There Are No Girls on the Internet - Digital rapper FN Meka and the new era of digital Blackface

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

"AI rapper" FN Meka isn't human - he's a digital creation of a company. But that didn't stop him from getting a record deal! He briefly became the first digital rapper to sign a deal with a major recording company. That is until the entire internet said NOPE. From Lil Miquela to Shudu, let's talk about the complicated history of digital talent.vSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. There Are No Girls on the Internet is a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. You need to be a human to be an influencer? Or how about a rapper? What about a model? It turns out, maybe not. Entirely digital creations are landing brand deals and record deals and modeling contracts.

And it might sound super cool and futuristic, but it's also raising some very real questions. So let's get into what's going on and talk about some of the history behind virtual talent. So last week, Capital Records announced that they signed a record deal with a digital rapper called FN Mecca, who became the first ever digital artist to sign with a major recording label. But the deal also came with accusations of digital blackface, cultural appropriation, and the digital exploitation of blackness. So just 11 short days later, the deal was terminated. And the label said it was cutting ties with the rapper because pretty much everybody's reaction was,

like, wait, no, this is bad. So FN Mecca was designed to look like a very specific type of rap. He rocks bright green braids, half of a shaved head, face tattoos, and a gold grill over his teeth, kind of like the rapper 6-9. He raps about cars and cash and diamonds and expensive watches and other pretty stereotypical trappings of rap music. He also uses the N-word in his raps and has posted content on his social media platforms that just did not sit right with people. Because he's not black. I mean, he's not anything. He's not a human at all.

So just in case it's not clear, FN Mecca is not real. He's an avatar, a digital creation of a media company called Factory New, started by Anthony Martini and Brandon Lee, neither of whom are black. They describe Factory New as a first of its kind next generation music company specializing in virtual beings. So kind of like a talent agency for digital creations and avatars. They've also created a crypto rapper called Lil Bitcoin. which side note, kind of sounds like a project designed in a lab specifically for me to hate it.

But back to FN Mecca, while he may not be real, he does still have a very real, big digital footprint, with 10.3 million followers on TikTok and 222,000 followers on his verified Instagram account. So how did FN come to be? Well, in a 2021 interview with Music Business Weekly, Anthony Martini, the executive at New Factory, explained, saying, not to get all philosophical, but what is an artist today? Think about the biggest stars in the world. How many of them are just vessels for commercial endeavors? So what he's basically arguing is that if we mostly engage with artists via screens,

then they don't really need to exist outside of those screens to be relevant. He also talked about how scouting for fresh new human talent involves a lot of work, scouring the internet for fresh talent, flying out to concerts and meetings, and if you just create a digital avatar, you cut out all of that work. Anthony Martini goes on to explain how their avatar talents are made using thousands of data points compiled from video games

and social media, and that factory new has developed a proprietary AI technology that analyzes certain popular songs and generates recommendations for various elements of song construction, like lyrical content, chords, melodies, tempo, sounds, etc. You get the idea.

FNMECA's debut single called Florida Water features the actual human rapper Gunna and human gaming streamer clicks. But the reaction to FN Mecca has been not good to say the very least. In addition to his use of the N-word in his songs, because the whole idea is to make it seem like FN Mecca has a real life despite not being a real human, they've really fleshed out his universe with images and videos,

including one pretty cringy image of himself being assaulted by a police officer while in prison, posted on his Instagram account with the caption, Police brutality, what should I do? Prison guards keep beating me with the baton because I won't snitch. I ain't no rat. So I have to say, I just do not like this at all. It feels like a media venture that is not run by black people,

capitalizing off of black trauma, black pain, and harmful stereotypes about blackness. In this really shallow and stereotypical way. And it also raises questions about digital blackface. Digital Blackface is a term popularized by Lauren Michelle Jackson, a feminist scholar and writer in the departments of English and African American Studies at Northwestern University and the author of the book on cultural appropriation called White Negroes.

She describes digital blackface as using the relative anonymity of online identity to embody blackness. It can be things like using reaction gifs of black people on social media if you yourself are not black, or in some cases, adopting an entire black online persona, like the owners of the popular vegan cooking website, formerly called Thug Kitchen, who built an entire successful online brand off of adopting a really stereotypical black scent in their recipes before eventually changing the name. And I guess that's kind of what doesn't sit right with me about this AI rapper. If FN isn't a human, why go out of your way to depict him in such highly

racialized ways if you're not trying to capitalize on a perceived proximity to blackness. It just feels really exploitative. Industry Blackout, a collective of black people in the entertainment industry committed to changing the community also didn't love it. You might recall that we've actually talked about industry blackout once before during our episode about Blackout Day back in 2020. Industry Blackout responded to the news of FN being signed to Capital in an open letter writing, while we applaud the innovation in tech that connects listeners to music and enhances the experience, we find fault with the lack of awareness in how offensive this caricature is. It is a direct insult to the black community and our culture, an amalgamation

