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DJ DJ Before the Agents
Front cover of the book Before the Agents by Derrick M. Johnson II

Before the Agents

The Companion Soundtrack

38 songs. One journey.

Curated by Derrick M. Johnson II

The music behind a story about grief, reinvention, artificial intelligence, creativity, and becoming more human in an augmented world.

01 / The Soundtrack

This soundtrack is part of the architecture of the book.

Each chapter of Before the Agents ends with two songs chosen to extend the emotional idea of the pages you just read.

They are not meant to explain the chapter.

They are meant to open another room.

The page is the structure.

The music is the atmosphere.

The reader completes the room.

You can listen as you read, return to individual pairs later, or play the entire soundtrack from beginning to end.

The first two songs serve as opening credits. The final two belong to the closing credits.

However you listen, the sequence matters.

02 / Listen Through the Book

Listen Through the Book

Each pair follows the emotional architecture of a chapter. Listen straight through or return to the section you just finished reading.

  1. Opening Credits

    Introduction: Before We Begin

    • I Was HereBeyoncé
    • Beautiful DayU2

    Legacy meets daylight. The book begins with the question of what a life leaves behind, then opens a window before the harder excavation begins.

  2. Chapter One

    The Moment Everything Changed

    • One Sweet DayMariah Carey and Boyz II Men
    • AngelSarah McLachlan

    Grief moves from communal remembrance into private prayer.

  3. Chapter Two

    Prompting Is Leadership

    • Man in the MirrorMichael Jackson
    • TalkKhalid and Disclosure

    Before instruction comes reflection. Before leadership works, language has to get honest.

  4. Chapter Three

    The Personal Board of Directors

    • We Are FamilySister Sledge
    • Family AffairMary J. Blige

    Support is chosen, complicated, loving, loud, and occasionally in need of its own group chat.

  5. Chapter Four

    Building the Context Engine

    • Because You Loved MeCéline Dion
    • Safe and SoundCapital Cities

    First, the human witness. Then, the system trying to preserve some form of safety.

  6. Chapter Five

    The Taste Gap

    • FreeUltra Naté
    • 100% Pure LoveCrystal Waters

    Permission finds its body. The work stops trying to be approved and starts trying to be alive.

  7. Chapter Six

    The Career Strategist

    • SurvivorDestiny's Child
    • Dog Days Are OverFlorence and the Machine

    Rejection gets a beat, then the old life finally loses the chase.

  8. Chapter Seven

    The Creative Director

    • Just DanceLady Gaga
    • Let's DanceDavid Bowie

    Creation moves from instinct to invitation. The room becomes the strategy.

  9. Chapter Eight

    The Compensation Negotiator

    • RespectAretha Franklin
    • Bodak YellowCardi B

    Value gets named out loud, then walks in like it already knows the rate.

  10. Chapter Nine

    The Investment Analyst

    • Money TreesKendrick Lamar and Jay Rock
    • OpportunitiesPet Shop Boys

    Money becomes mirror, then strategy. Desire meets calculation.

  11. Chapter Ten

    The Framework Builder

    • Everybody Wants to Rule the WorldTears for Fears
    • ChangesZHU

    Power gets mapped, then the system starts shifting under your feet.

  12. Chapter Eleven

    Training Taste

    • Express YourselfMadonna
    • ControlJanet Jackson

    The standard gets named, then authorship takes the wheel.

  13. Chapter Twelve

    The Doubter's Advantage

    • Fix YouColdplay
    • no tears left to cryAriana Grande

    The spiral becomes repair, then repair becomes movement.

  14. Chapter Thirteen

    The Iteration Economy

    • Try AgainAaliyah
    • Harder, Better, Faster, StrongerDaft Punk

    Revision becomes rhythm. Improvement becomes a loop, but taste decides what survives.

  15. Chapter Fourteen

    The Things AI Should Never Own

    • HumanRag'n'Bone Man
    • Never EnoughKelly Clarkson

    Capability meets boundary. Even the most optimized life can still leave the soul hungry.

  16. Chapter Fifteen

    The Emotional Side of Augmentation

    • Hold OnWilson Phillips
    • Hold My HandJess Glynne

    Support becomes something you can feel, not just something a system can optimize.

  17. Chapter Sixteen

    The Augmented Human Manifesto

    • UnstoppableSia
    • Don't Stop Me NowQueen

    Force becomes motion. The manifesto stops explaining itself and starts moving like it has somewhere to be.

  18. Closing Exercise

    The Five Soul Questions

    • BraveSara Bareilles
    • Keep Your Head UpAndy Grammer

    The reader turns inward, tells the truth, and returns to life with a little more courage.

  19. Closing Credits

    A Final Word

    • Thank YouDido
    • The Final CountdownEurope

    Gratitude gets the closing credits. Then the book refuses to leave quietly.

03 / The Book

About Before the Agents

What happens when artificial intelligence enters your life not as a technology problem, but as a human one?

Before the Agents follows Derrick M. Johnson II through a period of grief, career disruption, creative reinvention, and experimentation with AI.

What begins as an attempt to find structure in uncertainty becomes something larger: an exploration of how humans can use increasingly capable technology without surrendering the judgment, taste, identity, relationships, creativity, and emotional intelligence that make a life our own.

Part memoir, part field guide, and part argument for a more intentional relationship with artificial intelligence, the book introduces frameworks including the Permission Economy, Personal Board of Directors, Context Engine, Taste Gap, and Augmented Human Principles.

Its central question is not simply what AI can do. It is what humans should become now that it can do so much.

Learn More About the Book

04 / Author + Curator

Derrick M. Johnson II

Author · Experience Strategist · DJ

Derrick M. Johnson II builds experiences at the intersection of creativity, technology, and human connection.

His creative practice as DJ DJ is grounded in sequencing, tension, release, memory, and emotional architecture. Those same instincts shape Before the Agents, where ideas are arranged not only to inform, but to move. The soundtrack gives each chapter an emotional afterlife through music.

Explore DJ DJ

Some ideas are meant to be understood. Others are meant to be felt.

Press play.

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