A few hours ago, Shoreline Mafia rapper Fenix Flexin responded to artist/producer Medasin's detailed breakdown alleging his viral hit "Rubberz" is completely AI-generated.
"Rubberz" was an immediate hit when it dropped at the dawn of summer, and just as immediately, widespread suspicions arose regarding the use of AI in the track's creation. For weeks, Fenix and the song's credited producer Purp On The Beat avoided discussing the issue, then cagily denied AI involvement. Purp On The Beat has argued that artists should use AI like any other tool, and that Auto-Tune is basically AI, but did not admit the song was AI-generated. Meanwhile AI advocate will.i.am (will.ai.am?) called the song "dope" while noting what to him seemed like obvious use of AI.
The chatter over Medasin's post must have reached a boiling point because, with hours, Fenix posted alleged receipts for the Pro Tools creation of "Rubberz" and some unreleased tracks. A carousel of videos showed stems that were meant to prove that the song was put together through classic recording and production techniques. Medasin was not convinced by the video, and Fenix deleted his own post shortly after.
Medasin's initial breakdown of why "Rubberz" is fully AI-generated contended that Fenix and Purp used software called Treblo, which was formerly named Sonauto AI. Apparently, Fenix was the one to expose his own use of the program before the viral hit even came out: He had posted a song snippet that had "Sonauto" in the file name. Curiously, Sonauto AI rebranded to Treblo two days before the release of “Rubberz."
The rest of the video showed Medasin using Treblo to demonstrate how the software regurgitates lyrical phrases and sounds that are specifically similar to "Rubberz." It's weird and upsetting, but also somewhat funny because Medasin used the software to make very bad Eminem tracks.
In his Instagram stories, Medasin said he wanted to be transparent about whole affair. In one story, he explains that Fenix had been "desperately DMing me and now sharing what he thinks is evidence of project files." He continued:
He is using a stem separator. Any producer currently knows how these work. He's taken the Treblo output, used the stem separator that breaks it into four stems —vocals, instruments, bass, drums — underneath that he has layers of his actual vocals where he has layered himself on top of the Treblo song to try to legitimize it and make it look real. I wish he would just fucking drop this shit dude and move on and come clean. I have no choice but to get to cooking on another video breaking this down. It's going to be more embarrassing for him.
In the following story, Medasin expressed that he values honesty and that, if he felt there was any truth to Flexin's responses, he would "publicly apologize and let that be known."
"These are not legit," he continued. "I am 100% certain that that's what he's doing. I don't want to be fucking doing this. I want to get back to my life and making music. But this is too important." Several hours later, Medasin concluded:
Fenix deleted his post showing the "project files" lol Which is great news cause I'm over editing videos on this. It's [a lot] of work.
I am now going back into the lab to cook and explore sound and meaning.
Thanks for tuning in, it's been real, I believe my work here is done and the video speaks for itself.
I'm not about to get dragged into a public back and forth with a pathological liar.
Love u guys and I hope this situation has got you thinking more about fully generated Al music and what exactly that means on an ethical and spiritual level.
If you remove the human journey of exploring creativity and honing in your craft, using your unique combinations of inspirations and things that have touched you emotionally in your life, and replace that life long meaningful journey with a 30 second prompt, that is no longer "art" by definition. It is not an expression of human experience.
And it's generated using the work of millions of artists who dedicated their lives to that meaningful journey and didn't consent to you using their work. And that's OKAY but we need transparency about what is and isn't Al generated. And we WILL have that soon on streaming platforms. It's happening right now. So i would also think twice about using suno or treblo or any Al generated material in your music if you don't want the stigma that comes with your released music being flagged as containing Al generated materials.
I'm going back to my regular scheduled programming for now.
Yall be safe out there
You can check out all the clips about it below.