of gross stereotypes, appropriative mannerisms that derive from black artists, complete with slurs infused in lyrics. This digital effigy is a careless abomination and disrespectful to real people who face real consequences in real life. For example, Gunna, a black artist who is featured on a song with FN Mecca, is currently incarcerated for rapping the same type of lyrics, this robot mimics. The difference is, your artificial rapper will not be subject to federal charges for such. For your company to approve this shows a serious lack of diversity and a resounding amount of tone-death leadership. This is simply unacceptable and will not be tolerated, which prompted capital to respond by cutting ties with FN

and releasing a statement saying, 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 of you who 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 this project. In response to all this, Anthony Martini, the new factory executive behind FNMECA did an interview with the New York Times, and it really just made me feel like he did not get it. Initially, he told the Times that blogs latched on to a clickbait headline and created this narrative. And in response to that cringy photo of FN Mecca being roughed up by police, he said, quote, some of the early content, now, if you take it out of context,

it obviously looks worse or different than it was intended. And even though in that earlier interview that he did with Music Business Weekly, where he was really hyping up that Mecca's lyrics were generated using the company's proprietary AI software, in the interview he did with the New York Times after the controversy, Anthony Martini really walked that back, saying that FN Mecca was, in fact, primarily an anonymous human rapper who was black. It's not this malicious plan of white executives. It's literally no different from managing a human artist,

except it's digital. He added. He also said that the team behind F and Mecca was, quote, actually one of the most diverse teams you can get. I'm the only white person involved. So this explanation was further complicated by the fact that the anonymous black rapper that he was talking about F and Mecca being based on has actually spoken up and said that Martini's company basically just stole his likeness and his voice without credit or compensation. rapper Kyle the hooligan said that New Factory approached him to be the voice of FN Mecca in exchange for equity in the company and then basically ghosted him. Like use my voice, use my sound, use the culture, and literally this left me high and dry.

I didn't get a dime off of nothing and they got record deals, all this stuff. I wasn't involved in no meetings or none of that, he said. So after really defending this project to the New York Times, Martini must have had a change of heart. because just a few days later, he announced that he was also cutting ties with the project, writing, It's become apparent that I should have done more diligence before joining. In the past few days, I've learned of Kyle the Hooligan's experience with Mecca,

which is deeply at odds with my core values. I believe that artists must always be at the center of the creative process and must be fairly compensated. Mecca is not the only digital creation making deals despite not even being human. Let's take a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel

help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your... podcasts. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one

podcaster, IHearts twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only IHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business. Think IHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Call 844-Eyheart to get started. That's 844-4-4-Ehart to get started. That's 844- 844 eye heart. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenopausal chin here you do.

So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with Deanna Maria Riva, where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden, I'd had hanginess happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is? Is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that Ness was going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex? Dating at 45. How can it be? How can it be? Getting naked at 50 with a new guy. That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting. They say we can't

polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter, and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how hard can it be? I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of my Cultura podcast network available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, everyone. I'm Cheryl Stray, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. I'm excited to share that I have a new podcast called Mind Over Mountain. In each episode, I interview athletes, adventurers, and adrenaline seekers to discuss the inner landscapes and life experiences that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. I also bring a bit of advice into the mix so we too can better understand how to face our own

seemingly insurmountable challenges. Do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pull out what you already have inside. We're coming into this world fighting for our lives. All I'm going to do is pull out what you already got inside. We're there to support and celebrate each other. And that's not like your story versus my story. You're going to walk up and over that dang mountain. You're not just going to put your mind over it. Yep. Yep. Exactly. And if I can't walk, up and over it, I'm going to go through it. Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple

Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Brazilian model and singer Little Makila was hired as the arts editor at the ultra-hip dazed magazine. She gets sponsored content deals with some of the biggest brands and fashion

like Prada and has been photographed hanging out with some of the biggest celebrities like Tracy Ellis Ross, Diplo, and Millie Bobby Brown. She's been interviewed by Vogue and Magardian, and was in a Kelvin Klein spread alongside model Bella Hadid. In 2018, Lil Makela was named one of Time Magazine's 25 most influential people on the internet. Only, she's not real. Little Mikaela is a fictional AI rendering of the perfect Instagram It Girl. Brud, the company behind Michaela, is valued at $125 million. Little Mikaela is

considered the world's first virtual influencer. She joined Instagram back in 2016. In 2020, she became the first digital avatar to ever sign with a talent agency when she inked a contract with CAA, becoming the company's first ever virtual client. So, Michaela's really interesting. Her features are designed to be non-white, but they still exist along a pretty conventional Eurocentric beauty standard. Like, it almost seems like her creators were trying to pluck aspects from black, white, and Latino women that are considered traditionally desirable. and through the power of digital rendering, put them all together on one perfect-looking person.

