Jimmy Jam Uses AI, But Wants Protective Regulation

January 19, 2026

Jimmy Jam said artificial intelligence can enhance music creation but requires strict guardrails to protect artists from unauthorized use and unpaid exploitation.

Since 1998, AllHipHop.com has pioneered delivering Hip-Hop news. Get our daily email for exclusive, breaking news, and weekly digests, all curated for the true Hip-Hop enthusiast. Stay connected and informed with the heartbeat of Hip-Hop culture. Subscribe now!

Jimmy Jam of the famed, iconic production team Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis has offered his opinions on the wave of AI that has swept the music game.

At a recent live engagement in New York City, AllHipHop contributor Rasheeda Wallace caught up with the famed producer. He said artificial intelligence can be a powerful creative tool for music makers but had a warning after “Late Development presents Jimmy Jam: Jamz & Conversation.”

Jimmy Jam didn’t sound alarmist or starry-eyed when he weighed in on artificial intelligence. He really stressed that this is a crossroads, where innovation races ahead while ethics scramble to catch up.

“I think it’s a great tool. And I think it needs guardrails. I think it’s about compensation, because people that are being scraped or whatever you want to call it for the information, they should be paid to use. You should not be able to just take a face and then just use it,” he said. “So, I think those two things are wrong.”

He also stated that he and Terry Lewis have already found major positives with the new technology.

“But as a tool, it’s going to allow us to…Terry and I have already used it to resurrect some songs that we never thought we’d get back and make them sound pristine,” he admitted. “So I think as a tool it’s a great thing. We just need the guardrails.”

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis built one of the most enduring and influential legacies in modern music by redefining how R&B, pop, soul and even Hip-Hop could intersect without losing emotional depth or commercial power.

The team emerged from Minneapolis with roots in funk with a cool, streetwise musical discipline. They shaped the careers of artists like Janet Jackson and were consistently forward-thinking with technology and still had a unique human, personal touch.

The 5-time Grammy-winning music producer’s comments land at a moment when Hip-Hop’s architects are openly debating how far AI should be allowed to go.

RZA, Timbaland, Erick Sermon and other have recently commented on the tech, displaying a wide range in how AI can be used.

What unites all of these these perspectives is a shared belief that AI is inevitable, but exploitation is not.

View Original Source