When a fan recently posted on X, “bbno $ Is my favorite rapper why should he be so good at AI artists? 🥺🥺,” The Canadian singer did not give a gentle explanation. Instead, he shot back with a simple, irrefutable answer: “fuck ai.”
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The type of Blunt Testity that defines BBNO $ (Written “Baby No Money”) – A viral rapper who is as well known for his absurd art as for his best art in independent risk. But behind the proposed All-Caps is a clear philosophy: At a time when algorithms can produce songs, photos and videos faster than any human hand, you prefer to bet on people.
That choice is on full display in his latest video for “Add,” a hyper-colorful, kinetic collage made entirely of fan-made fan animation. Instead of leaving the studio or having to endure the production software, bbno$ contacted more than 20 independent artists – many of whom had already created their fan art online – to bring the visuals to life. The result is a whirlwind of different animation styles mixed together, each part a small grain of love from one Creator to another.
“There are two things to it,” he told mashable at TwptCon 2025, the day of the release of his ninth album NINELDIO. “One, when people spend their whole lives getting good at something, it’s kind of where you can click a button and I do something that has a little more impact.”
Another reason is very simple: BBNO$ feels better to support people and the art that can be done by people. To make me feel good when I support other artists, because I am an artist myself. “I remember when I didn’t make money – it’s an exciting feeling when you can finally help. So if I can help other artists get that, I want to.”
The “Added” project took six months to complete, a Herculean effort for a three-minute song. But the payoff was a visual exhibition and a creative statement: proof that the collaboration of all 23 different minds, each bringing their own idiosyncracies and artistic povs, could create something that no machine could replicate.
He admits: “Because it was 20 different people, 20 different minds.”
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That kind of enthusiasm has long been part of the BBNO$ appeal. His catalog, which sheds goofy singles like “Lalala” about Y2K and more experimental cuts, thrives on the sense of human chaos that algorithms can’t fool. Even if they rely on the Internet, there is an attack on identity. You’re in on the joke, but you’re pretty dead on art.
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His mistrust of AI is not supported by fear of change so much as empathy for working artists. In an age where tech companies are pouring billions into AI music tools and video tools, and when the work of artists is being removed from training those programs, bbno$ is thinking about the people behind the art.
“Big organizations are starting to use AI and software to take human jobs,” he said. “One of my best friends works at Amazon, and he was like, ‘I’m on the phone with India. I’m introducing something that unfortunately costs a lot of people’s jobs.’ He knows it sucks, but he also has to heal. That’s where things get better. I’m just trying to do my part as much as possible. ”
It’s not technology against technology – bbno$ is built for his work on the Internet, after all – but rather a push to preserve a kind of creative integrity that is at risk. These days, art is data, and you’re trying to keep the human side alive. “To keep people moving, to keep the train on the other side, you have to pay for it. That’s the only way.”
There is also a pavosophical activeline here: BBNO $ is always growing together. His first breakthrough came from the Meme partnership. His entire work is a case study on the creative possibilities of the Digital Age, where art is created by people, not programs.
He says: “I’ve never been one to put a lot of effects on my videos. “If I do, it must be something that took a year to do that, not just something you connect to.” That ETHOLOS reaches beyond the visual; It’s in the way he approaches writing, creating content, and his signature humor. Everything sounds a little rough around the edges, but that’s what makes it human.
The irony, of course, is that AI could easily mimic the quirks of BBNO$’s high flow rate and offbeat flow, but it can’t replicate the authenticity that drives them. Creativity, for him, is an act of care.
On YouTube, comments under “add” Read like a digital portfolio of collaboration. Fans and animators mark their timestamps, celebrating each other’s work. “I animated 0: 00-0: 09! Everyone is doing such a good job
Over at X, an animator named Kenzie shared a clip of BBNO$ sending them a project after they had been inactive in the animation industry for ‘AI.’ The post has already gone up more than 350,000 likes – it wins in the way that deep action.
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With a video that could not be made by a single producing model, “add” instead became a public exhibition. It’s the kind of dirty, effective collaboration that only humans can pull off.
He repeated the retrieve,” he repeats. “Indeed it is.”
