\n Recently, AI-generated performers have even charted on Billboard, including genre-specific lists, showing how rapidly machine-made music has shifted from novelty to a commercial force.\n <\/p>\n
\n With this evolving climate as a backdrop, Pheelz approaches that reality with both curiosity and unease.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAI is on uncharted water,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s the good side and the crazy side of things. Right now, we\u2019re seeing the good side \u2014 but I\u2019m scared about where it leads us, especially where it leads the creative.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n For him, the concern is not simply about volume or efficiency. It is about whether technology can ever truly capture the essence, emotion, and humanity that defines music.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI don\u2019t think AI can be perfect,\u201d Pheelz said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHumans are perfect, the error is perfect, the imperfection is where the perfection is, that\u2019s art.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"Nigerian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pheelzstudio2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n That conviction is anchored in his childhood musical experiences. Watching choirs move congregations, he noticed it was feelings \u2014 not technical precision \u2014 that resonated.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI saw the effect it had on people,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I knew music was bigger than performance.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n It is also why he draws a clear line between replication and creation: for Pheelz, AI can study patterns, mimic style, and generate endless variations, but it cannot bring the belief, vulnerability, or lived experience that he sees as essential to true creativity.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAI doesn\u2019t have a soul,\u201d he said. \u201cArt needs soul to survive.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Those values extend into how he works today. In his studio hangs a handwritten sign instructing collaborators to leave their egos at the door \u2014 a reminder, in his view, that creativity is a shared, almost sacred exchange.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cEgo kills creativity,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re making music, you have to be humble in the presence of it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The idea of music as spirit is also central to how Pheelz understands Afrobeats. As the focus of Madowo\u2019s interview shifted to this genre, Pheelz explained why, in his view, Afrobeats is particularly resistant to being flattened by algorithms.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAfrobeats is a spirit before it\u2019s a sound,\u201d he said. \u201cA sound captures the spirit of a people.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n From its roots in Fela Kuti\u2019s Afrobeat to its current global dominance, Afrobeats carries cultural memory, community, and context \u2014 elements that cannot be fully extracted from data alone. As AI-generated music becomes more convincing and commercially visible, Pheelz believes those spiritual and cultural foundations may prove essential.\n <\/p>\n
\n Amid this uncertainty, the industry, he says, is still learning how to respond.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019re all toddlers with AI right now,\u201d he said. \u201cWith time, there will be rules. There will be checks.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Still, his confidence in the future of music does not rest in regulation or technology, but in the enduring power of authentic human expression \u2014 a key point in his argument against AI\u2019s capabilities.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI know soul will always win,\u201d Pheelz said. \u201cArt will always win.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Nigerian producer-turned-artist Pheelz learned music in church, believing sound and spirit are inseparable \u2014 a core…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-293524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}