(New York) A black robot rapper, FN Meka, star of TikTok created thanks to artificial intelligence, was fired by the record company Capitol Records after being accused of conveying racist stereotypes about black people.
Posted at 8:13 p.m.
It was the group of American activists Industry Blackout which, after a campaign on social networks, wrote to Capitol Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music, on Tuesday to denounce FN Meka, “a direct insult to the black community and to (its ) culture “.
Having “signed” a contract ten days ago, the virtual rapper, creation of artificial intelligence, has not been part of the record company since Wednesday, which “severed its ties with the FN Meka project, with immediate effect “, According to a press release from the group Capitol Music.
“We offer our deepest apologies to the black community for our insensitivity in signing on to this project without questioning ourselves sufficiently about its fairness and creativity,” the record label acknowledged in a statement obtained by AFP.
Industry Blackout had denounced “an amalgam of gross stereotypes, (cultural) appropriations of black artists and insults contained in the lyrics”.
FN Meka is notably accused of having used the famous “N-word” in English, a sensitive word in the United States because of its character deemed racist, insulting and offensive towards black people.
On social networks, 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 policeman.
Technically, the robot rapper doesn’t sing — it’s 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 10 million subscribers and more than a billion views for its videos.