Capitol Records signs AI-powered virtual rapper, FN Meka

nme.com:

TikTok and more than a billion views on the platform, has inked a deal with Capitol RecordsThe new signing was reported by Music Business Worldwide last week, the same day FN Meka dropped his first single for the label: a song called ‘Florida Water’ that also features (real life) rapper Gunna and gaming streamer Clix.

It was produced by Turbo, whose past credits have included songs with Travis Scott, Young Thug and Lil Baby.On the song, FN delivers verses like, “Tesla, Gucci, Cybertruck / I wreck that shit, don’t give a fuck.” Though the vocals are performed by a real human being, those lyrics have apparently been generated by AI, according to its creators.

Listen below:FN Meka was created by Factory New, a “virtual” record label who were the first to “sign” FN. The company’s co-founder, Anthony Martini, explained the company’s process to MBW last year, saying they had created AI technology that analyses popular songs from specific genres.

Based on that, he said, the technology generates suggestions for the building blocks of new songs such as “lyrical content, chords, melody [and] tempo”.Martini said the company then combined those elements to make a song. “As of now, a human voice performs the vocals, but we are working towards the ability to have a computer come up with and perform its own words – and even collaborate with other computers as ‘co-writers’.” It’s not clear who the human voice performing the vocals on, say, ‘Florida Water’ above, is.Ryan Ruden, Capitol Music Group’s Executive Vice President of Experiential Marketing & Business Development, said FN Meka “meets at the intersection of music, technology and gaming culture”..