A virtual rapper named FN Meka powered by artificial intelligence has signed to a major label UPDATE: Dropped by label!
- Thread starter THE 101
- Start date
Cᵣₐₛₕ&ₜₕₑCₒᵤₚ
____ exposing themselves
Truthfully it's easier to be outraged, but can it even be called a caricature when brehs willingly depict themselves like this? That's 69, XXXtentacion, Trippie Redd, Young Thug, Uzi Vert, and a host of other n***as. Definitely digital blackface but at the same time it's like 
the ridiculousness of Hip-Hop music has been that way for a while now. Without the prison guard 
s*** the cac behind him probably would have been allowed to cook.
the ridiculousness of Hip-Hop music has been that way for a while now. Without the prison guard s*** the cac behind him probably would have been allowed to cook.
Aje
All Madden
I'm not going through all these comments, but...
- How TF do you sign a robot?
- Who gets paid?
- Do y'all believe the flabby ole heads now? The game is so wack, that SIRI can get a deal?
- This is HIGH-KEY insulting to the entire culture / art form. They don't think very highly of hip-hop, clearly.
- How long until AI starts beefin' and the "virus" punchlines are thrown around? I bet Canibus is gonna throw his hat in the ring.
- Yo, if this android buying beats, forget everything I said and hmu.
JayStarwind
Superstar
Thank goodness. Get his AISS up out of here!
I wouldn't be surprised if this was a social experiment to track engagement. What if this is the beta for something much larger down the road? AI BTS is next.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was a social experiment to track engagement. What if this is the beta for something much larger down the road? AI BTS is next.
Playaz Eyez
Veteran
Why does he look like he’d sign to YSL?
Capitol Drops ‘Virtual Rapper’ FN Meka After Backlash Over Stereotypes (Published 2022)
The record company apologized to “the Black community” for insensitivity in promoting an AI-backed artist that critics said was “appropriative” and included “slurs infused in lyrics.”www.nytimes.com
Capitol Drops ‘Virtual Rapper’ FN Meka After Backlash Over Stereotypes
The record company apologized to “the Black community” for insensitivity in promoting an AI-backed artist that critics said was “appropriative” and included “slurs infused in lyrics.”
FN Meka, an augmented reality artist, released a debut single, “Florida Water,” via Capitol on Aug. 12. On Tuesday, the label cut ties with the project.Credit...via Capitol Records
By Joe Coscarelli
Aug. 23, 2022, 6:50 p.m. ET
Capitol Music Group, the company that houses major record labels including Capitol and Motown, said on Tuesday that it was severing ties with its latest controversial artist: FN Meka, a virtual “robot rapper” powered partly by artificial intelligence, who boasts more than 10 million followers on TikTok.
The company had previously teased the project — the first augmented reality artist to sign to a major label, it said — as “just a preview of what’s to come.” Yet after growing backlash to what skeptical observers said amounted to digital blackface — including content that seemed to trivialize incarceration and police brutality — Capitol said it had “severed ties with the FN Meka project, effective immediately.”
The company added in a statement: “We offer our deepest apologies to the Black community for our insensitivity in signing this project without asking enough questions about equity and the creative process behind it. 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.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the activist nonprofit known as Industry Blackout, which formed in 2020 to pursue equity in the music business, had called for a public apology, as well as the donation of any funds spent by Capitol on the project to charity and the budgets of Black artists on the label.
“We find fault in the lack of awareness in how offensive this caricature is,” Industry Blackout wrote in an open letter posted to social media. “It is a direct insult to the Black community and our culture. An amalgamation of gross stereotypes, appropriative mannerisms that derive from Black artists, complete with slurs infused in lyrics.”
FN Meka was backed by the company Factory New, which described itself as a “first of its kind, next-generation music company, specializing in virtual beings.” (Also on the roster: the crypto-rapper Lil Bitcoin.) Though voiced by a human, FN Meka and his music — “lyrical content, chords, melody, tempo, sounds” — was derived in part from artificial intelligence, the industry publication Music Business Worldwide reported last year.
“Not to get all philosophical, but what is an ‘artist’ today?” Anthony Martini, a Factory New founder, told the publication at the time. “Think about the biggest stars in the world. How many of them are just vessels for commercial endeavors?”
Ryan Ruden, the executive vice president of experiential marketing and business development at Capitol, plugged the project this month as living “at the intersection of music, technology and gaming culture.”
In an interview on Tuesday, Martini said he anticipated the deal’s cancellation coming this week, citing “blogs that have latched onto a clickbait headline and created this narrative.”
He said that FN Meka was, in fact, primarily an anonymous human rapper — “he’s a Black guy” — and “not this malicious plan of white executives. It’s literally no different from managing a human artist, except that it’s digital.” He added that the team behind FN Meka was “actually one of the most diverse teams you can get — I’m the only white person involved.”
Capitol did not pay an advance to sign the rapper, Martini said. The label confirmed that there was no money to be paid back in the deal.
Martini noted that while there was “some trolling initially” in rolling out the video game-style character — who curses, has face tattoos and sports a half-shaved head of green braids — the use of digital avatars could be freeing for some artists. “The question was: How do we break an avatar as if was a real artist and not a spectacle? It unfortunately turned into a spectacle anyway.”
Responding to an image that made its way around social media, showing FN Meka being beaten by a police officer in prison, Martini added, “Some of the early content, now if you take it out of context, it obviously looks worse or different than it was intended.”
A debut single, “Florida Water,” was released via Capitol, a division of Universal Music Group, on Aug. 12. The track was credited as featuring the professional Fortnite gamer Clix, along with the Atlanta rapper Gunna, who is currently being held without bond in Atlanta, where he is facing a felony racketeering charge.
“This digital effigy is a careless abomination and disrespectful to real people who face real consequences in real life,” Industry Blackout said in its statement, pointing to Gunna’s case.
They read the coli threads and was like 
We running this shyt
We running this shyt
I actually see this as a good thing.
It’s basically a rapper for dumb white kids.
Instead of an actual brother perpetuating the stereotype ruining his life get some stupid ai to do it.
Ain’t no brothers gonna listen to this goofy shyt and in return labels will stop pushing these goofy rappers that fill that stereotype.
I see why this was canceled so quick.
It’s basically a rapper for dumb white kids.
Instead of an actual brother perpetuating the stereotype ruining his life get some stupid ai to do it.
Ain’t no brothers gonna listen to this goofy shyt and in return labels will stop pushing these goofy rappers that fill that stereotype.
I see why this was canceled so quick.
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Nah get the fukk out of here
Whole world is turning into an article from The Onion.
fukk is going on?
Complexion
ʇdᴉɹɔsǝɥʇdᴉlɟ
Norton Anti-Virus was like "Meka, please" and hit delete on his whole algorithm. 
Reign on top was short like leprechauns
Pretty much. I want to shake my fist at this but this is on the rappers and fans that allowed this thing to be created. Whoever created the algorithm to make this didn’t just decide to make it dress and speak that way.Truthfully it's easier to be outraged, but can it even be called a caricature when brehs willingly depict themselves like this? That's 69, XXXtentacion, Trippie Redd, Young Thug, Uzi Vert, and a host of other n***as. Definitely digital blackface but at the same time it's like
This just proves that you cannot create AI to “think” on its own because it’ll end up being racist.
RammerJammer
#RollTide #TSC #RiseUp #BullsNation #RIPKobe
Why did Technology 6ix9ine get a record deal in the first place?
