“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.” – Capitol Records
This has been quite an interesting week in the world of Hip-Hop news, and it just got even more interesting with the first virtual rapper FN Meka making headlines. Powered by artificial intelligence, the rapper has been causing a stir online after landing a recent deal with well known record label Capitol Records. According to a story published by XXL, the “robot rapper” FN Meka signed a deal with Capitol Records and dropped his first single, “Florida Water,” featuring Gunna and gaming streamer Clix. The rapper has accumulated a following of about 10 million+ on TikTok after gaining the title of “the world’s first A.R. artist to sign with a major label.”
A tweet that RemixdMag published, captioned “AI RAPPERS UP NEXT” sparked a discussion amongst the music community and brought attention to many problems with FN Meka. Many deemed the virtual rapper controversial after the “rapper’s” use of the N-word on his previous tracks including his 2019 track “Moonwalkin.” He also appeared to mock police brutality on his now-private Instagram page.
The character was launched in 2019 by Anthony Martini and Brandon Le of virtual record label Factory New. Creator, Anthony Martini created a musical vision for what’s to come in the future, “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.” The detailed vision did not pan out as expected when one of FN Meka songs resurfaced on the internet with the use of the N-word after his signing to the label.
After the announcement of a record deal on August 14, fans were outraged by Meka’s use of racial slurs within resurfaced music.
Just days after the announcement of Capitol Records signing FN Meka, activist group Industry Blackout released a statement calling for the label to cut ties with FN Meka and called for a formal apology. New York Times music reporter Joe Coscarelli broke the news via Twitter.
In response, Capitol Records released a statement letting the world know that they will no longer be working with virtual rapper FN Meka.
“CMG has severed ties with the FN Meka project, effective immediately,
“We offer our deepest condolences to the Black community for our insensitivity in signing this project without asking enough questions about the 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.”
“We feel it it is a great victory that Capitol Records terminated their contract with FN Meka however, the fact this happened to begin with shows how much work is still ahead of us,” the statement starts. “We’re glad the people amplified our voices to be heard so quickly on a Black issue, and that our action led to results. This should set a precedent that shows how Black and Brown voices can unify behind issues and get things done.”
