Capitol Music Group in the US has dropped AI rapper FN Meka just days after announcing the signing.
The deal announced earlier this month with AI-based firm Factory New marked the company’s first big signing of a virtual artist.
But the announcement prompted a backlash over the project, including an open letter from Industry Blackout. The group of Black industry professionals slammed FN Meka as being a “direct insult to the Black community and our culture”.
The letter went on to identify an “amalgamation of gross stereotypes [and] appropriative mannerisms that derive from Black artists, complete with slurs infused in lyrics.”
Capitol moved swiftly to drop the virtual rapper and remove the track Florida Water from DSPs. The artist page has now been removed from the Capitol website.
“CMG has severed ties with the FN Meka project, effective immediately,” said a 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.”
