I’m not sure if you saw the news a couple of weeks ago that Capitol Records had become the first record label to sign an AI rapper after teaming up with a robot named FN Meka, but it seems that their partnership was short lived after the record label today announced that they were severing all ties.
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OK first off with this one, I suppose you have to look at why Capitol Records signed this ‘guy’ and just what they thought they were getting. FN Meka has over ten millions followers on TikTok, so you can kinda see why this was an attractive proposition to the label. Followers = bank.
However, the fact that the ‘black’ rapper was created by a white skinned team and talked about stereotypical black issues like police brutality and regularly used the N word in his songs seemed a bit problematic and the label was immediately called out about it by various sources. This statement from Industry Blackout is the best explanation that I’ve seen:
Have you lost your FN minds? @capitolrecords @capitolmusic pic.twitter.com/TxbqDhJmv0
— Industry Blackout #IndustryBlackout (@industryblkout) August 23, 2022
I think that kinda makes a lot of sense and so did Capitol Records. They were quick to issue the following clarification on their relations with FN Meka:
CMG has severed ties with the FN Meka project, effective immediately.
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.
Good. I think that even without the racist connotations of FN Meka though, the fact that Capitol Records would rather sign an AI rapper to a record deal rather than a real person is a major problem with the music industry right now. Surely that’s limiting opportunities for everyone except robots? Or the teams behind robots?
However, you can’t really blame Capitol Records here because FN Meka is massively popular on TikTok and clearly has a fanbase so why wouldn’t they sign a guaranteed winner rather than some down and out loser with a guitar or a bedroom studio. It sadly makes sense but that doesn’t mean it completely sucks. Just another day on this hellhole of a planet hey?
For more of the same, check out when an AI created a new Nirvana song. Sign that up as well!
