{"id":57760,"date":"2022-08-27T06:07:33","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T06:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/fn-meka-the-problem-with-augmented-reality-artists\/"},"modified":"2022-08-27T06:07:33","modified_gmt":"2022-08-27T06:07:33","slug":"fn-meka-the-problem-with-augmented-reality-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/fn-meka-the-problem-with-augmented-reality-artists\/","title":{"rendered":"FN Meka: The Problem With Augmented Reality Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"
On Aug. 22, Capitol Records announced its newest signee, FN Meka\u2014the world’s first augmented reality (AR) rapper. Two days later, the label \u201csevered ties\u201d with the rapper, citing relentless online criticism. \u201cFor our company to approve this shows a serious lack of diversity and resounding amount of tone deaf leadership. This is simply unacceptable and will not be tolerated,\u201d Capitol Records wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n
FN Meka is the first AR rapper to get signed and subsequently dropped from a major label, but this is just the latest venture in the music industry’s string of actions to move into artificial intelligence. FN Meka (and the probable emergence of more characters like him) exacerbates concern about where the music industry is headed, highlighting larger issues of tone deafness, lack of creativity, and the industry’s toxic capitalistic infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The lean into AI was, at first, the result of necessity. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, musicians and tech companies partnered to conduct virtual reality concerts in order to counter the loss of live shows. In 2017, CGI influencer and singer Miquela Sousa emerged as one of the industry’s first AR artists. Since her inception, she has released a string of singles with moderate success and even dropped a collaboration with Teyana Taylor in 2020. The use of AR across all avenues within the music industry has always raised eyebrows and garnered largely unfavorable feedback. FN Meka’s poor design has only brought new eyes to and heightened an anxiety about AR technology that has been bubbling for quite some time now. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Gunna, a Black artist\u2026 is currently incarcerated for rapping the same type of lyrics this robot mimics.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n FN Meka was created by Brandon Le and Anthony Martini of virtual record label Factory New. Since the character emerged in April 2019, he was marketed as a hypebeast cyborg with an extravagant style and internet presence. He looks like a caricature of an internet rapper\u2014a match up of Tekashi 6ix9ine and Lil Pump: tan skin, a green braided mohawk, gaudy jewelry, and a tattoo-covered face. Despite lacking originality, FN Meka garnered a hefty following of his own. To date, the rapper has more than 10 million followers on TikTok and over 200,000 on Instagram, and more than 600,000 listeners on Spotify. He’s already released a handful of songs, too\u2014including \u201cSpeed \u200b\u200bDemon\u201d and \u201cInternet,\u201d which sound like carbon copies of popular songs released by real artists. <\/p>\n