Capitol Records fires virtual rapper FN Meka
Accused of conveying racist clichés, black virtual rapper FN Meka fired by his record company
FN Meka, a black robot rapper star of TikTok, created using artificial intelligence, has been fired by Capitol Records after being accused of peddling racist stereotypes about black people.
He had “signed” a contract ten days ago with the Capitol Records label. But the black robot rapper FN Meka, TikTok star created using artificial intelligence, was “fired” on Wednesday August 24 after being accused of conveying racist stereotypes about black people.
According to the press release from its record label, the Capitol Music group has “severed its ties with the FN Meka project, with immediate effect”.
It was the American activist group Industry Blackout which, after a campaign on social networks, wrote to Capitol Music, a subsidiary of Universal Music, on Tuesday to denounce FN Meka, “a direct insult to the black community and to [ his culture “.
Industry Blackout had denounced “an amalgamation of crude stereotypes, [cultural] appropriations of black artists and insults contained in the lyrics”. FN Meka is notably accused of having used the famous “N-word”, an expression that has become unpronounceable in the United States because of the character deemed racist, insulting and offensive towards black people.
Ten million subscribers, over a billion views
“We offer our deepest apologies to the black community for our insensitivity in signing on to this project without questioning ourselves enough about its fairness and creativity,” the record label acknowledged.
On social media, a digital image also shows the robot – a sort of black cyborg with a tattooed face and a half-shaved head – being bludgeoned to the ground by the avatar of a white American police officer.
Technically, the robot rapper does not sing – it is a real anonymous black artist who does – but the music is generated by artificial intelligence. FN Meka, however, maintains its TikTok account with more than ten million subscribers and more than a billion views for its videos.
Rapper Master P mourns the loss of his daughter
Kylie Jenner irritates with dress at the Billboard Music Awards
