bbno$ says F*CK AI – and he is placing his cash the place his mouth is

When a fan lately posted in X“bbno$ is my favourite rapper, why does he need to be so imply to AI artists? 🥺🥺,” the Canadian musician did not supply a delicate clarification. As a substitute, he fired back with a easy and unequivocal response: “FUCK YOU.”

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It’s the type of blunt sincerity that defines bbno$ (pronounced “child no cash”) – the viral rapper known both for his absurd humor like his meticulous method to unbiased artwork. However behind the all-caps expletive is a transparent philosophy: In an period the place algorithms can produce music, photographs and movies sooner than any human hand, he’s selecting to take an opportunity on folks.

That selection is on full show in his latest video for “ADD,” a hypercolored kinetic collage constructed totally from fan-made animation. As a substitute of outsourcing to a studio or feeding generative software program, bbno$ employed greater than 20 unbiased artists – lots of whom had already created fan artwork of him on-line – to convey the visuals to life. The result’s a whirlwind of distinct animation kinds stitched collectively, every phase a little bit love letter from one creator to a different.

“There are two issues to it,” he advised Mashable at TwitchCon 2025, on the day of the discharge of his self-titled ninth studio album. “To begin with, when folks spend their entire lives enhancing one thing, it is type of boring when you may click on a button and do one thing that has extra affect. So I simply needed to offer again to the group that has proven me a lot love.”

The opposite motive is even less complicated: bbno$ feels higher supporting folks and man-made artwork. “I really feel good once I’m supporting different artists, as a result of I am an artist myself,” he explains. “I bear in mind once I wasn’t getting cash – it is such an exhilarating feeling whenever you lastly make it. So if I will help different artists obtain that, I need to.”

The “ADD” undertaking took six months to finish, which is a Herculean effort for a three-minute music. However the reward was a visible spectacle and a artistic assertion: proof that collaboration between 23 totally different minds, every bringing their very own idiosyncrasies and creative factors of view, may create one thing that no machine may replicate.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get such stimulating visible content material once more,” he admits. “As a result of there have been 20 totally different folks, twenty totally different minds.”

That type of enthusiasm has lengthy been a part of bbno$’s attraction. Their catalog, which spans goofy hits just like the Y2K-meets-Y2K “Lalala” and extra experimental variations, thrives on a way of human chaos that algorithms can’t pretend. At the same time as he leans towards web virality, there is a pulse of self-awareness. He is in on the joke, however he additionally takes his job very significantly.

Their mistrust of AI will not be rooted in concern of change, however fairly in empathy for the artists they work with. At a time when expertise corporations are investing billions in AI music and video instruments, and when artists’ work is being eradicated to coach these techniques, bbno$ is considering the folks behind the artwork.

“Massive organizations are beginning to use AI and software program to take jobs away from folks,” he says. “Certainly one of my greatest associates works at Amazon and stated, ‘I’ve a connection to India. I am introducing one thing that, sadly, goes to take lots of people’s jobs.’ He is aware of it sucks, however he additionally must make a residing. That is precisely the place issues are progressing. I am simply attempting to do my half as a lot as I can.”

This isn’t a campaign towards expertise – in spite of everything, bbno$ constructed his profession on the web – however fairly an effort to protect a sort of artistic integrity that’s more and more underneath menace. Today, artwork is knowledge, and he is attempting to maintain the human half alive. “To maintain folks transferring, to maintain the prepare on the opposite aspect,” he says, “it’s important to fund them. That is the one means.”

There’s additionally a philosophical thread right here: bbno$ has all the time thrived on collaboration. Its early success got here from meme-based partnerships with producers like Y2K and Diamond Pistols, and extra lately its output has elevated to near-weekly releases that draw on a world community of creators, artists, editors, and followers. His whole profession is a case research of the artistic prospects of the digital age, the place artwork is constructed by folks and never by packages.

“I’ve by no means been one to place quite a lot of results in my movies,” he says. “If I do that, it must be one thing that took a yr to make, and never simply one thing you plug in.” This spirit goes past the look; it is in the best way he approaches songwriting, content material creation, and even his signature humor. All of it feels a little bit tough, however that is what makes it human.

The irony, in fact, is that AI may simply imitate bbno$’s extra superficial quirks and eccentric stream, however it will probably’t replicate the sincerity that drives them. Creativity, for him, is an act of care.

On YouTube, feedback underneath “ADD” really feel like a digital name for collaboration. Followers and entertainers stamped their timestamps, celebrating one another’s work. “I animated 0:00–0:09! Everybody did a improbable job

On X, an animator named Kenzie shared a clip of bbno$ commissioning them for a project after being “unemployed within the animation business for 2 years due to AI”. The publish has since racked up greater than 350,000 likes — a glimpse into how deeply the gesture resonated.

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For a video that might have been made by a single generative mannequin, “ADD” turned a group showcase. It is the type of messy, vibrant collaboration that solely people may pull off.

“I simply needed to offer again,” he repeats. “That is proper.”