will.i.am Cruises with MARVIN Through the Streets of London Discussing Groundbreaking Innovations of FYI RAiDiO, and his Partnership with Mercedes-Benz
Written and Photography by Ki Price
Cruising through the vibrant streets of London with the ever-charismatic will.i.am, Founder and CEO of FYI, feels like stepping into the future. As we chatted about the groundbreaking innovations of FYI RAiDiO, he shared his latest venture with Mercedes-Benz, a partnership that’s set to transform in-car entertainment. This multi-talented music mogul and tech visionary has brilliantly fused his passions for AI technology and music, crafting a seamless and dynamic soundtrack for your driving adventures. It’s not just entertainment; it’s a revolution on wheels!
MARVIN: How did the idea for the Mercedes sound come about?
will.i.am: For FYI radio, the idea came from wanting people to be able to talk to the radio station, banter with it ask it questions, push it, debate it. The same way that one of the last innovations that radio had was to be able to call the radio station…one person at a time talking to the DJ or host but that means you had to have waited in the queue for God knows how long just to be on the air. In this case, everyone can banter at will and go as deep as they want to go deep and wide as they want to go wide on the information and segments that’s presented. And so the architecture allows for that the technology the age we are in allows for that. Getting distribution in every Mercedes is wow. Now when we are going to be placed on the chip that means other car companies, other phone manufactures, computers can configure FYI to how they want it to be.
MARVIN: It seems like you have been quite car enthusiastic for quite a while. What is it about the automobile that inspires you?
will.i.am: I mean I make songs. The details from the drum patterns to the core progression, the baseline, the melody, the counter melody, the harmonies, the punchlines, the metaphors, the similes, the puns, the double-entendres, the triple-entendres, that whole freaking process. Then throwing that to the video, what statements do we want to make? What kind of imagery do we want to inspire people with? If I am getting my kicks doing that, imagine the leather, the stitching, the carbon fiber, the metal, the aluminum, the freaking screen display, the design, the color. Like get the fuck out of here. This is the ultimate design flex. Cars. You sit in them and they freaking hug you. They freaking cradle you. Like a bed is a bed. There’s only so many frames…a car is roaming around earth bro. A car.
MARVIN: What was the first dream car that you bought?
will.i.am: I can’t say I am partnered with Mercedes. But it was nice.
MARVIN: When did you start getting interested in F1 Racing?
will.i.am: When I met Lewis. I was like wait, what? …Then I went to see a couple of races and from there I was like Yo.
MARVIN: Can you tell me more about radio?
will.i.am: Radio is not just about a revolutionary listening experience, it’s an engaging experience. It is great for musicians, it is great for songwriters and producers. It is also great for this new realm and this new renaissance of persona agent makers. AI Agent makers. And it is great for media companies. Because now media companies can put out and distribute and publish engageable interactive media. It dimensionalized your journalism, your editorials. It dimensionalized your potential commerce.
MARVIN: One of the things I like is the difference between radio and social media and not wanting to be like social media. Because I am a photographer, I am terrified of AI, but it can actually do me some good as well.
will.i.am: Say as a photographer, for example, you go around and you take some photos. For a photographer you take some photos, put them on the internet. Everything you put on the internet because of social media, they reduce the value of it. That’s what I hate about social media. And now we have an opportunity to change the narrative on that. A song’s value because of Spotify? Wait, What? Fuck out of here. That’s not what a song is worth. A song is worth the network. And depending on who I network with, they are going to value the song differently. Like when we rocked with Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, when we rocked with Honda, Lexis, Fiat. They valued a song. To the point where it didn’t matter if our fans got it for free, we still got paid. That doesn’t happen with social media like that because somebody reduced the value of that. So now in this new age of intelligent media, a photographer can be like, Here is my station and here is a story behind… and you can speak to the AI agent. This is what the picture means to me and this is the memory that I had there. And people are going to follow photographers not only for the pictures they took but also the story behind the photo. And a compelling new type of podcast, engageable documentary if you will from the eye of the photographer. Where are people really going to get compelling stories from? Everybody is going to read on Instagram? Instagram is not a reading platform. In this case, the information on the compelling storytelling on how the persona is delivering it. It’s engageable now and the stories that are attached to a photo the presentation calls for that. Its not like a reel where it’s 15 seconds, 5 seconds, boom you’re done. The devaluing of our passion is criminal on social media.
MARVIN: Are you working on any new music?
will.i.am: Ya I got a bunch of projects I have coming this year…I am going to do three different genres at once. Pop, Dance-esque yacht house music. A boom-bap 1990s hip-hop throwback project. I am going to do two of those this year. Two 90s boom bap and one pop-flex just to show my diversity. Like what? That came from the same brain. And each one of them are hard as fuck.
