I Built a DJ in ChatGPT — and It Dropped a Jazz Fusion Banger

Published 25 October 2025

Forget mixtapes—this was a prompt–engineered beat battle. Here’s how I turned AI text into a track that could hold its own in a vinyl crate.

Cover art for Chrome Blue Groove, an AI jazz-fusion track inspired by beat juggling — Cover art for *Chrome Blue Groove*.

1) Discover — Hearing Beat Juggling For The First Time

There are musical ideas you learn, and musical ideas you hear. I’ve long known that hip hop blends beats together, but this month I encountered a description that landed in my ear like a needle dropping into the groove. In Beat Magazine (October 2025, p. 13), I read about a foundational technique with a compact, memorable name: beat juggling. The phrase carried motion in it. It suggested skill and playfulness and a hint of audacity—as if rhythm were not merely kept but tossed in the air and caught again before it could fall.

The story, of course, goes back to Clive Campbell—the world knows him as DJ Kool Herc—who extended the life of a drum break by riding two copies of the same record. Switch, cue, switch. Dancers got more of what they came for; the room discovered how far a groove could travel when technology and instinct moved in lockstep. It wasn’t just the technical trick that struck me—it was the mind behind it. Beat juggling is the creative hunch that two sources, tightly handled, can become a third thing that didn’t exist before.

That’s what Beat Magazine did for me: it opened my ears to the mindset, not just the method. I found myself asking a simple question dressed as a dare: if a DJ can juggle two records to build a new rhythm, can I juggle two styles to build a new track? Not with turntables, but with today’s tools: a language model to ideate; a music model to render; my ear in the loop. The more I considered it, the more the experiment felt obvious. Hip hop’s ingenuity had handed me a blueprint for an AI studio.

Beat juggling is, at heart, an argument for extension—of time, of feel, of possibility. I wanted to test that argument in a different medium: by juggling descriptions and decisions until a groove appeared. Nothing about the project aimed to recreate a historical sound; everything about it aimed to recreate a historical attitude. That is how this piece began: a magazine, a name, a line of thought, and a stubborn curiosity about how to make the old idea swing in a new room.

2) Agentic Generation — From One-Liners To Compound Prompts

Earlier this year I wrote about how cutting–edge AI use is less about single prompts and more about agentic workflows: sequencing prompts and pairing them with the right agent capability so each step improves the next. That piece, Five Fresh AI Trends for Productivity, argued that the most effective AI setups look like pipelines, not shots in the dark. A one–line statement can be clever; a chain can be transformative.

The beat–juggling project became my test case. Instead of asking ChatGPT to “make a song prompt,” I designed a compound instruction that forced the model to think in stages, just like a DJ’s hands work in stages: select, align, blend, extend. I wanted the system to explore combinations, judge novelty, translate the winner into a musical concept, and title it with economy and flair. In other words, I wanted the process to behave musically before any sound existed.

Here’s the core of the compound prompt I wrote, inspired by the magazine and tuned by my earlier research:

Beat juggling — brainstorm 10 different beat style combinations to beat juggle. Then select the most innovative style linked to jazz fusion. Using this newly selected combo, write a detailed Suno music style description in a paragraph. Suggest a 3–word song title for this song.

That might look simple, but structurally it’s doing four jobs. First, it asks for breadth—ten combinations—so I can see the landscape. Second, it demands selection—a best pick with a rationale. Third, it requires translation into a Suno–ready description, not just adjectives but instrument roles, rhythmic feel, production cues. Fourth, it forces naming, which is a miniature act of design: three words to carry tone, colour, and intent. A good title helps me hear the track before the first note is rendered.

What I like about this approach is that the “agent” and the “artist” are the same tool wearing two hats. The agent explores and filters; the artist describes and names. My role becomes the conductor of that flow. In this experiment, ChatGPT delivered a set of combinations, chose a hybrid aligned with jazz fusion, and produced language that felt like a score sketch. It gave me a phrase that shone: Chrome Blue Groove. The words sounded like brushed steel under neon: cool harmonies, a hint of city light, a pocket that leans forward without rushing.

