What Is the Future of Black Music? Building Our System

Black creativity has always set the tone. From jazz to hip hop to streetwear to slang to memes - if it’s cool, it probably came through us. Our influence travels the globe faster than our passports. But for too long, we’ve been the soul of the culture… not the structure.

That’s changing.

Over a decade ago, I directed an interactive music video featuring Black artists. It was something different - viewers could control the narrative in real time. What surprised me most wasn’t the views - it was the calls. Agencies and international conglomerates from all over the world started asking me: “How do we make content like this?” That’s when it hit me. Black creativity wasn’t just music - it was a blueprint. A global export. A new kind of infrastructure.

Today, we’re at another inflection point. AI, voice tech, streaming, immersive media—these are the new instruments. And just like we once remixed records in the Bronx and turned them into hip hop, we now have the chance to remix technology itself. To bend it. Reinterpret it. Make it do something it wasn’t supposed to do.

That’s the heart of Black innovation: flipping the existing into the never-been-seen.

We’ve already done it. Think about it. Sampling became the foundation of a genre - and then a mindset. Interpolation isn’t just a musical concept now - it shows up in food, fashion, software. We’ve always made magic from what was around. What’s different now is: we can own the machines. We can build the platforms. This is what makes B | Code’s Future of Black Music presented by Smirnoff Lemonades program a valuable space — especially now. Smirnoff provided the brand’s massive support to celebrate Black emerging artists. This gave a stage for the talent to be spotlighted and have a chance to reflect on their positioning and impact in an evolving industry. From lyricists like Kai Cash to crooners like TheArti$t, and vocal gymnasts like Jai’Len Josey, the program has provided space for a wide range of musicians over the course of a three-city tour. When you own the space, you get to influence and frame the impact.

One of the most common challenges in Black music is pigeonholing — while simultaneously stealing and repackaging our creative ingenuity. We see talent being placed in genre boxes solely because of presentation, race, and demographic. This can affect how authentically empowering artists like Future of Black Music performer Charity find themselves received in the mainstream. As a solution, we must support and model those building infrastructures that ensure the rules remain in our favor.

Our future, and soon to be, Black history will be shaped and told by the brick layers, the foundation builders of the platforms underneath the culture. The backend will become the limelight at the front of the stage.

We should treat coding like we treated beatmaking in the early 2000s. We should hype up product managers like we do point guards. If we celebrated our time spent learning AI the way we do time in the studio or the gym, our entire cultural economy would shift.

Because here’s the risk: If we don’t show up as builders, we’ll keep showing up as talent. And that story doesn’t always end well.

But I’m not here to warn - I’m here to predict. And we’re already on the way. The democratization of tools is happening. The gatekeepers are losing their grip. Black creators are building the tools, not just the trends. And for the first time, we’re not just innovating at the surface - we’re changing the architecture underneath. Presented by Smirnoff Lemonades and B Code, The Future of Black Music highlights some of the most exciting new voices shaping culture. The three city activation was more than an event series, it was a gathering and collaboration of tastemakers, fans, and creatives championing the evolution of Black artistry.

So to every young artist, coder, poet, beatmaker, dreamer - this is your sample to flip. The future’s open-source now. Whether you start with a loop, a line of code, or a line in a notebook, the point is: START. The next era of Black history isn’t waiting to be written - it’s waiting to be remixed. And just like always, it begins with the music.

***Devo Harris is a Grammy-winning producer turned tech founder. As the CEO of Adventr, he’s pioneering AI-powered interactive media that brings storytelling, music, and technology together. He’s also known for launching GOOD Music with Kanye West, signing John Legend, and pushing the boundaries of how Black creativity is made - and monetized.