She has edgy street style, a tan complexion, a crevacious butt, an upturned nose, and freckles. And it really reestablishes a well-worn beauty standard that would be difficult for any human woman to embody. But it's easy for her because she isn't real. Little Michaela's whole thing as an influencer is being authentic and relatable. She has dramas and breakups just like humans do. She's also really aligned with social justice and activism.

She's advocated for LGBTQ causes and Black Lives Matter. But in 2019, the humans who control her took it way too far. Michaela released a video where she described being assaulted by a man in a ride share. She said, sure enough, I feel this guy's cold, meaty hand touch my leg as if confirming that I'm real. His hand literally lingers there rubbing my skin. And people really did not like it. It just felt like a profitable media company was both trivializing and capitalizing off of assault, a situation that far too many of us have actually experienced in real life.

Little Michaela isn't real. So her creators dreaming up a sexual assault for her to go through just feels kind of gross. Or take the black fashion model Shudu Graham. She has a deep, dark complexion, and her Instagram posts are always hashtag with things like, hashtag melanin, hashtag Black Girl Magic. Her image was even reposted by Rihanna's Fenty Cosmetics, a makeup line known for its inclusive shades for darker complexions. Shudu's deep, dark skin is so flawless. It seems unreal.

And that's probably because she's not real. Shudu is considered the first digital supermodel, and she was made using a digital 3D modeling program by a white male fashion photographer in London named Cameron James Wilson. In an interview with Bazaar, Wilson said that, basically, Basically, shudu is my creation. She's my art that I'm working on at the moment. She's not a real model, unfortunately, but she represents a lot of real models today. There's a big kind of movement with dark-skinned models,

so she represents them and is inspired by them. Wilson maintains that he did not have any ill intentions in creating shudu, saying, it's meant to be beautiful art which empowers people. It's not trying to take away an opportunity from anyone or replace anyone. She's trying to compliment those people. and he may very well have great intentions. But speaking as a real darkly-skinned black woman, who is a human, it honestly doesn't feel great to have someone who wouldn't know anything about what that experience is like for us to be capitalizing on it.

Wilson points out that the digital creations of black women that he makes are based on real human black women who might have some level of involvement in this project. He's described them as his muses. but being amused does not necessarily mean having a lot of agency or say in how this project shows up in the world. Like neither Shudu or Wilson, as her creator, would have any idea what it's actually like to not be able to find makeup dark enough for your skin tone.

And that's because Wilson is a white man, and Shudu doesn't actually have any skin because she's not a real person. We humans did not just decide to try on our blackness, But the people who make these digital avatars did get to decide to create them in this way without necessarily having to understand with or grapple with or even really engage with all of the culture or baggage or history that comes along with it. And I can absolutely see a world where brands and talent agencies

would much rather work with a digital avatar meant to mimic blackness rather than an actual black human being. Because think about it, that avatar is never going to call them out for saying or doing something insensitive, and we'll never express any agency at all because they're not actually real. It seems really easy to create an ecosystem where digital imitations of blackness become more desirable, not to mention more profitable, than the real human thing. Dr. Francesca Sobande, who researches digital media, really sums it up nicely in a piece for the conversation. She writes, many black CGI influencers and their origin stories represent pervasive.

marketplace demand for impersonations of black people that center to what may be warped ideas about black life, culture, and embodiment. I appreciate the work of black people seeking to change the industry, and I am interested in how the future of black CGI influencers may be shaped by black people who are both creators and muses. And I think that there is just really something weird about the fact that Little Micha, Shudu, and FNMECA get actual deals that involve actual human dollars. Companies and brands get to feel like they're collaborating with black and brown creators when they work with these kinds of digital talents. But really, they're not. They're just giving money to the companies who create them. And it kind of just seems like another opportunity

to marginalize people who are already marginalized in these spaces. Like if brands wanted to work with a queer Brazilian teenager like Lil'a or a darker skin model like Shudu or a rapper who's been to prison like FN Mecca, they could actually book humans with those actual identities or lived experiences. Not a digital rendering of one. So listen, I am fully aware that I probably sound like a bit of a curmudgeon here, but that's not it at all. Actually, I am very excited about this kind of technology

and how it might be used in things like media and music and art. There's an entire future of possibility where things like AI and avatars blow up boundaries around how we think about race, gender, sexuality, ability, and more in really interesting and innovative ways. But when you look at a project like S&MECA, it's so clear that that same technology could just be used to reinforce and double back down on the same harmful, tired stereotypes and tropes

that we already experience in the real world, which is just so sad. With technology, the possibilities are so vast. So it's sad to see it be used to reinforce the same tired, hurtful schicks. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech or just want to say hi? You can reach us at hello at tangoody.com. You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangoody.com.

There are no girls on the internet was created by me, Bridget Todd. It's a production of IHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative. Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, check out the IHartRadio.

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