Behind the scenes I also kept a short checklist that I now think of as my agentic rig:

Stage 1: Explore — ask for many options with constraints that matter (e.g., jazz fusion adjacency).
Stage 2: Select — require a clear winner and a reason, so I understand the decision.
Stage 3: Describe — translate the idea into production–ready language (tempo, palette, rhythm, texture).
Stage 4: Name — compress the mood into a three–word title to steer the aesthetic.

The practical effect is that by the time I open Suno, I’m not guessing. I’m already holding a map: style vectors, rhythmic intentions, instrument roles, and a vibe statement. It’s the digital equivalent of a DJ queuing the next record with the crossfader set. You still need feel; you’re just starting closer to it.

3) Reviewing The Results — How Chrome Blue Groove Came Together

The first tangible result was textual: ChatGPT’s brainstorm, selection, and style paragraph. The second result was musical: Suno’s rendering of those instructions into audio. Between them sits the real work: my choices. I decided early to craft an instrumental rather than a full song with lyrics. That wasn’t an anti–vocal stance; it was a focus choice. I wanted groove to lead, harmony to colour, and arrangement to tell the story. When words arrive later, they will be entering a space already humming with intention.

Note: These excerpts show the working responses used to generate Chrome Blue Groove.

ChatGPT Prompt:

Beat juggling — brainstorm 10 different beat style combinations to beat juggle. Then select the most innovative style linked to jazz fusion. Using this newly selected combo, write a detailed Suno music style description in a paragraph. Suggest a 3–word song title for this song.

ChatGPT Response:

🎚️ 10 Beat Juggle Style Combinations

Boom-bap × Lo-fi swing: Gritty vinyl kicks over shuffled hi-hats and tape-worn snare ghosts.
Trap × Latin percussion: 808 subs blending with congas and timbales for polyrhythmic drive.
Breakbeat × Afrobeat: Chopped UK breaks sliced with Tony Allen–style syncopation.
Jazz swing × Jungle: Upright bass groove cut with high-tempo amen breaks.
Funk × House shuffle: Live funk drum loops re-quantised to 4/4 with syncopated claps.
Soul break × Synthwave: Warm Rhodes layers and 80s gated snares.
Drum-and-bass × Bossa nova: Brushed snares and double-time drums in silky counterpoint.
Neo-soul × Glitch hop: MPC-style beat cuts fused with bit-crushed micro-samples.
Cool jazz × Boom trap: Brushed kits and 808 sub rolls in smoky dialogue.
Fusion jazz × Industrial: Live cymbals and ride grooves over metallic percussion and modulated filters.

🌀 Most Innovative Style — Jazz Fusion × Industrial

This pairing captures both artistry and audacity: the improvisational phrasing of 1970s fusion re-interpreted through the mechanical grit of modern industrial rhythm. Think Herbie Hancock meets Nine Inch Nails at a late-night warehouse jam.

The drums are live-recorded but sliced into asymmetrical loops with syncopated ghost notes that constantly shift the pocket. Bass lines pulse through modular synth oscillations, trading bars with electric piano licks processed through warm analog saturation. Horns stab in call-and-response with distorted guitar textures, while atmospheric pads provide the illusion of smoke and stage lights. The beat juggling blends acoustic swing with robotic precision — organic phrasing dancing against quantised steel.

🎵 Three-Word Song Title

Chrome Blue Groove

I worked in Suno AI (v5, Professional License). In the spirit of knowledge sharing, here are the core parameters I used to shape the feel. Your mileage may vary; these aren’t sacred settings so much as a snapshot of what got the track into the right lane for me.

Suno Prompt

Configuration snapshot for the final instrumental render of Chrome Blue Groove.

