“Yeah, right! Picture that with a Kodak Or, better yet, go to Times Square Take a picture of me with a Kodak”
The above are lyrics from 2011 smash hit Give Me Everything Tonight by Pitbull featuringNe-Yo, Afrojack, Nayer. Other than being an awesome jam, it is also known for Pitbull rhyming Kodak with Kodak. A few folks at a university in Finland have a solution that could have helped then and also help struggling rappers. The team at the University have been able to train a machine-learning algorithm capable of generating rap lyrics that are actually more complex that those generated by actual rappers. The algorithm picks up and recognizes lines of a rap and then generates a rap in the same way and in the same topic. The algorithm is aptly known as DeepBeat.
To create the algorithm and also teach it, the team created a database of over 10,000 songs from more than 100 rap artists. To generate the lyrics, DeepBeat, looks for sequences of matching vowel sounds in the previous lines. The algorithm then analyzes the sequence of lines from a rap lyric and then choose the next line from a list that contains randomly chosen lines from other songs as well as the actual line.
A sample of the lyrics generated using the Algorithm below:
For a chance at romance I would love to enhance
But everything I love has turned to a tedious task
One day we gonna have to leave our love in the past
I love my fans but no one ever puts a grasp
Interestingly, raps generated by DeepBeat are measured called the rhyming density which measures significantly higher than any human rapper by 21% in terms of length and frequency of the rhymes in the produced lyrics.
This is probably the second time technology has attempted to disrupt with the first attempt being autotune. Autotune was greatly dismissed by rap heavyweights including Jay-Z who went on to write the Death of Autotune hit song. Expect a Death of DeepBeat song too.
