Authentic Intelligence Mixtapes: DJs and producers’ communal radical archiving and teaching in the age of AI

Abstract

Black and indigenous musics continue to evolve and dominate global markets and cultural spheres, notwithstanding a history of intellectual property theft and cultural appropriation. DJs and producers (by way of sampling or extrapolation) have played archival roles outside traditional music archiving. Colonial invasions and the transatlantic slave trade, as well as academic neocolonialism, displaced cultural histories imparted through oral traditions. The Black radical tradition resists global corporate capitalism, even within a music industry that emphasises stereotypical Black tropes for profit. Without regulation, the practices of museums, the education system and the music industry will be exacerbated by the development of recommendation systems and artificial intelligence (AI). Hence, in communities that have already suffered unjust intellectual and cultural property theft, I recognise and re-centre the archiving musico-cultural role that DJs and producers have historically played.