Model:: Suno v5 (Pro)
Prompt Style:: Custom
Lyrics Prompt:: Instrumental
Style Prompt:: Jazz Fusion × Industrial — This pairing captures both artistry and audacity: the improvisational phrasing of 1970s fusion reinterpreted through the mechanical grit of modern industrial rhythm. The drums are live-recorded but sliced into asymmetrical loops with syncopated ghost notes that constantly shift the pocket. Bass lines pulse through modular synth oscillations, trading bars with electric piano licks processed through warm analog saturation. Horns stab in call-and-response with distorted guitar textures, while atmospheric pads provide the illusion of smoke and stage lights. The beat juggling blends acoustic swing with robotic precision — organic phrasing dancing against quantised steel.
Advanced Options:: Weirdness 50 % | Style Influence 50 %
Song Title:: Chrome Blue Groove

The first render arrived with a pocket that felt familiar yet fresh: a laid–back drum kit with a lightly swung ride, harmonies voiced like anodised metal, and a bass line that walked and locked. The “chrome” in the title wasn’t shiny—it was brushed, like the sheen on a road sign at dusk. The “blue” wasn’t melancholy—it was cool. The “groove” wasn’t a claim—it was a fact you could tap a desk to. I exported two versions, lived with both, and found myself choosing the take that gave the drums an extra breath between phrases. Space is swing.

I decided to publish the track so others could hear it and, more importantly, study the workflow. I’ve posted Chrome Blue Groove to the Internet Archive for open access and longevity. The Archive is where experiments can be found by someone who needs them three years from now, long after a social feed has scrolled away.

Cover art for Chrome Blue Groove — Listen: *Chrome Blue Groove*

Sharing the how is the point. People aren’t just curious about output; they’re curious about method. What buttons you pushed. What you rejected and why. Which words unlocked better words. If beat juggling began as an open demonstration of technique—a visible craft, on stage, in front of a crowd—then this project is my attempt to honour that spirit in the medium we have now: articles, prompts, settings, and a track anyone can replay.

4) Improving Next Steps — Iterating Like A DJ

My favourite technique isn’t just to use ChatGPT for a single prompt and result—it’s to use it as a creative mirror. After generating an outcome, I turn the process back on itself, asking ChatGPT to analyse the prompt, critique the logic, and explore alternative ways of framing the same challenge. Sometimes this yields refinements; other times, it opens entirely new approaches I hadn’t imagined. This iterative prompting cycle—build, test, review, rethink—has become the foundation of my AI development. Each pass adds a layer of understanding, sharpening both the creative idea and the workflow that supports it. In that sense, the real art isn’t just the output but the conversation that shapes it.

Don't bother writing the prompt yourself. Get ChatGPT to write the prompt.

🎧 Prompt: Beat-Juggle Prompt Review

You are acting as an AI workflow analyst and creative-prompt engineer. Goal: Evaluate and improve the following compound prompt used for AI music generation. The prompt was originally designed to emulate the concept of beat juggling — combining two musical styles to create a new fusion, which was later used in Suno AI to generate the instrumental “Chrome Blue Groove.” Original Prompt: "Beat juggling — brainstorm 10 different beat style combinations to beat juggle. Then select the most innovative style linked to jazz fusion. Using this newly selected combo, write a detailed Suno music style description in a paragraph. Suggest a 3-word song title for this song." Your tasks: 1. **Assess Structure:** Explain how this prompt flows logically. Identify what works well and what may confuse the model. 2. **Evaluate Specificity:** Comment on clarity, creative range, and any bias (e.g., too narrow or too open). 3. **Suggest Improvements:** Rewrite the prompt in 2–3 variants for different goals: - (a) balanced creative depth (music-writer tone), - (b) faster ideation (DJ-style brainstorming), - (c) precision for Suno (production-ready detail). 4. **Recommend Enhancements:** Propose any useful system roles, context notes, or step-sequencing additions that could make future results more consistent or musically coherent. 5. **Explain Reasoning:** For each suggestion, explain briefly *why* it would likely produce stronger, more useful responses. Respond in a structured format using headings and bullet points so I can integrate the findings into Appendix C: Improving Next Steps — Iterating Like a DJ.

