Cultural Parasites: When They Love Our Vibe but Not Our People
They’ll turn around and steal your soul while telling everyone they “inspired” it. These cultural parasites—they love our vibe, but they don’t love us. They profit off our rhythm, our words, our drums—while the people who birthed that shit get erased, exploited, silenced.
Let’s be very clear: when they mimic, monetize, replicate us, they are parasites.
The Latest Offense: AI in a $3 Million Spotlight
Recently, an AI “artist” named Xania Monet was signed to a $3 million record deal.
Her face? Digital wallpaper—could be anyone.
Her voice? All soul and R&B, a mimic of the very genre Black folks carved from blood, rhythm, and pain.
Her body of work? Lyrics from one human, but everything else—vocals, production, performance—completely AI-generated.
Kehlani called it “beyond out of our control.” SZA called it a straight-up devaluation of human music. And they’re right.
Because this isn’t innovation. This is theft with Wi-Fi.
Why This Is Parasite Behavior
1. Displacement of Real Creatives
Digital avatars get capital and headlines while real artists—who grind for years—get crumbs.
2. Extraction of Our Cultural Capital
They harvest our slang, our sound, our aesthetic, then whitewash it for mass market profit.
3. Masking Through “Neutral” Faces
These AI creations are built to look “universal”—safe, non-specific—so no one asks who the style really came from.
4. No Accountability
You can’t sue an avatar. You can’t drag an algorithm into court. They know this. That’s the loophole.
5. Caricature as Currency
From TikTok clips to IG reels, we keep seeing AI animals, aliens, and avatars lip-syncing in fake “ghetto” Black vernacular. Our language reduced to a punchline.
Receipts From Our Ancestors
Zora Neale Hurston told us: “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”
That’s AI music. That’s Black creativity stripped down, sold back to us.
Nina Simone said: “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” These machines aren’t reflecting the times—they’re erasing the people who do.
Audre Lorde warned: “Your silence will not protect you.” Neither will our “wait and see” approach.
And Paul Mooney? The prophecy stays true: “Everybody want to be a nigga, but don’t nobody want to be a nigga.”
The Damage We Carry
The Disrespect: Watching machines get deals while our people are still begging labels to listen.
The Spiritual Theft: Soul music without souls. Rhythm without roots.
The Generational Wound: Young artists being told their talent is less valuable than an algorithm.
The Weight: Always the weight—because even when we birth culture, we don’t get rest.
And I’ll say it plain: ask any human walking this earth if they’d want to be Black—or even seen as Black. See how quick the air shifts.
Reclaiming Our Creative Birthright
We’re not powerless. The flip starts here:
Name the theft. Don’t let AI wash out cultural lineage.
Support real artists. Stream, buy, book, amplify—actual humans.
Fight for rights. Push for laws that protect artistry from machine colonization.
Keep creating. Make art so raw, so alive, no program can mimic the pulse.
Because culture is not data. Soul cannot be uploaded.
We are the ancestors and the future, and no algorithm will out-dream us.
Closing & CTA
Cultural parasites will always circle the table. But that table was never ours.
Our vibe is not free. Our art is not a sandbox. Our brilliance cannot be automated.
👉🏾 Some folks bring smoke, we bring sage. Not everyone deserves your presence—but this space was built for your power. Real talk, real tools, real freedom.
