It was just a few days ago that we reported that Capitol Records signed a record deal with FN Meka, an AI rapper with 10 million TikTok followers.
However, right after the announcement, skeptical observers said the AI rapper was "digital blackface" that trivialized incarceration and police brutality.
Behold the face of white supremacy.
Capitol Records backpedaled immediately and canceled the contract, then issued the following statement:
"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."
Industry Blackout, an equity-seeking (aka race hustling) non-profit led the charge against FN Meka. They issued the following statement:
This digital effigy is a careless abomination and disrespectful to real people who face real consequences in real life.
Okay, sure, but that last line though:
We demand...all monies spent by Capitol Records and Factory New for this project will be allocated to charitable organization that directly support black youth in the arts, as well as marketing budgets for black artists signed to capitol records. We look forward to your response and compliance.
Anthony Martini, the founder of Factory New, the company that created FN Meka (and who will probably not be giving all his money away to Industry Blackout), shot back at the online attacks by claiming that the fictional FN Meka was, in fact, "a black guy."
..."a Black guy" — and "not this malicious plan of white executives. It's literally no different from managing a human artist, except that it's digital." He added that the team behind FN Meka was "actually one of the most diverse teams you can get — I'm the only white person involved."
There you have it straight from the mouth of the company's top white executive.
FN Meka is just another digitally created, purely imaginary black guy enslaved by the man, who can't catch a break in the record industry because of the color of his pixels.
Where's the equity for the machines? That's what I want to know.
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