RZA praised the use of artificial intelligence for saving time and money at a recent technology conference.
The Wu-Tang Clan member spoke during a panel discussion titled “From Concept to Reality: Creatives Use Artificial Intelligence to Bring Big Ideas to Life” at the 2026 annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 8.
“Creativity is time,” RZA told the audience, according to AfroTech. “With today’s technology, it might take three days to get something good. With an AI assistant, I can turn three days into three hours. Or even faster.”
The legendary producer revealed that he used the help of artificial intelligence to demo his 2024 classical album A Ballet Through Mud.
“Instead of spending 10, 12 days trying to get it right, we recorded it in one day,” RZA said. “You look at an orchestra, not talking about numbers here, but an orchestra can cost up to $60 a day. So we take the burden off. I hope the idea of what they’re doing has been fully captured, so the human energy…the human being pulling the strings, the accents, makes the presentation even better than I could have ever imagined.”
RZA later admitted that his favorite AI platform to use was Google Gemini. He also mentioned that Flow is a close second.
The use of artificial intelligence in hip-hop has been a hot topic, with some artists openly using the technology while others shy away from it.
