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mace windu fell out of a window (yeah). where did he go?
It’s been a week, and I can’t get Anakin’s smooth buttery voice out of my head.
Turns out I’m not alone. Millions are feeling the pull of the dark side – or AI, if you prefer.
Music videos featuring Anakin Skywalker’s face-tatted alter-ego, ‘Lil Vader’ are all over the social media sites. Original generated trap songs such as ‘Mace fell out of a Windu’, ‘Bodyguard’, and ‘Dooku’s Little Head’ have spawned every week since the disgustingly catchy original went viral.
Through grilled teeth, science fiction’s most notorious villain spits bars about Padme being the baddest bitch in the Galaxy, fucking up ‘that green frog man’ (Yoda, obviously), and slicing younglings since 05, all while flexing and gesticulating in his black leather.
It’s ridiculously juvenile. But many are saying it has frankly no business being this good. Check it out below… but don’t go berating us if you find yourself neurotically humming the chorus while doing the dishes later.
As far as the general consensus goes, with young people, AI music can basically get in the bin. There’s too much baggage attached to where training data comes from, and we’ve heard countless artists kick off about either their likeness being used without consent, or synthetic slop spreading all over streaming platforms, diverting revenue from artists born of flesh and bone.
That is arguably the case here too, with the Spotify upload of ‘Mace fell out of a Windu’ amassing 750,000 streams in just a month. The artist behind these Sith Lord bangers ironically goes by ‘AI Ruins Everything,’ which probably goes some way to explaining why the song has taken off with such gusto.
AI that tries to pass itself off as the real thing tends to flop, but inside meme culture people are more than happy to revel in the stupidity. Twitter is chock-full of clips of Spider-Man and the Green Goblin iced out and rapping Hotel Lobby, and The Walking Dead’s Rick and Negan performing Fetty Wap’s 679.
The Harry Potter drill tracks wasted a whole morning at the Thred office last year. Suffice to say, AI has basically become the natural evolution of meme-sharing.
Star Wars is arguably an even better fit, given the fans know the lore inside out, the characters are instantly recognisable, and it’s impossible not to chuckle at subtle brags about getting head from a senator of Naboo. Besides, with the Disney-led falloff of the franchise, some are saying this is the most compelling piece of Star Wars content in the last 20 years.
On top of that, though, the songs are strangely infectious. I’m not exactly an advocate for AI music, and yet I literally know the Windu diss word for word. So what if I’m 32 this year? It’s stupid enough that there’s no lingering guilt for indulging in it (adds to playlist).
Lil Vader won’t convert the AI naysayers, but every new release has people quietly reassessing their moral compass while bobbing their heads like that Jay-Z gif.
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