ChatGPT Response:

The response was long and detailed so I will only give the highlights here and then dive into further detail on the actionable areas.

Prompt structure or flow was good: Moves from divergence → convergence → elaboration → titling. Built-in selection constraint (“linked to jazz fusion”) provides direction and reduces random picks.
Prompt containt some confusing or underspecified requirements: Most innovative is subjective; the model may not share your novelty criteria. No length limits; responses can bloat or truncate. No format schema, so results may vary between lists, prose, or blended formats. You get the idea.
Prompt contained evaluation bias: The stages are clear, but evaluation criteria and Suno-ready fields are vague. Leans toward fusion + beat-culture aesthetics; less likely to explore other non-Western rhythm systems unless prompted (e.g., tala, clave variations, Gnawa, go-go).
Utilise metadata techniques: In creative AI workflows, metadata transforms loose ideas into structured, repeatable prompts. By tagging elements such as tempo, swing percentage, energy level, or production style, you give the model contextual anchors that increase consistency across generations. Metadata also allows rapid filtering, comparison, and version control — helping producers treat each AI output like a track in a digital crate rather than a one-off experiment. Used properly, metadata becomes both a creative constraint and a discovery tool, turning random inspiration into a reproducible sound design language.
Suggested system roles: “You are a producer and music journalist” → balances colour and precision.; “You are a DJ crate-digger” → rapid variety with usable metadata.; “You are a mix engineer” → specifies gain staging, LUFS, spectral balance.

ChatGPT likes to get into the detail when you give it specific prompting. I find that ChatGPT is like a programmatic Large Language Model—Ultra-High Level programming, so to speak. ChatGPT also returned three suggested prompts depending on what one would like to achieve in the next iteration.

Balanced Depth (music-writer):

You are a music journalist and producer. 1) List 12 beat-juggle pairings (X × Y). For each: (i) micro-tagline ≤12w, (ii) one rhythm hallmark, (iii) one production twist. 2) Select the single most innovative pairing that embodies jazz-fusion (extended harmony, syncopation, odd meters, improv feel). 3) Write a 150–180 word style blurb for the selected pairing. 4) Provide one 3-word title. Use headings and bullets.

Fast Ideation (DJ):

You are a club DJ doing rapid crate-digging. - Output 20 one-line beat-juggle combos (X × Y). - Tag each: BPM band [80/95/110/124/140/160], energy [low/med/high], swing [light/med/heavy]. - Mark three with ⭐ as left-field bangers. - Finish with one 3-word set-closer title. No explanations.

Suno Precision (producer):

You are a producer preparing a Suno prompt for jazz-fusion × [OTHER STYLE]. Output: 1) JSON spec with: bpm range, meter (can include modulations), key center, swing %, humanisation, drums/bass/keys/guitar/horns, textures, FX, arrangement sections with bar counts, mix refs, master LUFS, stems priority, mood tags. 2) ≤120-word style paragraph (concise, production-ready). 3) One 3-word title.

I found the response eye opening. In particular, the Western music style bias was news to me. I also liked the fast ideation that mimics a live DJ set. The fast ideation captured what I was originally trying to achieve.

Conclusion

The best part of this small adventure is simple: excitement survived the pipeline. I started with a magazine note about a 1970s idea, built a modern workflow to honour it, and ended with a track I’m proud to file in a digital crate. The process felt less like asking a machine to write music and more like teaching a studio to keep time with me. That’s what beat juggling always was: negotiation with a moment, extended just long enough for new movement to appear.

The future of creativity isn’t replacing artists with machines; it’s teaching machines how to improvise with us. The groove was never in the machine — it was in the prompt all along.

And yes, I will continue prioritising instrumentals—not as a rule, but as a lab practice. When you’re testing the relationship between text and tone, removing lyrics keeps the variables cleaner. Words are wonderful; they’re also gravitational. They pull attention towards meaning fast. For this line of research, I want the rhythm section to carry the thesis.