own work?"
"Can you call yourself a creator if you didn't play it yourself?" Some people have these doubts.
But The Roots must have also fought against the sense of discomfort of "Is this hip-hop even though it's live performance?"
Even if the tools change, the fundamental essence of a creator—"giving shape to the beat within yourself and delivering it to the person in front of you"—does not change.
Whether you let a song made with AI sleep on your hard drive as "just data" or spin points and lines together like The Roots is up to you.
The Roots also started with "Track 1" at first.
You can start making your own Track 1 today.
And what really matters is to keep making Track 2, Track 3, and so on.
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・Introduction to SUNO: Create 2 songs in 3 minutes
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