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Host Steven Parton reflects on the 100th episode milestone and what the audience can expect in the next 100 episodes

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Singularity's podcast The Feedback Loop is celebrating its 100th episode by featuring an exclusive interview with Peter Diamandis, executive founder of Singularity. The Feedback Loop, hosted by Steven Parton, has quickly become one of the most popular tech podcasts in the world.

The 100th episode will include a discussion with Diamandis on the impacts of AI and GPT, including his predictions about their future advancements. The episode will be available for download on Monday, May 8 at 10 am Pacific Time on the leading podcast platforms.

The 100th episode will include a discussion with Diamandis on the impacts of AI and GPT, including his predictions about their future advancements.

Parton finds special meaning in the 100th episode milestone. "It is a testament to Singularity's commitment to making complex scientific and technological topics accessible for anyone and everyone. It also speaks to the support for Singularity's mission, with nearly 100 of the world's most successful and renowned exponential thinkers willing to spend their precious time engaging in conversations for our audience."

Parton predicts the next 100 episodes will focus on expanding the podcast's offerings by incorporating video content, and perhaps featuring multiple guests who may discuss and debate the latest advancements in technology and their implications on humanity.

About Singularity Group

Singularity Group is an innovation company that believes technology and entrepreneurship can solve the world's greatest challenges.

We transform the way people and organizations think about exponential technology and the future, and enable them to create and accelerate initiatives that will deliver business value and positively impact people and the planet.

An exponential tech pioneer since 2008, Singularity has grown to become an innovation and transformation hub for over 250,000 CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and individuals in startups, corporations, NGO's, governments and academia. With 58 chapters across 30 countries (and growing) and a community of leaders from around the world, the company has helped launch over 5,000 impact innovation initiatives and its alumni have started more than 200 companies.

For more information, visit https://su.org

SOURCE Singularity Group

Originally posted here:

100th episode of popular Singularity tech podcast will feature Peter Diamandis's AI predictions - PR Newswire

Picture this.An afro-sporting, mean-looking, boxer-punching sterro with the attitude of a highbrow Cinderella is out to save you. He is in shades, and chains and hold up! Is that polyester?! The ultimate retro bad boy looking for the bad boys. He is not Batman. Nor is he Superman, hes a bit of both. Patrolling the streets of Nairobi, when it switches from metropolitan NBO to seedy Nairobbery. Smoking out hardened criminals while driving a Peugeot 504 in mid-1990s Nai. Oh, one more thing: make sure that your picture is sepia-toned, that old-school filter that Instagram babes like to use. A red-ribbon tied menacingly across his forehead. A mean mien roaring the ultimate fighting cry, Kama mbaya, mbaya! He is out for blood, emotionless and guileless, all stances and stage punches, out to rescue what was her name? Oh yes. Brittania Zimeisha, the striking damsel-in-distress played by Patricia Kihoro. You know Patricia Kihoro, right? You should. But, wait, who is our hero? What is he?

He is the mononym, the man, the myth, the legend. He is Makmende. Makmende, the sterro. Makmende the starring. Makmende, the otero. Makmende, the buda, the only man who DJ Afro could bring to life with a quip of call me budaaaa. Makmende was the childhood hero of our times. Depending on your moral flexibility, he could be the promised Messiah or the pantomime villain. The kimondasome might say an ass-kicking bullybut that doesnt matter. We played Police & Robber in the streets of KaNairo wielding our fake dushnyaos before Makmende inadvertently came and rescued the day. Makmende always rescued the day. He was the original palimpsest of stories, yearning to be told.

Hush-hush, the mythical Makmende is around. Makmende as himself (duh) in the single Ha-He. There is a new sheriff in town. The stars aligned, the ducks in a row, astonishment meets affirmation and through Makemende, Ha-He virals to critical mass. The Wall Street Journal followed dozens of blogs, including a term paper, in praising Just a Band for being the first Kenyans to spark a Twitter fire and gain 100,000 YouTube views in a blitz. This, by the way, is in 2010. Makmende caught on like a house on fire: shareable, affable, and meme-able before memes were memes and trending topics could not be tracked by RSS feeds but travelled by word of mouth and speed of feet. Makmende is fast but he is never in a hurry.

Juu tuko works mzeiya

Evacuate the area

Makmende amerudi. Just a Band wamerudi. Evacuate the area.

