Hip-Hop has always been the laboratory where tech, style, and street wisdom collide. Few figures embody that spirit like Ron Lawrence, the legendary producer who evolved from a Howard University-bred MC to Bad Boy Hitmen architect to today’s AI filmmaker. If you know the sinister pulse of JAY-Z’s “Where I’m From” or the crackling urgency of The LOX’s “Money, Power, Respect,” you know Ron’s work. As one half of Two Kings in the Cipher, Ron came of age during a moment when knowledge-of-self rhymes and East Coast sounds shaped the culture. Now he is pushing that same curiosity into artificial intelligence with “Backspin Chronicles,” a fast-growing series that animates Hip-Hop history through living album covers, archival flips and narrative mini-docs. The conversation below gets into the love and the conflicts around AI, the ethics, the haters, the compliments from legends and why Ron believes the culture must claim this tech to preserve our stories, not erase them. For the full interview, please enjoy the video from AllHipHopTV.
Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur: You have managed to make AI art that the culture actually loves. What do you call yourself right now?
Ron Lawrence: AI filmmaker, AI specialist, however you want to frame it. This space is so new that the titles barely exist, but that is the lane I am in.
AllHipHop: What sparked the early wave, especially the animated album covers?
Join Us
AllHipHop’s Daily News Service
Delivering news to inboxes since 1999. We break it. They take it. Get it first, straight from AllHipHop.
Ron: I was experimenting. I moved from cookie cutter apps to professional tools and just wanted to make things move. I did Kid ’n Play, then a small Salt-N-Pepa piece when they were getting major recognition, and it clicked. I stitched multiple covers into a three or four minute segment, scored it with instrumentals from Two Kings in the Cipher so I could control rights, and people felt it.
AllHipHop: The reaction can be intense. Any pushback from artists or fans?
Ron: Most people love it, some go hard against AI. I had a woman curse me out in the inbox about environmental harm. Tech has always had costs, but what I am doing is about storytelling. I am aiming to fill a void and speak to the culture through my eyes.
AllHipHop: You are also getting love from icons.
Ron: Yeah, you will see names like Rakim and Dice reposting the work. I am not a heavy social media guy, but this wave made my page explode. I keep a separate page for personal life now.
AllHipHop: Do you see competitors or copycats?
Ron: People will try to copy, that is flattering. I avoid looking sideways. I create what comes to mind and try to put a stamp down while it is still early, like the wild open days of early Hip-Hop.
AllHipHop: Let’s talk scale. Commercials, films, campaigns?
Ron: All of it. AI will power a lot of those jobs. I even built a campaign for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka from photos, and the thing lived. The tech is not perfect, you can spot distorted faces in crowd shots, but the curve is steep and fast.
AllHipHop: The big existential worry is that AI replaces real human moments. The shared experience, the crowd, the sweat.
Ron: The shift is coming. It always comes. The car replaced horses, electricity replaced lamps. Jobs shift. The question is how to position yourself. If AI will do a job, learn to prompt, direct, and design that job. Stand behind the machine, not under it.
AllHipHop: Creatively, some AI rap stuff feels cheap. Thoughts?
Ron: Exactly, not everybody will be creative with it. Think about what Serato did. Suddenly everyone could DJ. Tech democratizes, the ceiling still belongs to those with vision. My focus is narrative quality, not shortcuts.
AllHipHop: You did a divine nine video that had the sororities and fraternities talking (see the video below). Research is a beast, right?
Ron: I try to be thorough. Sometimes I cannot source enough vintage imagery from every org and people will let you know. It is never intentional. The goal is balance and respect.
AllHipHop: The ethics loom large. Deepfakes, harmful stereotypes, algorithmic suppression.
Ron: That is real. I have seen AI content that drifts toward modern blackface and it is foul. We also know platforms can throttle stories, and even AI tools will block sensitive historical prompts. That is why we need people from the culture guiding this. With AI, you can finally tell the stories Hollywood will not finance, but you also have to protect truth.
AllHipHop: Voices are another frontier. The community wants authentic narrators.
Ron: The voice libraries are limited and often trash. I want premium African American voices that match the story. Until the options improve, I lean into what carries the emotion. I listen to feedback, then I iterate.
AllHipHop: What is the larger play with “Backspin Chronicles?”
Ron: Those one minute pieces are seeds for full documentaries. Each clip is a pilot for a longer film. That is the vision.
AllHipHop: Your music legacy still rings. Two Kings in the Cipher was crackling with ideas. Then the Hitmen era was a run. How do you see that path now?
Ron: I came in as a rapper, DJ turned producer. When the Two Kings album did not get the push it needed and the industry pivoted from consciousness to gangsta narratives, I decided to produce the heroes I admired. That led to Sugar, “What’s Up Star,” Tracy Lee, and the big moments like JAY-Z’s “Where I’m From” and The LOX “Money, Power, Respect.” We were not chasing hits, we were chasing great records. The hits came.
AllHipHop: What did you learn from Diddy and the Hitmen environment?
Ron: Precision. He wanted a certain sheen. I arrived with dark, soundtrack energy, and he pushed me to shape it into the Bad Boy palette. Each producer had a lane. Together it formed a sound.
AllHipHop: Favorite record you produced?
Ron: I do not have a single favorite, but “Where I’m From” and “Money, Power, Respect” define my taste. That sinister, cinematic feel is me.
AllHipHop: Any memories of Big?
Ron: I came in during 1996 and he passed in 1997, so it was business and studio, not deep friendship. Heavy time, turbulent energy. I stayed in the lab and flew to Trinidad to work when things got too wild.
AllHipHop: Producer heroes outside the crew?
Ron: Larry Smith is criminally under celebrated. Pure quality. In the nineties, DJ Premier. The craft kept leveling up as the tech improved from low bit samplers to cleaner machines.
AllHipHop: Where does AI and music go next, especially with voice models?
Ron: It is already here. Producers mock up placements with an artist’s AI voice as a proof of concept. That is a slippery slope, but I see a noble lane for artists like Beanie Sigel or The D.O.C. who lost vocal power. If they write the rhymes and restore their own voices using their past recordings, that is preservation, not fakery. The pen must remain the pen.
AllHipHop: Final word to the culture about AI.
Ron: Claim it. If something is harmful, build a better lane. Use AI to preserve Hip-Hop, to tell stories they refuse to fund, and to protect our image. Figure it out and make it serve the people.
