Controversial virtual rapper – FN Meka – How robotic rapper blew his tally – Kultur

Top TikTok star

At that point, FN Meka was already a mid-size star on TikTok. There, 10 million people watch how the rapper shows his fortune: in his videos, he delivers champagne by tanker, has a Lamborghini toaster and plays with Dior Playstation. His channel was a hilarious parody of influencers and pop stars. However, almost all videos have now been removed from TikTok.

FN Meka songs are a popular trap by dozens. What sets them apart is that they are jointly made by man and machine. The texts and music are based on artificial intelligence. The human producers did the finishing touches. FN Meka’s voice is provided by human.

Pop music from PC

Now, record label FN Meka is back on track after just a few weeks. Because there was criticism of the character, among other things, because the lyrics of racist insults appeared in their songs.

Neither humans nor computers were able to prevent a major error from happening. They had big plans for FN Meka: in the future, all their songs were supposed to be composed and played by computers.

Millions of viewers in Metaverse

Computer generated music was the only secondary goal behind the character. First and foremost, it’s about building a bridge between music and games. Because popular games like “Fortnite” are increasingly becoming so-called metaverses – virtual worlds in which users no longer just play, but shop, communicate, watch movies and listen to music.

In these exceptions, musicians find an audience that they will have a hard time reaching: “You reach a very young audience — that’s 15 to 25 years old,” says Florian Muller. With his company “Software Brauerei” he regularly organizes concerts in the Metaverse “Decentraland”.

Dominic Benz, co-founder of the company adds: “It’s a marketing tool for big artists. We’re mainly talking about games like ‘Minecraft’ or ‘Fortnite’.” Virtual concerts are also interesting for younger artists because they can reach a global audience.

Muller explains that posters can also sell things directly in the Metaverse: “After the concert, for example, there’s a digital T-shirt you can wear in the real world. Or there’s a token you can use to buy an album at a discount.”

The perfect pop star?

The fact that FN Meka exists only digitally brings advantages on the way into the game world, says Benz: “Because the character itself is digital, it offers a lot of possibilities. It’s much easier to iterate or you can play simultaneous performances.”

History of virtual pop stars

1/5

Caption:

Alvin and the Chipmunks

A band of three animated squirrels had a string of hit songs in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Cute little animals with squeaky voices are still a hit in film and television.

IMAGO Group / Everett

2/5

Caption:

Puppetmastaz

Berlin hip-hop group Puppetmastaz was founded in 1995. It consists of a whole flock of animal hand puppets. Even in live performances, the audience sees only hand puppets.

imago / brijani art

3/5

Caption:

gorillas

At first, the true creators of the Gorillaz animated troupe remained hidden. At concerts, people played behind a curtain. The audience could only see cartoon characters. It has long been known that musician Damon Albarn is the one behind the project, still a hit with Gorillaz nearly 25 years later.

IMAGO Group / Everett

4/5

Caption:

Hatsune Miku

Japanese pop manga star Hatsune Miku has been a hit since 2007. Their music comes from different artists and consistently tops the charts in Japan. The figure also goes round as a hologram.

Press IMAGO / ZUMA

5/5

Caption:

k / da

The Korean girl group “K/DA” is developed by a game maker. She has appeared in the “League of Legends” game since 2018 and has many hit songs all over the world.

Riot Games

Benz suspects that virtual pop stars will soon become a mass phenomenon: “There will be more of them and they will likely be incorporated into games. But purely virtual characters probably won’t become a mass phenomenon.”

An attempt to create an entirely digital pop star at FN Meka failed. But there will definitely be more characters who will keep trying.