Of course, they never really left, at least not for me. As a young boy living in Nairobi, Just a Band defined my adolescence, teenagehood and early adulthood; I grew up under the lull of their synths and eclectic rhythms. This band that was formed in 2003, the year after President Moi left office, the man who ruled Kenya by fiat. You know President Moi, right? You should. It must be said though, that Moi loved choir music, and who knows, maybe the whims and charms of an all-boy band would have taken him? Maybe their laid-back grooves would have softened his rule had their music caught him as he skulked about the Nyayo House basement? Maybe Makmende would have been Mois right hand, relegating the kings hand Hosea Kiplagat to secretarial dutiesas long as Makmende would add a tie, you know, to make it official, all pun intended.

On 3 June last year, Just a Band announced the end of their two-year break (it had ended up being six years), capturing the imagination of a nation with the unexpected but-we-told-you-wed-be-back announcement:

the hiatus is officially over and the four of us are back at work as Just a Band We each went out into the world and had a bunch of adventures, and we needed time to catch up on one another as humans and friends

The friends in this case are Bill Blinky Sellanga, Daniel Muli, Mbithi Masya and Jim Chuchu who met as students at Kenyatta University. It is like something was in the water at KU, you just dont know what. (Well, the marketing boss at KU would have been pulling out hairs when Kenyan musician Krispah aka Ndovu Kuu in his hit song Ndovu Ni Kuu immortalised the institution, singing: Mtoto wangu akiitwa KU ntakataa, Hakunaga masomo KU nmekataa. Of course, he later claimed that KU could mean anything, from Kabianga UniversitytoKukula Ugali. I guess if the shoe fits?)

I grew up under the lull of their synths and eclectic rhythms.

See, Just a Band has never been just a band. Their unique blend of funk, electronic and DIY charm strung together under a base of local influences took the world by storm following the release of the Ha-He music video. During a key tension moment in Ha-He, Makmende is threatened by a man in a red tie who asks, Are you a dreamer? Makmende answers to nobody, lighting up our poor fellow with blows, a dream fulfilled.

Dreams, of course, are what mark popular culture. Some dreams are quite obvious, almost tangible, they exist in the forefront of our minds. Others exist in the far recesses of our subconscious. Just a Band is built on the beauty of dreams.

In 2008, my dream, so to speak, was to pass the KCPE exams. But that same year Just a Band fulfilled a subconscious dream, they released their first album: Scratch to Reveal. Their work was almost instantly iconic. Their video for the song Iwinyo Piny, animated by Daniel Muli, featured a giant turtle floating over Nairobi with a DJ on its back. The group was self-taught, using YouTube tutorials to pick up new skills, including animation. Their off-the-cuff rendition speaks to the studied effortlessness with which Just a Band does their cool, upbeat, trancy music. Afro-specific and yet possibly from anywhere.

Their unique blend of funk, electronic and DIY charm strung together under a base of local influences took the world by storm.

In an interview with Rootsworld during their Rush Gallery 2012 Brooklyn (New York) installation Kudishnyao! Daniel Muli says, The name of the band is actually a joke. Sometimes we are trying to do projects that are supposed to mean something, and if all we do is give the moral of the story, it can be very boring.

Like other African artists of their generation, the band is hyper-aware of trends, drawing on the fragments of pop culture that have penetrated Kenya and shaped their sensibilities: the Blaxploitation flicks popular throughout Nairobi in the 80s and 90s, the music of Daft Punk, the Tupac/Biggie Smalls/Fugees, and the Bones Thugs and Harmony tapes they traded as kids in Nairobi schoolyards. Just a Band famously imposed themselves as the East African art scenes DIY honchos, directing their own videos, producing their own music, and creating their own artwork.

They dared to dream. In April 2016, the dream was deferred. Just a Band announced a hiatus to pursue solo projects.

Jim Chuchu had quietly broken from the group a few years earlier than their announced hiatus and together with Njoki Ngumi and George Gachara, had founded The Nest Collective, a Nairobi-based artists group that focuses on film, fashion, music, literature, and everything art. They released Stories of Our Lives, a controversial film that celebrates the narratives of Kenyas queer community amid pervasive societal censure and maltreatment. However, on 3rd October 2014, the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) restricted the distribution and screening of Stories of Our Lives in line with section 16(c) of the Film and Stage Plays Act, objecting that the film has obscenity, explicit scenes of sexual activities and it promotes homosexuality which is contrary to our national norms and values.

