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Ariana Baio
Aug 24, 2022
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Capitol Records 'severed ties' with its first artificial intelligence rapper after people accused the AI robot of being an offensive caricature of the Black community.
Earlier this month, Capitol Records signed the AI rapper FN Meka to it's label and released its first single Florida Water with rapper Gunna and e-sports gammer Clix.
Despite FN Meka having a large following on TikTok, people did not find the music or portrayal entertaining as the AI rapper was called out for being "an amalgamation of gross stereotypes, appropriative mannerisms that derive from Black artists, complete with sluts infused in lyrics."
Industry Blackout, an organization that focuses on equity in the music business, called for Capitol Music Group to issue a public apology as well as donate any funds from FN Meka to charity.
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By Wednesday, FN Meka had been dropped from the label, Florida Water was removed from streaming platforms, and Capitol Music Records apologized.
"CMG has severed ties with the FN Meka project, effective immediately. We offer our deepest apologies to the Black community for the insensitivity in signing this project without asking enough questions about equity and the creative process behind it," Capitol Music Group wrote in a statement.
"We thank those who have reached out to us with constructive feedback in the past couple of days- your input was invaluable as we came to the decision to end our association with the project."
\u201cbreaking: Capitol Records \u201chas severed ties\u201d with the A.I. rapper FN Meka, \u201ceffective immediately,\u201d following days of backlash over the caricature\n\nthe activist group @industryblkout called for a formal public apology about two hours ago https://t.co/arkL2OkTjv\u201d— Joe Coscarelli (@Joe Coscarelli) 1661289064
FN Meka was backed by the company Factory New which claims it is the “first of its kind, next-generation music company, specializing in virtual beings”.
What makes AI artists different is they are able to deliver results without running into problems that real humans face.
“Not to get all philosophical, but what is an ‘artist’ today?" Anthony Martini co-founder of Factory New told Music Business Worldwidelast year. "Think about the biggest stars in the world. How many of them are just vessels for commercial endeavors?”
The AI robot rapper is voiced by a real human but its music is created in part by artificial intelligence.
That did not excuse how many found FN Meka and its music to be problematic.
\u201cFN Meka just represents the complete bastardaization, colonization, and whitewashing of hip-hop and total control of Black Music altogether. In no universe should this offensive bullshit be given credence, but money talks and bullshit walks.\u201d— \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddecTemisan Adoki\ud83c\uddfb\ud83c\uddee (@\ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddecTemisan Adoki\ud83c\uddfb\ud83c\uddee) 1661285040
\u201cI was strolling through FN Meka Tik Tok reading comments & pretty much all the support was coming from non black people. Meka responding to comments using AAVE & saying shit like \u201cin the stu wit yo favorite rapper\u201d the fact they dnt see it as wrong is astonishing. the caudacity.\u201d— Tori Nicks 2.0 \ud83d\udef0 (@Tori Nicks 2.0 \ud83d\udef0) 1661295251
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