Jermaine Dupri Rebukes Tech Industry Over AI Music: “This Is Disrespectful”
Jermaine Dupri questioned why the music industry repeatedly bent to the will of the tech world. The Songwriters Hall of Fame member was upset to learn about the AI music generator Udio, which boasts its ability to create a song in less than 40 seconds.
“Why do we keep having or keep allowing people from different backgrounds, people from different walks of life, people from different businesses and all that s### come in our business – the music business – and disrupt our business?” JD asked. “And then tell us this is what we should be doing. And we start moving by they rules. I ain’t understood this for a long time … It’s starting to be more apparent now. And it’s the same reason that [Universal Music Group CEO] Lucian [Grainge] pulled the plug on f###### TikTok, but you should’ve been did that. That’s what I’m saying. I don’t understand why we keep allowing this s### to happen.”
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz was one of the investors behind Udio. Dupri criticized his friend Chris Lyons, a So So Def alum who works for Andreessen Horowitz, for the firm’s backing of the AI music generator. JD considered Udio to be an insult to musicians.
“That to me is so disrespectful to n##### that’s been playing music they whole life that take piano lessons, keyboard lessons, whatever, guitar lessons,” he said. “And we’re allowing a company of people that are probably not musicians that don’t give a f### about musicians to say, ‘We making an app so everybody and anybody can make music and be a music virtuoso.’ That’s the word they use. I don’t agree with this s###.”
He added, “You don’t do this to the NBA. They don’t do this to football. They don’t do this to no business because the business don’t allow this s### to happen. Why do we keep doing this?”
Udio was developed by former Google DeepMind researchers. Common, Tay Keith, will.i.am and Steve Stoute’s UnitedMasters supported the app.