No matter, the ground-breaking film inspired others, such as the critically acclaimed Rafiki, the first Kenyan movie to screen at the Cannes Film Festival. He is also co-founder of the HEVA Fund, the first organisation in the region dedicated to making capital investments in the creative sector and building financial infrastructure around creative pursuits in East Africa.

Animator and illustrator Daniel Muli spent his hiatus creating a graphic novel that hes been talking about for years.

Blinky Bill released We Cut Keys While You Wait, his first solo project, in 2016. The extended play (EP) was a six-song offering featuring Kenyan acts Shappaman, Sage Chemutai and Maia Von Lekow. The EP saw Blinky secure deals with Sony Music France, which distributed his first album Everyones Just Winging It And Other Fly Tales (Lusafrica/The Garden), 12 groovy tracks between rap, funk, nu-soul and electro which favour the vibrant Kenyan urban scene (Muthoni Drummer Queen, Sage) and the wider alternative African sonosphere (Petite Noir, Sampa the Great, Nneka). He has been a creative force behind many Kenyan productions for the likes of MDS, Fena Gitu and EA Wave.

Their off-the-cuff rendition speaks to the studied effortlessness with which Just a Band does their cool, upbeat, trancy music.

He talks fondly of his stage name Blinky Bill, which he claims he adopted after seeing his name in a newspaper and thinking that it looked too boring. The Australian cartoon of the same name, which was also his nickname in high school, inspired the name.

Mbithi Masya launched a successful film career. His first feature film, Kati Kati won several international awards, including the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award in the Discovery Programme at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). FIPRESCI described his work as an exciting and unique new voice in cinema.

An acclaimed director, you might not know that Mbithi is behind several advertisements in the country including Betikas Get Ready For Big, Sauti Sols Extravaganza and Blinky Bills Mungu Halali.

*

Just a Bands return doubly impressed Buddha Blaze, a well-known authority on all things hip-hop and entertainment. They [Just a Band], are the pioneers of alternative sound in Kenya, he tells me. They opened up a lot of opportunities for others and it is time they came back as the leading light.

But has the industry moved on from them? This is the right time for JAB to be back. They have grown individually, simultaneously, as the Kenyan music scene has grown.

But what exactly is the Kenyan music scene?

It was much easier to define a Kenyan musician in the 80s and 90s when it was mostly benga. Our identity from the seventies has always been benga. Eighty per cent of the vast majority of contemporary artists drawn from all over Kenya from the likes of Ken wa Maria to the late Musa Juma play Benga, according to Tabu Osusa, founder of Ketebul Music.

Buddha Blaze offers a subtle take: Kenyan music has been an opportunity to explore different sounds. From Ogopa to Genge to Chipuka to Benga to Kapuka, Kenyan music will one day evolve to become a single sound. Till then, we enjoy the variety of experiments.

Kenyan music defies definition. It is an alchemy of sorts, taking something from the influences of rhumba, Afropop, trap, hip hop, Afrobeat, soul, and RnB, making it appealing to a variety of audiences. It rejects the neat square boxes of identity that think theyve finally figured it out. Its identity is formless. Its everything and nothing in particular, sometimes zeitgeist fever, bravura and bravado; sometimes falling short of the uniqueness and authenticity of our history and past lives.

It was much easier to define a Kenyan musician in the 80s and 90s when it was mostly benga.

Just a Band redefined what it means to be an urban Kenyan. A Nairobian in particular. They made it cool to be different before it was cool. It was cool to like Just a Band. It still is. Their funky music slowly became the soundtrack of Nairobi, in its innocent desires and its dawning regrets; absorbing alternative Nairobi into their very soul. From West-of-Uhuru-Highway to the flats of Donholm to all the phases of Buru.

Their music filled the empty, undefined spaces inside us. Inside me. When a Just a Band track played, our eyes would dart around in a search for longing, our bodies contorting in delightful delirium and our hearts racing in tandem to the rhythm. When Just a Band took a hiatus, they not only left a gaping hole in my soul but one in the Kenyan music space as well.

Listening to their new singles (Save My Soul, Watu! and Echo a one-track album) I wonder whether I have all along been suffering from acute nostalgia: did I want Just a Band back because of what they can do? Or because of what they used to do?

