New AI app claims to be able to help rappers produce verses

New app iRap is claiming it can help rappers write rhymes using an AI.

Currently running as a demo, the app uses artificial intelligence and language-processing algorithms to suggest words and phrases based on rhyming patterns.

Created music startup BrainRap, the app aims to combine music and neuroscience — after creator and musician Micah Brown noticed rappers struggling to write, enlisting the help of programmer CJ Carr who has expertise in machine-learning algorithms.

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Together they have had help from Abbey Road’s music-technology startup incubator Red.

“There’s Abbey Road’s obvious connection to the Beatles, but I’ve also seen Kano perform there,” Brown said to The Guardian. “For me as a Black Brit, as a south Londoner who grew up with not very much, being included there was a huge deal.”

The software of iRap uses layers of technology from speech-to-text to language processors and algorithmic language models.

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“It will take a sentence and swap out the nouns, verbs and adjectives to maximise the potential alliteration while keeping the meaning intact,” Carr says. “So if I were to say ‘big red dog’, it might suggest ‘colossal crimson canine’, which sounds a lot more musical.”

Carr adds that: “If you’re not an expert then you can lose momentum while rapping and get to a dead end but you can look at the screen and realise there are four directions you could go in right now. You could say things that sound phonetically similar, talk about related concepts, or just keep up the momentum so you don’t trip over yourself.”

[Via: The Guardian]

Becky Buckle is Mixmag's Video and Editorial Assistant, follow her on Twitter