Rapper 1010Benja has released 'Semiramis' Dream', a track built by iterating on Suno a few hundred times, and it is drawing grudging praise from critics who have spent the last two years dismissing generative music as noise. The song opens his new EP 'Time Has Nothing To Do With What You Choose…', the follow-up to 2024's 'Ten Total', which earned a Best New Music tag from Pitchfork. Deezer flags the song as AI-generated. Benja is not hiding it.
The production pipeline is the story. Benja and collaborator Patrick Holder recorded the beat and vocals live, then fed those elements into Suno, pulled the output into Ableton for editing, and pushed the edited version back into Suno. The loop ran a few hundred times before the track landed. The finished song leads with Benja's unprocessed voice over a jungle beat, with a Suno-generated children's choir buried in hyperpop-style vocal chops.
Benja described the workflow in an interview with the music publication Hearing Things.
“My friend Patrick Holder did the beat. I recorded the vocals. Then we fed Suno the elements, settled on something, brought it out, edited it on Ableton, and then put it back into Suno.”— 1010Benja, Recording artist
Key facts
- 011010Benja iterated on 'Semiramis' Dream' a few hundred times, feeding vocals and beats through Suno, editing in Ableton, then looping back.
- 02The track opens 'Time Has Nothing To Do With What You Choose…', his follow-up to 2024's 'Ten Total', which earned Best New Music from Pitchfork.
- 03Deezer flags the song as AI-generated. Benja and collaborator Patrick Holder are declining to hide the credit.
- 04Benja told Hearing Things he hasn't paid rent for two months, framing Suno as a tool for producing beyond his current means.
The distinction matters because it separates 'Semiramis' Dream' from the fully text-prompted output that has flooded streaming services since Suno's platform opened up. Benja is not typing a prompt and pressing generate. He is using Suno as a mixing and arrangement engine on top of human performances, closer to how producers already use pitch correction and stem separation than to a fully synthetic track.
The ethics are unresolved and Benja knows it. He told Hearing Things the good guy doesn't win this one, acknowledging both the environmental cost of large-scale generative models and the copyright disputes hanging over Suno itself. He framed the choice as economic rather than ideological.
That framing lands differently than the usual defense. Benja has spent periods homeless and told Hearing Things he had not paid rent for two months at the time of the interview. Hiring a children's choir, an orchestra, or a studio full of session vocalists is not on the table for an artist in that position. Suno is.
“The only reason I'm using gen at all is because my visions are currently far beyond my means.”— 1010Benja, Recording artist
The counter-argument, made by The Verge's Terrence O'Brien in his review, is that nothing on 'Semiramis' Dream' strictly required a generative model. Layered vocal takes and heavy processing could approximate the AI choir, and the song's most compelling element — Benja's actual voice — has nothing to do with Suno. The AI is a shortcut, not a capability unlock, and shortcuts have a cost.
Still, O'Brien concluded that the track works, which is a meaningful concession from a writer who has covered the tech industry for 18 years and has been openly hostile to Suno's default output.
“1010Benja hasn't converted me — I still remain deeply skeptical of AI art. But he has proven that, in the right hands, Suno doesn't have to be a slop engine.”— Terrence O'Brien, Weekend Editor, The Verge
The commercial read for Suno is straightforward. The company has spent 2025 and 2026 defending itself in copyright litigation and fighting the perception that its platform produces disposable filler. A track from a Pitchfork-anointed artist, built through a hybrid human-AI workflow and defended on the record by the artist himself, is a template Suno will want to promote. Whether more musicians in Benja's position adopt the loop-through-Suno approach — and whether the labels signing them tolerate the AI credit on the metadata — will decide if 'Semiramis' Dream' is a one-off or the start of a category.
Working on something we should cover, or seeing a story we missed? Send leads, documents, or feedback to hello@aichatdaily.com. For sensitive tips, see our secure tips page for Signal and PGP options.
Spotted an error? Email hello@aichatdaily.com with the URL and the issue, or read our full corrections policy.