Is it because of the influence they had on other artists? The cool mien and DIY-ness of Chris Kaiga? The easy flow and shrap undertones of Boutross? The gwezz rap of Lukorito, and that nod to JABs music by XPRSO? Who, if you squint hard enough at, you may just see traces of where they mined their inspiration. Lets not even get started on the devil-may-care vibe check of Lil Mainas songs. Who says he is not a rapper. Just a guy having fun with sounds. Sound familiar? You know Lil Maina, right? You should.

If President Moi were reading this, he would want me to be honest, so I will be. The new songs have not kindled a spark in me, and I prefer to cover myself in the warm blanket of their past hitsI am trapped in my childhood, teenagehood and all the other -hoods. So go ahead and listen to Winning In Life featuring the Grammy-winning trumpeter Owuor Arunga, or to Iwinyo Piny, a tragicomedy. Indeed, my all-time favourite Just a Band song is Probably Just For Lovers, from their third album, Sorry For The Delay.

Eeeehhhh I am here again, falling in love again.

Like Just a Band, I too am a lover. They croon, the bruised romantics at the height of their powers. Both tremulous and torrential, and if youre not converted, you never will be.

But Ive always been in love with them. I loved their experimentation. I loved their diversity. Just a Band was what I dreamt a musician should be, and I suspect it is what deep down I want to be.

Their funky music slowly became the soundtrack of Nairobi, in its innocent desires and its dawning regrets.

Just a Bands voice is always that of someone confiding, not emoting. They sound the way you sound if you could speak of the things you dream. (In case you are wondering if I achieved my dream and passed my KCPE in 2008, I did.)

If youve never heard their work before, dont start with the 82 material named so because 1982 is the year all three members were born. Though it has its charms, it throws you straight into the thick of things. Listen instead to the Scratch To Reveal album; thats the best way to ease into their vibe. To ready yourself to experience the band back together for their last ever world tour. Maybe thats what I need to accept that theyve changed, that Ive changed.

They took a break as a group so they can explore different paths and become stronger as individuals. Heres the thing though, Just a Band Dan, Bill, Mbithi, Jim for me, and for countless others who listened to you on headphone cables tucked into the pocket of their jeans, legs cruising on the Tom Mboya Streets and Moi Avenues of Sakajas Nairobi through Nairobbery to KaNairo, you never left.

See original here:

PAUL GOLDSMITH - Trust and the Technological Singularity: Will ... - The Elephant

By Alan Brads

The artificial intelligence (AI) singularity:

A hypothetical point of no return, where machines surpass human intelligence, and learn to teach themselves without human intervention. Also linked with an intelligence explosion, where machines quickly improve their own abilities, leading to runaway technological progress.

The utopian view of the AI singularity suggests the exponential growth of AI would lead to unprecedented levels of technological progress, including cures for diseases, solutions to environmental problems, and the elimination of scarcity. Theoretically, the singularity could even lead to the achievement of a post-scarcity society, where resources are plentiful, and all basic needs are met.

But

The dystopian view of the AI singularity says it could lead to a society where machines dominate or even replace humans. It suggests that as AI surpasses human intelligence, it could become uncontrollable or hostile to human interests, leading to catastrophic outcomes.

Pause I must confess.I didnt write any of that, nobody did. ChatGPT wrote everything you just read. And more than likely, you didnt notice.

ChatGPT launched on November 30, 2022. Five days later it had over 4 million users. The newest innovation in AI appealed to the masses: a robot that could seemingly understand you. It gave rise to the question: What is the limit?

The possibility of a singularity is debated in all circles, including religious ones, but it falls squarely in the realm of speculation.

Dr. Seth Hamman of Cedarville University teaches computer science, heads up the center for cyber security and has published multiple scholarly articles regarding AI.

We learn in the opening chapters of Genesis that humans have unique attributes, Hamman said. We have self-consciousness, we know who we are, we can think, we have a desire for relations, we have ethics and religion.

Hamman argues that since we see no sign of these traits in animals, we can presume they belong uniquely to bearers of Gods image, humans.

You can extrapolate from that that if computers arent created in the image of God, which is pretty definitive, they cannot be self-conscious, relational, or have volition, Hamman said. And if they cannot think for themselves, the singularity will never happen.

Thinking outside of human designed programming would be necessary for the basis of the singularity, the ability to teach themselves things that humans did not program them to learn.

Hamman noted that while he finds this argument convincing, predicting the future is a dangerous game, and he addressed what a post-singularity utopia could be like.

