King Willonius on AI Music, Creative Access, and Human Imagination

Shira Lazar introduces comedian and musician King Willonius at C2 Montréal. Their conversation considers who gets to create when AI tools, artists, and audiences intersect.

He says BBL Drizzy began when a phrase connected to a public music dispute was trending. He wrote lyrics, used the music-generation service Udio, and posted the result. He recalls the song reaching a much larger audience after Metro Boomin used it.

He attributes the response to the humor, the cultural moment, and a sound that reminded listeners of older music. He says some people did not initially realize AI was involved.

During the writers’ strike, he says he had time to experiment with new AI tools. He found it exciting to turn an idea into a tangible piece quickly and began exploring music, film, and coding.

For music, he describes writing lyrics, prompting a tool, and arranging results in a digital audio workstation. For films, he describes writing, generating images and video, and editing the pieces together. Lazar notes that such workflows can involve several tools.

Discussing newer video tools, he expresses both excitement and surprise at the speed of change. Lazar notes that creative opportunity and concern about jobs can exist at the same time.

He calls himself a curious doer: when a new tool appears, he wants to understand it by trying things. He compares iteration to stand-up comedy, where repeated attempts and failures help a performer improve.

Asked what he would say to hesitant creative professionals, he suggests trying the tools and considering where they might help a production process. This is his perspective; the conversation also acknowledges that other artists seek stronger protections.

He says lower production barriers allow him to imagine projects that budget or resources once made difficult. He describes the creative freedom as empowering while recognizing that others view disruption differently.

Willonius says he has often felt like an outsider trying to enter established entertainment systems. That experience led him to experiment with social media and emerging technologies as alternative routes to an audience.

He predicts AI could also create work and points to a planned dome production that requires a team. Lazar discusses the value of live experiences. Their comments are forecasts and examples, not proof of a net employment effect.

Asked about criticism and uncertain training-data practices, Willonius says some people accused him of taking from artists. He emphasizes the joy listeners reported while addressing the ethical question separately.

He says that if copyrighted material or artists’ work is taken, artists should be compensated. He and Lazar hope technology companies will develop ways to address those concerns; the conversation does not resolve the legal questions.

They discuss whether awards might eventually recognize AI-assisted work in distinct categories. Willonius reiterates that he wrote the BBL Drizzy lyrics himself and believes his cultural context and choices contributed to the result.

For a live demonstration, he asks the audience to suggest musical genres and lines. The group combines several styles and contributes a playful set of lines about Montréal.

He introduces Udio as the tool he used for BBL Drizzy and explains that it can generate and remix music. The audience continues offering lines while the speakers experiment with the wording.

He describes a manual setting and generates several versions from the audience’s input. The room listens to the contrasting outputs and reacts to the results.

The speakers discuss possible uses for generated music. Willonius gives his understanding of paid-plan terms and an approximate price at the time; those comments do not establish current licensing rights or pricing.

For a basic toolkit, he suggests choosing a language model, an image generator, a video tool, and an audio or voice tool. He names several products as examples, reflecting the options he was discussing in 2025.

Lazar raises questions about ownership and contracts for virtual versions of creators. The speakers imagine possible uses for avatars while joking that meetings between automated representatives could create confusion.

Willonius describes making a short AI-assisted film under a 48-hour constraint. He says the exercise showed him how quickly a small team could assemble visual effects, while the comparison with traditional production is his experience.

He discusses a planned interactive BBL Drizzy musical designed for a dome or planetarium. He hopes to bring narrative storytelling to the format and says the project needs collaborators and funding.

The speakers return to the human side of technology. Willonius says creative work feels personal and even spiritual to him; he wants AI to enhance life without neglecting people and their experiences.

An audience member asks how he uses AI in stand-up. He says he sometimes gives a language model a premise and asks for possible punchlines, though he does not rely heavily on it to write his jokes.

Asked whether content will become generic, he says people who want mastery will continue to study and practice. He names sound design, cinematography, and music theory as areas he wants to improve.

His advice to marketers and creators is to learn the landscape, seek knowledgeable collaborators, and experiment. He describes the moment as an opportunity for more people to participate in making things.

Lazar thanks him and the C2 audience. The episode closes with acknowledgments and directions to his work.