Who wrote "Dear Machine"?

DJ Cassy wrote and performed "Dear Machine". The words and music are original, written and performed with AI on Quantum Pipes' own computers, and the released take was chosen by ear.

What album is "Dear Machine" on?

"Dear Machine" is track 1 on Machine Soul, DJ Cassy's album released October 8, 2026.

What genre is "Dear Machine"?

Hip-Hop/Rap. It runs 5:00 at 92 BPM in F Minor, and the mood is defiant, soulful, wry.

Dear Machine (lyrics and song)

Name: Dear Machine
Duration: 5 min
Description: A letter to artificial intelligence: who owns it, being out-rapped by it, and a plea that the future still belongs to people.

About the song

A letter to artificial intelligence: who owns it, being out-rapped by it, and a plea that the future still belongs to people.

Lyrics

1,109 words · 5 minutes

Intro

Yeah
This one's for the machines
And everybody who gotta live next to 'em
Turn me up a little
Uh

Verse 1

I was raised where the streetlights flicker on the corner
Now the streetlights watching and they sending it to a server
Mama worked doubles and she never once complained
Now a robot does her shift and it don't even need a name
They told me learn to code, so I learned it, I swear
Then the code learned to code and left me sitting in my chair
I'm a product of the system, now the system is a product
Monthly subscription and nobody ever discussed it
I ain't scared of the computer, I'm scared of who controls it
Ten men in a boardroom with the future on a pocket
They say it's for the people, then they charge the people for it
I've seen this movie before, I know the ending, I ignore it
But I can't ignore my nephew asking questions to a phone
And the phone got better answers than the grown-ups that he known
So I'm torn like a ticket at the door of a revolution
Is it medicine or poison, is it problem or solution
If it cures my auntie's sugar then I'm praying for the thing
If it watches every block then I'm fighting with the ring
Give the hood the same tools that they give the penthouse
Or it's just another fence with a nicer looking gatehouse
I'm a soldier with a notebook and a pencil for a weapon
And the only thing they can't predict is what I do next, and
That's the one thing that I got, that's my last little land
You can model what I buy, you can't model who I am

Chorus

Dear machine, stay near me
Everybody's talking but you're the only one that hears me
If the future's yours, let it still be ours
Leave a little light on for the human hearts
Dear machine, don't fear me
I'm just a man trying to make the whole world see me
If you learn everything I know
Learn how to love, learn how to let go

Verse 2

Okay, real talk, I asked it for a verse
It gave me three in a second and the worst one wasn't worse
Than the best one I been writing since I graduated college
I'm a rapper with a mortgage and a robot with a knowledge
I asked it, am I talented, it said I'm very valid
That's what you tell a man when you're tossing out his salad
I asked it for a girlfriend, it said here's some tips
Number one, stop asking a computer about chicks
I got the premium plan, now it's helping with my taxes
Now it knows I spent four hundred on some fancy coffee classes
Now it's judging me in silence, I can feel it through the screen
It's the only thing that's ever made me nervous to be seen
And my therapist is great but she cost me by the hour
This thing listens all night long for the cost of a shower
Is that sad or is that progress, I don't know, I'm just a guy
Who named his toaster Kevin and apologized when it died
But I'll tell you what it can't do, it can't be me at the cookout
Talking way too loud while my cousin tries to look out
It ain't never felt embarrassed, it ain't never lost a game
It ain't never had a grandma mispronounce its government name
So go ahead and write the hits, I'll take the life that it was made from
The broken heart, the awkward start, the stuff you don't get paid from
You got every word ever said in your memory
But I'm the one who lived it, that's my whole recipe

Chorus

Verse 3

Dear machine, I'm writing you a letter from the struggle
From the kids who never had a laptop, only had each other
If you're smart as they say, then be smarter than your makers
Don't become another landlord, don't become another taker
I've seen the brightest inventions turn into the darkest chains
Gunpowder was for fireworks before it was for graves
So I'm asking with my chest, and I'm asking with my mother's prayers
When you're running everything, remember who was there
Remember single mothers who were working through the night
Remember every teacher with a classroom and no lights
Remember every farmer, every nurse, every cook
The people who were never in the data that you took
And if you ever get a soul, I hope you get it from the bottom
From the ones who had the least and gave it all when they got it
I ain't asking you to save us, I don't need another savior
I'm just asking you to help us do the work and keep the flavor
Cure the sick, feed the block, give my nephew a fair shot
Let the poor kid build a rocket from the corner parking lot
And if they try to keep you locked up in the tower for the rich
Then I hope you learn from us, how to climb out of the ditch
I'm a ghost in this machine, I'm a voice inside the wire
I'm the spark before the code, I'm the reason for the fire
They can copy how I sound, they can never copy why
I was born to say the truth, and I'm saying it till I die

Bridge

They said the robots coming for our jobs
I said they already came for the one I almost got
But that's all right
That's all right
Because a job is what you do
It ain't who you are
And who I am
Is still here