The utopian view is heaven on Earth, Hamman said. You could live forever. You could do away with your body and just transport you into this computer world, and then you could live in a heaven of your own creation.

At first this strange idea, reminiscent of the Wachowski sisters The Matrix, sounds agreeable, but peeling back the layers reveals its problematic potential.

You have to think about what an automated world does to human dignity, Hamman said. We learn from scripture that idleness is not good. We have the story of King David where his kingdom goes off to war and he stays home. Next thing you know hes having an affair. Remember, Adam and Eve worked before the fall.

Idleness hits at the heart of the threat that AI and automation, with or without a singularity, presents to Christian living.

Jeff Simon, professor of digital media at Cedarville with a masters degree in animation and visual effects, deals increasingly with a new form of AI, machines that can simulate human art.

Controversy rages, regarding whether or not something created by 1s and 0s in a computing program can be considered art, but whats undeniable is that it is one more field in which humans may soon no longer be the most efficient workforce.

I actually lean toward saying a utopian reality would be worse than a dystopian reality, Simon said. In a dystopia, humans need someone else, we need God. The original sin was pride saying that humanity did not need God, and utopia would be going back to saying we can do it all ourselves.

Even in the absence of a singularity, temptation runs rife in the world of AI.

AI like ChatGPT opens the door to all kinds of laziness and cheating, Simon said. Its a useful tool that can help us generate artistic ideas and templates, it can save time on menial tasks, but to use AI to do all of our work for us is problematic.

Simon said that ethical use of AI can be boiled down to one word: integrity.

Its like most things in life, Simon said. Its a tool, its not good or bad, it just depends on how you use it.

Exact visions of a post-singularity utopia vary, but most Christians scholars agree that a life without work is not a life for which God created humans.

But there is still room within the Christian ethic for advancing automation in certain areas. Developers look for jobs that fall under the three Ds: Dirt, Danger and Drudgery.

If a robot can be trained to sniff out bombs like a dog, few would argue that its better for an animal to risk detonation than a robot. Likewise, if we can train a robot to clean sewer systems, that seems like a superior alternative. Finally, some jobs are universally boring, like careful inspection of equipment with a 99.99% pass rate. Robots have an enormous advantage in that field, in that they dont need to take breaks, eat or sleep, and they never get bored.

Predicting the future in one of the worlds fastest developing fields is about as easy as picking tomorrows lottery numbers, but there are a select few things that Christians can confidently say AI will not do.

A robot will never encapsulate a soul, Simon said. No. Thats not happening.

Hamman pointed out three sparks that no scientist has produced, all present in the creation narrative in Genesis chapters 1-2, and he presumes the same will be true of AI.

The spark of creation No scientist has ever created out of nothing. They cant just make something appear.

The spark of life Even taking the natural materials that we have that make up life and putting them together, no scientist has ever actually animated something.

The spark of self-consciousness Whether its a computer program or anything, no scientist has ever made something that is self-conscious.

So you can argue that those three things require something supernatural, Hamman said.

Despite its current limitations, ChatGPTs release reminded everyone that scientists are still redefining the boundaries, and we havent reached a final limit quite yet.

Alan Brads is a sophomore journalism student and frequent contributor for Cedars. He enjoys playing the drums and speaking Spanish, and watches Buckeye football like his life depends on it.

Photo by Julia Mumford

Cover photo courtesy of Flikr

Link:

Christians confront the possibilities and impossibilities of AI - Cedars

From ethical standards to direct threats, it is simply unknown whether artificial intelligence systems that make decisions on people's behalf may pose a danger and whether they can be controlled in the future, after entering our lives fairly recently and fairly innocently, mostly through video games governed by human-generated algorithms.

People are only using limited and weak artificial intelligence with chatbots in everyday life and in driverless vehicles and digital assistants that work with voice commands.

It is debatable whether algorithms have progressed to the level of superintelligence and whether they will go beyond emulating humans in the future.

The rise of AI over human intelligence over time paints a positive picture for humanity according to some experts, while it is seen as the beginning of a disaster according to others.

Wilhelm Bielert, chief digital officer and vice president at Canada-based industrial equipment manufacturer Premier Tech, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the most unknown issue about artificial intelligence is superartificial intelligence, which is still largely speculative among experts studying AI and which exceeds human intelligence.

