He had accomplished a feat in music history, but it only lasted a few days. Created in 2019 by the Factory News label, the rapper and virtual influencer FN Meka offered himself, on August 15, the dream of any artist in sign a contract with the Capitol record label (a sub-label of Universal Music).
FN Meka thus became the first virtual artist to join a specialty. But on Wednesday, Capitol Music Group announced breaking ties with the 10 million-subscriber TikTok rapper. The reason: His music conveyed racist stereotypes and included repeated use of the “N-word.”
“Insult to the black community”
It was the Industry Blackout association that was the first to come forward regarding FN Meka’s comments. In a press release, posted on Twitter, he points out in particular the clichés of black people spread through the rapper’s various content.
“While we salute innovation in technology, we find this cartoon offensive. It is a direct insult to the Black community and our culture: an amalgamation of crude and appropriative stereotypes stemming from Black artists, with insults in the lyrics,” said. the association wrote in its press release.
On Instagram, the virtual artist, for example, had posted a photo of himself being beaten by a police officer in prison.
Within hours of the controversy, Capitol was quick to terminate its contract with FN Meka and apologized to the black community.
“CMG has terminated the contract with FN Meka, effective immediately. We sincerely apologize to the Black community for our insensitivity in hiring this artist without asking enough questions about fairness and the creative process. We appreciate those who have provided constructive feedback in the past. last two days,” the record label replied.
Music created with artificial intelligence
To compose the music of FN Meka, its creators Anthony Martini and Brandon Le of the Factory News label, use artificial intelligence (AI) and the collection of thousands of musical data.
As explained in April 2021 by Anthony Martini to the media Music business around the worldFN Meka’s AI “analyzes certain popular songs of a given genre and generates recommendations for the various elements of a song’s construction: lyrical content, chords, melody, tempo, sounds, etc.”
Only the virtual rapper’s voice is dubbed by a real human as directed by the AI. Thanks to this technology, FN Meka quickly gained popularity and even offered, on August 12, a single flowery water with rapper Gunna and Fortnite video game champion Clix.
Since the controversy, the title has been removed from streaming platforms, as well as from almost the entire FN Meka catalog.
Source: BFM TV
