Blanco Brown on AI, Authenticity, and "Walk My Walk"

What happens when AI starts reflecting an artist’s voice back to them?

This week, Dmitri talks with artist, songwriter, and producer Blanco Brown. Blanco first broke through with the viral hit “The Git Up,” becoming a defining voice of the intersection of country and hip hop, also known as “country trap.” 

Last year, an AI generated artist called Breaking Rust released a song called “Walk My Walk,” in which many listeners noted a striking resemblance to Blanco’s voice and style. So what does Blanco do? He re-records the song himself, bringing his own humanity, faith, and musicianship into a track originally created by AI. 

We talk about what that process was like, questions of ownership and likeness, and why Blanco believes soul and lived experience are things technology can’t replicate. We also explore what embracing AI, rather than fearing it, might look like for artists navigating what comes next. 

It’s a great conversation about AI and what comes next for musicians. 

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Episode Transcript

Machine transcribed

[00:00:00] Dmitri: How you doing Blanco?

[00:00:01] Blanco: Man, i'm blessed. Coming along. How about yourself?

[00:00:04] Dmitri: I'm doing great. It's so great to have you here. I'm curious, what was your first thought when you heard "Walk My Walk" and how did you feel?

[00:00:11] Blanco: Man? Um, when I first heard it, I said to myself. This has a little thing to it. It it is a neat record, but I'm not really sure how they produce these vocals or how something that's not really singing.

I also felt like, it was missing something. It didn't have a soul attached to it. But I can also feel that maybe it just, my connection with God, you know, the author of all music.

[00:00:35] Dmitri: Right. and did you, I mean, did it sound familiar? I mean, were you thinking about the voice itself and, did you have a sense of like, what's going on here?

 is this trying to do something like what I do,

[00:00:44] Blanco: man, I first heard it and said to myself, this grit feels like somebody plugged my voice in and try to make something similar to how I approach records. But I didn't feel like it sounded like me because there's really no comparison to the vocal, you know, abilities and capabilities and the heartfelt lyrics in the ear at the end of my tones.

[00:01:10] Dmitri: Mm

mm Interesting. But you did feel like it was kind of like they were trying to copy you.

[00:01:14] Blanco: It felt like they had typed my name into the programmer.

[00:01:18] Dmitri: Really

[00:01:18] Blanco: amongst some other. People or voices and came up with this one voice. But what's so weird is a white guy with a black tone,

[00:01:28] Dmitri: like the voice itself sounded like a white guy.

[00:01:30] Blanco: No, the voice sounded like a black guy.

[00:01:32] Dmitri: Oh, gotcha.

[00:01:33] Blanco: They were trying to mimic a black guy, but when you saw the picture, it was a white guy.

[00:01:37] Dmitri: Yeah. Yeah. That, I mean, I would imagine that would be kind of shocking.

[00:01:40] Blanco: Yeah, it was. It's It is weird.

[00:01:42] Dmitri: Yeah. Almost like blackface, honestly. That's funny.

[00:01:47] Blanco: Hey man, listen, we've been getting stuff stolen from us for so long and been getting.

 the last end of the stick that nobody gives a about.

[00:01:57] Dmitri: Yeah. Yeah. I hear that. Totally makes sense. So I'm curious, you rerecorded that song. You did a cover song of an AI song. What was it like rerecording, this song that was made by ai, especially given how you felt about this resemblance of the style?

[00:02:11] Blanco: It was fun actually, because I'm always testing myself, trying to see how I can make something better. I knew I wanted to make it better, so I went and I added a band. I produced the music out. I recorded it in my kitchen like, so I got, you know, plenty of time with the record and I didn't have to rush.

I'd be on a, a dime, like paying somebody hourly. So I went line for line because I didn't know the song. I hadn't learned the song. So I went line for line and cut it, recorded it.

[00:02:43] Dmitri: But I mean, how did you feel like covering, like here you have this experience of this AI song that you're like, I'm not sure I like what they're doing here.

It's missing the soul, it's missing a sense of spirit and, presence, of human presence, of spiritual presence. And it might be messing a little bit with kind of like co-opting your sound, co-opting other black musician sounds. How did it feel to be covering that song? Like as like emotionally, what was happening for you

[00:03:10] Blanco: emotionally?

Man, I've always felt like. I can make things better. That was my gift. Vocal producing, engineering, mixing the whole nine. I approached it like I approached anything else, whether it was AI or a human singing a song. If I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it to the best of my ability. So, I kind of approached it that way.

