Lil Wayne shot down the possibility of being replaced by artificial intelligence during an interview with Billboard that was released on Wednesday.
The 40-year-old rapper stated during the interview that he did not anticipate AI to take his place anytime soon in honor of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
The performer, who recently spoke about forgetting his songs as a result of his bad memory, began by stating that an acquaintance had first raised the idea of replicating his voice for the future.
‘Someone asked me about that recently. And they were trying to tell me that AI could make a voice that sounds just like me. But it’s not me, because I’m amazing,’ he stated.
Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., also expressed doubt about the musical talent of artificial intelligence.
‘I’m like, is this AI thing going to be amazing too? Because I am naturally, organically amazing. I’m one of a kind,’ he stated.
The Right Above It rapper then remarked: ‘Actually, I would love to see that thing try to duplicate this motherf***er.’
Lil Wayne went on to speak about if the emergence of artificial intelligence had affected the relevance of mixtapes.
‘The terminology or definition has changed, that’s all. Mixtapes can mean an album mix or anything now. But when it comes to Lil Wayne, everybody knows how I approach mixtapes. So my mixtapes won’t ever change,’ he said.
The rapper also discussed what he saw as the potential future as hip-hop as an art form.
‘What I’m seeing now is the art and the ultimate artist being able to do anything…I believe that that’s where the genre is headed: artists able to do everything — from singing to tapping into different emotions,’ he stated.
Lil Wayne’s most recently-released album, entitled Funeral, made its debut in January of 2020.
The record, which was comprised of 24 tracks, was met with immediate commercial success and peaked at the top spot on the US Billboard 200 chart.
Funeral was also generally received well by critics, and the album currently holds a score of 62 on Metacritic.
Lil Wayne went on to release a collaborative mixtape with Rich The Kid, entitled Trust Fund Babies, in October of 2021.
The performer recently released his first greatest hits album, entitled I Am Music, this past March.
The record peaked at number 25 on the US Billboard 200, and it rose to the ninth-highest spot on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums listing.
