RZA Praises the Time and Money-Saving Aspect of AI

RZA lauds the time and money-saving aspects of using AI at a recent technology convention.

On Jan. 8, the Wu-Tang Clan member spoke during the annual 2026 Consumer Electronics Showcase in Las Vegas for a panel titled, “From Concept to Reality: Creatives Using AI to Bring Big Ideas to Life.”

“Creativity is time,” RZA told the audience, according to AfroTech. “It could take three days to get something good with today’s technology. And with AI assistant, I could turn that three days to three hours. So even quicker.”

The legendary producer revealed he used the assistance of AI to demo his 2024 classical album, A Ballet Through Mud.

“Instead of me spending 10, 12 days of trying to get it right, we got that recorded in one day,” RZA said. “You look at the orchestra, not to talk numbers here, but the orchestra could cost you up to $60 grand a day. So we mitigated. And the idea of what I wanted them to do was already captured enough so that the human energy … the human pull of the string, accents, made the demo even better than I imagined.”

RZA later admitted his favorite AI platform to use is Google Gemini. He also mentioned Flow as a close second.

The use of AI in hip-hop has been a hot-button topic, with some artists openly using technology, while others have shunned it.

See RZA’s Thoughts on the Use of AI