Virtual rapper FN Meka hasn’t even been signed for a month and already has old skeletons falling out the closet. The AI-controlled rapper is under fire for mocking police brutality and incarceration in an old Instagram post that’s currently making it’s rounds on social media. In the controversial post, FN is being held on the ground and beat by a police officer with the caption, “POLICE BRUTALITY?? What Should I Do ?!?! This Guard keeps beating me w/ his BATON because I wont snitch. I aint no RAT. Life in Prison is so Depressing…. I wish I could get out so I could start making music again.”
Meka’s post disappointed his loyal fans, who recently celebrated the artificial star making history as the first virtual artist to be signed to a major label after he inked a deal with Capitol Records earlier this month. Meka has also seen great success thanks to TikTok where he’s amassed over 10 million followers and a hit single with Gunna entitled, “Florida Water.”
Anthony Martini, one of the creators of FN Meka, spoke to Business Insider about creating Meka, saying, “Technically speaking, FN Meka is voiced by a human, but everything else about him, from his lyrics to the chords and tempo underpinning his music, is based on AI. A human voice performs the vocals, but we are working towards the ability to have a computer come up with and perform its own words – and even collaborate with other computers as ‘co-writers.'”
Martini even compared his contrived creation with current artists, adding, “You could look at a guy like Marshmello – he’s not real for all intents and purposes either. He could be a digital being too and it wouldn’t make a difference to the fans of the music. We’re trying to blur those lines even more and trying to bring everyone to the future.”
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