Capitol Music Group (CMG) faces a backlash for being racist after signing FN Meka, an artificial intelligence musician who was given the appearance of a black male cyborg. CMG apologized to the black community for their insensitivity, announcing they had severed ties with the singer.
FN Meka has more than 1 billion views on its TikTok account and more than 500,000 monthly Spotify subscribers. Its Instagram account has more than 220,000 followers and has now been made private.
According to Anthony Martini, one of the co-founders of Factory New – a company responsible for artificial intelligence – songs of FN Meka are performed by an anonymous black man.
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In an interview in 2021, Martini said that a human voice does the vocals, but they are working towards enabling the computer to develop and perform its own words and even collaborate with other computers as co-writers.
Black activist group Industry Blackout sent CMG an open letter saying FN Meka was offensive and directly insulted the Black community and their culture. They said it was an amalgamation of gross stereotypes and appropriative mannerisms that derive from Black artists, complete with slurs infused in lyrics. After that, CMG dropped the rapper.
They pointed out that FN Meka released a song with the rapper Gunna, who is now awaiting trial on criminal charges in the US, with lyrics and social media posts used as evidence of racism. He is currently imprisoned for rapping the same type of lyrics this robot mimics. The difference is that the artificial rapper will not be subject to federal charges for the same.
