Ice Cube asked Dr. Dre what he’d do if someone remade Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang and made it bigger than his original with Snoop Dogg. Dre said he’d love it. The track, he pointed out, already owed something to another artist. That bass groove came from a Leon Haywood record.
Dre said he was “extremely excited” about AI on the debut episode of Listen & Laugh, released on 6 November and co-hosted by Cube and Mike Epps. Cube said he saw a place for AI in the hands of musicians. What bothered him was the prospect of a computer taking over creative decisions that artists spend years learning to make. Watch the exchange from around 28 minutes.
Dancehall has its own example of what musicians can do with a new machine. In 1985, Wayne Smith and Noel Davey worked with a preset on a Casio keyboard. King Jammy helped turn it into the backing for Under Mi Sleng Teng. Jammy went on to record other artists on the same riddim, including Johnny Osbourne on Buddy Bye. The same backing could carry a different voice, a different lyric and a different record.
Dre offered another example. A filmmaker could pay Cube to use an AI version of his face and voice, with Cube getting to approve the result. In 2024, Bob Marley’s estate joined artists including Stevie Wonder in signing an open letter warning against the use of artists’ work to train AI without permission.
Dre’s imagined deal gives Cube a say before the film comes out. The letter asks for a say earlier, when the company is still deciding whose work goes into the machine. For dancehall, that means asking what happens when the training material is the producer’s riddim, the singer’s voice and years of records built on both.
Hero photo credit. Dr. Dre at Coachella 2012 by Jason Persse, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Sources used for this report8 verified links
- Listen & Laugh debut episode
- Complex’s account of the AI exchange
- The Chronic recording credits and sample information
- VP Records’ Under Mi Sleng Teng reissue notes
- The Guardian on the Sleng Teng riddim
- ABC News on the Artist Rights Alliance open letter
- Hero photo: Jason Persse via Wikimedia Commons
- Hero photo licence: CC BY-SA 2.0