He said that while humans build and program algorithms today, the notion of artificial intelligence commanding itself in the future and acting like a living entity is still under consideration. Given the possible risks and rewards, Bielert highlighted the importance of society approaching AI development in a responsible and ethical manner.

Professor Ahmet Ulvi Trkba, a lecturer at Istanbul Medipol Universitys Faculty of Law, argues that one day when computer technology reaches the level of superintelligence, it may want to redesign the world from top to bottom.

"The reason why it is called a 'singularity' is that there is no example of such a thing until today. It has never happened before. You do not have a section to make an analogy to be taken as an example in any way in history because there is no such thing. It's called a singularity, and everyone is afraid of this singularity," he said.

Vincent C. Muller, professor of Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Philosophy at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, told Anadolu it is uncertain whether artificial intelligence will be kept under control, given that it has the capacity to make its own decisions.

"The control depends on what you want from it. Imagine that you have a factory with workers. You can ask yourself: 'Are these people under my control?' Now you stand behind a worker and tell the worker, 'Look, now you take the screw, you put it in there and you take the next screw,' and so this person is under your control," he said.

According to Bielert, artificial intelligence will have a complicated and multidimensional impact on society and future generations.

He noted that it is vital that society address potential repercussions proactively and guarantee that AI is created and utilized responsibly and ethically.

"Nowadays, if you look at how teenagers and younger children live, they live on screens," he said.

He said that artificial intelligence, which has evolved with technology, has profoundly affected the lives of young people and children.

Read more:

Lack of control: Future of AI uncertain as it becomes human-like | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

If you need a song to convince yourself that D.C. is home to some of the coolest people drawing breath on this sweaty planet, Wifigawd has hundreds. He keeps his voice low like a temperature, using it to rhyme about getting money, getting girls, getting fly, getting high and, cumulatively, about how good it feels to even imagine getting all of those things. As a rapper, hes scrupulous and relaxed, prolific and unhurried, which, according to him, results from growing up in a city where singularity is forged by necessity.

The culture here is all about being one of one, Wifigawd says. I always tell people that nobody in D.C. wants to seem like theyre trying to be somebody else. And being outside in D.C., you will find yourself. Go out on the block with stains on your shirt, your hairline messed up, whatever it may be, and [people will] let you have it.

This is a useful answer to why theres never been a centralized, signature sound style in D.C. rap music, as well as a tidy explanation for why Wifigawds music sounds entirely like his own. His quest for one-of-oneness has involved building an encyclopedic knowledge of classic hip-hop in his childhood, listening voraciously while coming of age in the bluster of the blog rap era, developing a deep fluency in the oozing sounds of Memphis and Houston rap and, ultimately, mastering the art of echolocation in SoundClouds darkest corners. After working with Wifigawd, little-known producers tend to blow up. OogieMane has since supplied tracks to Lil Uzi Vert and Drake. F1lthy has produced for Playboi Carti and Lil Yachty. I guess I knew what an algorithm was before anyone was talking about it, Wifigawd says.

And once he finds the right tracks, he knows exactly how to sink into them, dropping words into the beat the way people drop bowling balls onto Posturepedic mattresses. He switches up his flows incessantly, but with stealth smoothness, like a seven-figure sports car shifting gears on the Autobahn. When he tosses regional references into his rhymes the Solbiato Sport boutique in Georgetown; go-go heroes TOB he does so sparingly. Musically, he tends to gravitate toward melodies that feel as cool as an open refrigerator door in August, and bass timbres that feel like the refrigerator is falling on you a spectrum that ranges from rip your heart out to beautiful, euphoric worlds, as he puts it.

Theres always a consistent vibe from his music, a mood, says Tony Seltzer, the New York producer whos become one of Wifigawds tightest collaborators. The song can be really aggressive, or the song can be really chill, but its just Wifigawd either way. Hes not following trends. Hes literally only setting trends. Every artist I work with is a Wifigawd fan.

Hes been a rappers rapper practically since childhood. Wifigawd doesnt remember the address, but he was born on North Capitol Street in 1995, raised by Rastafarian parents who brought him along to reggae nights at Carter Barron Amphitheater and rap shows at 9:30 Club, where he remembers being crowd-surfed onto the stage during a De La Soul set when he was only in first or second grade. At home, he called himself DJ Melly Mel a nod to the hip-hop pioneer and a play on his given name, Melchizedek and would make mixtapes for fun, picking his favorite cuts from his parents massive vinyl collection (KRS-One, Public Enemy, Jeru the Damaja, just stacks of records) and dubbing them onto cassette. I was watching Beat Street all the time, and I wanted to be the older-brother DJ character, Wifigawd says. So I made a bunch of these little tapes, and Id give them to my teachers, because who else would know this music? If I gave it to another kid, theyd be like: What are you on? Youre weird, bro!

