Toronto
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Nigerian producer-turned-artist Pheelz learned music in church, believing sound and spirit are inseparable — a core idea that shapes his argument about the rise of artificial intelligence in music: that true creativity requires soul, something technology cannot replicate.
Raised by a father who was a pastor in Nigeria, the musician grew up playing instruments in worship services and leading choirs, learning early that music carried energy, intention, and meaning beyond performance.
“Music is spiritual,” Pheelz told CNN’s Larry Madowo. “It’s energy. You’re combining energies together.”
The music industry is facing one of its most consequential shifts, as AI-generated songs increasingly populate streaming platforms and synthetic artists begin appearing on the charts. Opinions are polarizing around this change.
On platforms like Spotify, thousands of AI-generated tracks, often released under generic names and stock images, are optimized for playlists and algorithms. Some earn millions of streams before listeners learn there’s no human singer.
Spotify is moving toward AI transparency by putting voluntary AI disclosures into song credits and metadata — but not adding a big “AI” label on music tracks — while focusing on cutting spam and banning fake voice clones. Apple Music requires AI involvement to be disclosed in metadata at delivery, but it does not show that information in the app — keeping AI transparency largely behind the scenes.
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.
With this evolving climate as a backdrop, Pheelz approaches that reality with both curiosity and unease.
“AI is on uncharted water,” he said. “There’s the good side and the crazy side of things. Right now, we’re seeing the good side — but I’m scared about where it leads us, especially where it leads the creative.”
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.
“I don’t think AI can be perfect,” Pheelz said.
“Humans are perfect, the error is perfect, the imperfection is where the perfection is, that’s art.”
That conviction is anchored in his childhood musical experiences. Watching choirs move congregations, he noticed it was feelings — not technical precision — that resonated.
“I saw the effect it had on people,” he said. “That’s when I knew music was bigger than performance.”
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.
“AI doesn’t have a soul,” he said. “Art needs soul to survive.”
Those values extend into how he works today. In his studio hangs a handwritten sign instructing collaborators to leave their egos at the door — a reminder, in his view, that creativity is a shared, almost sacred exchange.
“Ego kills creativity,” he said. “When you’re making music, you have to be humble in the presence of it.”
The idea of music as spirit is also central to how Pheelz understands Afrobeats. As the focus of Madowo’s interview shifted to this genre, Pheelz explained why, in his view, Afrobeats is particularly resistant to being flattened by algorithms.
“Afrobeats is a spirit before it’s a sound,” he said. “A sound captures the spirit of a people.”
From its roots in Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat to its current global dominance, Afrobeats carries cultural memory, community, and context — 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.
Amid this uncertainty, the industry, he says, is still learning how to respond.
“We’re all toddlers with AI right now,” he said. “With time, there will be rules. There will be checks.”
Still, his confidence in the future of music does not rest in regulation or technology, but in the enduring power of authentic human expression — a key point in his argument against AI’s capabilities.
“I know soul will always win,” Pheelz said. “Art will always win.”