It wasn't no, bitterness, no anger, like I got something to prove. It was just more so cut the record. I had been covering records. lately, anyway, soon as I left the label, I started doing cover tunes of other songs and wanted to ramp up my own image and my gift to put it in front of folk. But I didn't really wanna do that, you know, while I had somebody eating off everything I was doing, and it wouldn't really.

A lot coming my way to support what I was doing. So I was just like, why would I give so much and still share? So now that I'm done with the label, it's like, do everything. So I'm, I'm just. Glad, happy and blessed to be able to just do whatever I want to do every day.

[00:04:13] Dmitri: Well, that's awesome. I mean, you definitely were on Blanco Brands in that song, like just the spirit with which you approach everything.

It feels like there's just this positivity, this levity. So even in the midst of this kind of AI controversy, you're just bringing what you always bring, which is awesome. Which makes me curious. Have you been using AI yourself?

[00:04:31] Blanco: I've never used AI a day in my life. Not even.

[00:04:33] Dmitri: Oh really?

[00:04:34] Blanco: I've never used any form of AI to assist me with anything.

[00:04:38] Dmitri: Okay.

[00:04:38] Blanco: I just did a visual for this song that I'll be dropping soon and I finally used AI to, um, put like a cyborg face on my face. Pretty cool. Pretty neat. But that's different from music, you know what I'm saying? People ain't using animation, but I hate it for, it ain't just. The creatives, the singers, the songwriters, the producers that's gonna lose when it comes to this.

It's the people that do graphic design. It's the people that create movies. It's people that do commercials. So many people are gonna lose a lot of business based on people being able to do what they been trained and gifted to do their whole existence of following that purpose. You could just plug it into AI and get it done in 2, 3, 4 hours.

[00:05:27] Dmitri: Hmm. Yeah.

[00:05:28] Blanco: Some of that

takes a week.

[00:05:30] Dmitri: Yeah. well, what do you hope happens next when it comes to generative AI and music?

[00:05:35] Blanco: I hope

that the artists, that the AI. Programs of studying get paid for the likeness of them.

[00:05:43] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:43] Blanco: Like you couldn't tell me that it's okay for a human to be behind the AI and reap all the benefits of stealing right in front of your face.

 that don't even make sense to me. I don't, you can't blame everything on the program. It's the people that are generating these things or mimicking these artists. So they should pay up if they're getting paid. Artists should get paid before they even see a dime.

[00:06:07] Dmitri: Yeah, so your career is an important chapter in the way music blew up on TikTok, which was also revolutionary, disruptive, changed everything in music as well as in social media and, culture.

When this chapter about AI music's written, what character do you wanna play?

[00:06:22] Blanco: Man, the one that, uh, embraced the change because I know I can't change, what's happening right now. AI is gonna only get better and better. It is gonna get more believable, more convincing. I just want to be in front of it all because I'm not afraid of AI and I'm not threatened by it.

When people write songs, that's their gift. When I write songs, I write 'em because I gotta get 'em off of my chest. I gotta get 'em outta my soul, outta my vessels. So there's nothing that a, I can do in five, three minutes of generating to make a song that's gonna make me feel like my work is less than, because mine is God, divine appointment.

And um, a lot of people are afraid of AI more than they are God. So we already live in a, a messed up world.

[00:07:10] Dmitri: Oh, wow. Yeah, good point. What, what do you think is next in this story of the battle between humans and ai?

[00:07:16] Blanco: Man,

I have no idea. All I know is AI is gonna get better with time. This is just the cusp of it.

So just getting used to hearing more. And you don't have to support it if you don't want to. Just don't listen to it. Just don't download it. Just don't, consume it, and it'll never replace humanity.

[00:07:39] Dmitri: Blanco, thank you so much. I appreciate you taking the time. It's great to get caught up with you and, hear about kind of your perspective on it.

And, uh, look forward to see what you do next in this great adventure of life. And I, I just appreciate you so much for putting in a much larger context than normally it gets talked about.

[00:07:55] Blanco: Man, thank you much. I say again, uh, most people can't change the world 'cause they can't even change their diet.

[00:08:00] Dmitri: That's true.

[00:08:02] Blanco: Facts.

[00:08:02] Dmitri: Awesome. Thanks Blanco. Appreciate it.

[00:08:05] Blanco: Thank you. Blessings.

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The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Weekly episodes include interviews with music tech movers & shakers, deep dives into seismic shifts, and more.