Remember that old hip-hop trope where the aggrieved teacher tells the tomorrow-rapper that theyll never amount to nothing? At the Tree of Life Community School in Northeast Washington, where Wifigawd spent his earliest school years, it was the opposite: If you told your teachers you wanted to be a rapper, theyd be like: Lit. Heres my mixtape. One of those teachers was Gregory Phillips, known outside the classroom by serious rap fans as Grap Luva. Wifigawd says he remembers Phillips occasionally taking leave from work to go on tour with his brother, the legendary DJ-producer Pete Rock. He was one of the first people I told I wanted to rap, Wifigawd says. He would rap when he was teaching us. And then hed tour Japan and come back with all these manga and kung fu toys.

Another teacher at Tree of Life played a fateful role in Wifigawds creative life by bringing him to the Value Village thrift store in Adelphi after he got caught shoplifting from the Macys at Metro Center. He showed me a polo in that thrift store, Wifigawd says, and I started getting fly in the fifth grade. Years later, he realized that the patience and tenacity required to find a pristine Tommy Hilfiger windbreaker on a Goodwill rack ran in tight parallel to his talent for finding the right beats on SoundCloud: Im looking for a hidden gem amongst a whole bunch of [trash].

Since his breakout mixtape, 2016s Fubu 05, his gem collection has been growing at an astonishing rate, with more than 30 mixtapes under his belt. In rap-critic circles, the go-to praise phrase for Wifigawds music remains ahead of his time. So where does that put him now? Ive been rapping for 10 years, but Ive been in the G-league, the underground purgatory, Wifigawd says. But every artist whos established did it for a minute before they got any kind of stride. Its about timing, and Im not worried about nothing. I know my network is impeccable.

He spends most of his days trying to expand that network, trawling for beats for hours on end, seeking out new producers to partner with. I only work with somebody who I really admire. If I [like your music], you could be one of the greatest ever, he says. You know how people say, Treat others how you want to be treated? Thats how I think, creatively. I want to be purely honest with [my producers] and myself. Im not making this for me; Im making it for everybody. And I do care what people think about it.

That level of care reveals itself in even his most nonchalant songs for instance, 7-11, from 36 Chambers of Pressure, Vol. 2, Wifigawds recent mixtape with the French producer Soudiere. Listen to how he squeezes a propulsive internal rhyme into the songs hook with a single world, boatload. Check out the wink to his craft when he brags about having infinite flows. Pay attention to that hiss at the end of the word dollars, and how it makes the word feel super-plural, as if youre suddenly swimming on millions of them.

How many different influences is he siphoning through is brain in moments like these? Ill talk influences all day, because my influences only affect my music in the subtlest ways, Wifigawd says. I grew up off original hip-hop, right? Then I found Memphis. Then the DatPiff wave. Kid Cudis early hooks? Very influential. That laid-back style, very effortless. Currensy in style, beat selection. Dom Kennedy bars. Kanye. Bob Marley. Stevie Wonder. Pharoah Sanders sonically, emotionally which might not make sense for rap, but its all about the feelings for me. When I say Im influenced by certain people, its by the way they make me feel.

So even if Wifigawds sound is built on an incredibly ornate, half-hidden framework of techniques, traditions, styles and flows, its all in service of the feeling a feeling hes trying to vocalize every time he approaches the microphone. The first thing you hear in your head when you hear a beat is probably the right thing, he says of his first-thought-best-thought approach to rapping, casually summarizing a conversation he once had with notable fan-peer Earl Sweatshirt. If I put that bar down, thats what Im going for.

And now, as cool and thorough as his music, hes suddenly defining the entire essence of rap music itself that is, the art-slash-craft of summoning the entirety of your experience into the present, and ultimately trusting yourself in that decisive moment. The one rule of hip-hop is to be original, to be yourself, he says. Thats what it means to be a rapper. You have to have the swag to put it down. What you say is gold. You have to know that. It took me a minute to get to that point, but once youre there, you know what to say. Just go.

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Wifigawd is still rapping two steps ahead of the algorithm - The Washington Post