Don’t be dumb: A$AP Rocky won’t be using AI in his music anytime soon. The rapper spoke to Complex on Wednesday (Oct. 14) about AI in hip-hop, and while he prefers to create “practically,” he does see how it can be a useful tool when recording.
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“I prefer to do things myself, practically. Say if there’s a song that’s already out from, say, Kanye’s Graduation. Let’s say ‘Good Morning,’ you want to take Kanye’s lyrics off, but you want the instrumental,” he said. “Not that you can’t just find the instrumental online, but say it was hard to find the instrumental; what you could easily do is use AI to split the stems and take away his vocals so that you could actually rap on it.”
Rocky continued: “AI has a lot of negative connotations. I don’t think when it’s used in certain ways that it’s necessarily a right or wrong thing. AI is supposed to be a tool in that sense. If somebody does a totally AI-generated song where all they did was prompt something, then I think that that’s their thing. But who am I to say what’s standard and what’s not? I’m just doing me out here, and I’m doing my music practically — the right way. I’m really tapping with musicians, producers, beat makers, just to convey my sound and develop my sound.”
The Harlem rapper took note of his hip-hop peers such as Fenix Flexin and Tyga, who drew severe backlash after admitting to using AI in their music. “I feel like when guys like [Fenix Flexin], whatever his name is, and Tyga — I don’t know their process of how they make it, but I know when they made it, they caught a lot of backlash and s–t like that,” the 38-year-old added.
Fenix Flexin initially denied using AI, but made a U-turn and embraced the technology on his hit “Rubberz,” which became the first fully AI-produced song to make the Billboard Hot 100 earlier in 2026, where it peaked at No. 58.
Tyga also faced a plethora of criticism for utilizing AI tools on his album $tarface, but promised the vocals on the ’80s-inspired project were all him.
“I know people are going to be mad about me saying this, but it’s where technology is going. It’s no different than when Auto-Tune came out,” Tyga told VIBE in August. “Some people were opposed to it, but real artists took it and used it. But as far as the writing, all the vocals are all me. There’s nothing wrong with using technology as a tool.”
A$AP Rocky returned following an eight-year hiatus with his Don’t Be Dumb album in January, which topped the Billboard 200. He’s since wrapped up the North American and European legs of his Don’t Be Dumb World Tour, and will be taking his talents to Australia/New Zealand in December.
