This Week in Dulture…
Approx 5 minute read:
😷 Flu week in Hong Kong
🏰 Disneyland magic
🎵 Spotify AI
❎ Tyga’s big donut
Dulture weekly mix
Did y’all notice the first track last week was Damian Lillard rapping with a Hong Kong pop group???
Anyway, this week I’m back on my vibes, inspired by Majid Jordan. They’ve got a new album coming out at the end of the month and frankly, once again Toronto stays winning with our music.
That’s all I got…I’m about to jump on a plane to Tokyo ✌
What a damn week it’s been…still reporting live from Hong Kong, only difference now is I’m finally able to leave my bed. This is why you’re receiving this on a Sunday instead of the usual Friday - bruh Asia flu ain’t no JOKE.
Last week I talked about hitting up Pak Sha Road as the first thing I do when I get into Hong Kong and that night onwards I was KO’d with a fever of over 39C/102F for a good 5 days.
But as I said, what a damn week it’s been.
We had Drake trying to find love with the help of Kyle from Nelk.
MrBeast released a video where he was LEGIT PISSED OFF with the contestants - we need a BTS or reaction video or something to know how angry Jimmy was.
Bluff went on a GOD roll streak for his bday at the craps table. Even if you have no clue how craps works, as long as you don’t roll 7 you don’t lose, this was crazy.
And these slides kept popping up in my feed. The Nike Hyperice slides, created for recovery and coming equipped with a removable pod thing that heats up and vibrates in 3 variants controlled by the Hyperice App.
I’m still on a hunt to pick up Nike Mind slides here in Asia because back home Nike Canada thinks these should be limited stock for some reason.
UPDATE: Shoe street in Hong Kong did not have Nike Mind slides. Aside from the typical Vomero’s, Pegasus’, and Dunk’s, the shoe every store is pushing in Hong Kong right now is the Nike Ava X’s.
HK Disneyland Bust
Where my Disney fans at?
Hong Kong boasts one of the easiest, walkable-in-a-day Disneyland’s in the world.
The park is easily accessible via the subway, although completely out of the way from Hong Kong proper by a good hour, but I mean you just have to ride the subway the whole time to get there, it’s brainless.
It also offers everything you need from a Disneyland - main street with a bunch of souvenir stores, exclusive rides like the Mystic Manor trackless ride and Iron Man experience that flies you through the HK skyline.
This Disneyland is very close to the China border so you get A LOT (hoards of em) of mainland Chinese showing up - ironically ride times are very favourable.
When comparing to Tokyo Disney, I just remember everything being well over an hour wait time for any rides - which is still decent compared to what you get in Florida. In HK, the most we waited was 40 mins and this was the popular Frozen water ride.
The other reason to go to Hong Kong’s Disneyland is for this guy:
Residing in both Hong Kong and Paris, the robot Olaf made its debut earlier this year but he’s not exactly available in Hong Kong. We asked countless cast members for information and none of them knew when he’d be popping out, IF dude was coming out at all.
Disney built this as a first of a kind AI powered robot that navigates its surroundings, learns from whats around it, and continues on its merry way. No more teenage lackey in a character costume sweating to death while dragged around the park and hugged.
AI-powered Disney robot characters are the future - they’re also what’s going to eventually enslave the human race…and you thought it would be Terminator lol.
Given it was like 40 degrees celsius and the park was rammed with people, I had a feeling the robot wasn’t going to make an appearance in fear of malfunctioning because of the heat or the hoards of people who would inevitably surround the thing and most likely knock it over.
Until next time HK Disneyland.
AI Will Turn Us All Into DJ Khaled’s
The inevitable in the music industry finally happened. And no, I’m not talking about this dude….
Look at Andrew Callaghan, even he was like, “YOU’RE LYING”
Although with Spotify’s latest AI announcement, something tells me we haven’t heard the last of this West Coast Rap AI Wizard.
Spotify has announced an AI remix & covers platform for premium users as a separate paid tier where you’ll be able to take artist music and use AI to remix it to your heart’s desire…and then have other people on Spotify listen.
A key driver to all of this is that the AI music will always be linked back to the original song so the original artist will always get credit for the remix.
One of the biggest issues, as we’re all aware, is that AI generated music blurs the lines on who should get credit on the art and with this new platform, Spotify makes it very clear it’s the artist…and subsequently the record label, because…money.
So you could create the remix of the summer to Lean Back by Fat Joe and the Terror Squad, it plays in clubs around the world, hits the Billboard charts and goes crazy but unless Joey Crack is feeling generous, you’ll never see any of the funds the song makes.
This is about to open a whole new world up. Think about it, all these songs are out there that people have loved for years, that they will remix, revive, and make popular again and yet, they’ll never will be eligible for compensation unless I guess some sort of deal is reached with the artist.
IDGAF. I’m remixing How Am I Supposed To Live Without You by Michael Bolton.
On the surface this sounds like it could be a lot of fun for music lovers - throw music through AI remixes and see what comes out the other side. But you already know some rando in Ohio is going to make the biggest Midwest emo remix banger to a Charli XCX song and the controversy will begin.
The first phase of all of this starts in September when you’ll see AI persona accounts being tagged in Spotify separating music that was fully automated in creation from the real deal.
No official date when the AI floodgates open on Spotify yet.
Is This Album Really a Zero??
So apparently this Tyga album got rated a zero 👆
I listened to it back to front. TBH, it’s not a zero. But it does make you wonder why you too aren’t making music if anyone can make anything these days.
Tyga’s new album is a loooooooooooong ways away from Rack City and Taste.
This album is what happens when you’ve played 10,000 hours of GTA Vice City and then blast Rubberz by Fenix Flexin’ when you have to take a break to hit up 7-Eleven for a slushie.
As much as this album is not good, I honestly think it’s potentially defining a new genre - something like new age 80’s synth rap…? It’s like taking The Weeknd’s Dawn FM and throwing it on a camp fire, letting it toast up a bit like a marshmallow, and then removing that one toasted layer and calling it your album.
Given Vice City is the main setting for GTA 6, I would not be surprised if we hear more of this kind of music in the very near future.
The joke will be on all of us if any of this Tyga album shows up on one of the radio stations in the game.