Hip Hop 2073: A Vision of the Future, 50 Years From Now

Mere hours after the arrival of "Heart on My Sleeve," the AI-generated "Drake" song that went viral last spring, the doomsday projections began pouring in. The main reason the song generated so much buzz is that Drake is one of the world's most popular musicians. But part of what gave us pause is that hip hop--which celebrates its 50th birthday this week--is driven by a spontaneity that feels as authentically human as anything humans have ever come up with. That is, rap is a unique form of human language, and if AI can mimic that, maybe nothing is safe. If the future is already here, then the impacts of generative AI will be even greater in the next decades, especially when it comes to hip hop.