FN Meka is an Artificial Intelligent cyborg built by Anthony Martini and Brandon Le. They are the co-founders of Factory New. FN Meka was built in 2019 as an attempt to revolutionise the music industry by using virtual reality technologies. 

Earlier this month, the robot rapper was signed by Capitol Records for releasing his single Florida Water along with the American Rapper Gunna and online gamer Cody Conrad. However, racial controversies of appropriation and stereotypes soon surfaced around Meka’s physical appearance. Capital Records today released an official statement declaring that they have “severed ties” with the virtual artist. 

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What is FN Meka? 

Factory New’s first major project, FN Meka is one of the most popular virtual influencers with over 10 million followers and 2,23,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram respectively. He occasionally endorses brands on social media even though he is not officially connected with them. 

The virtual musician is renowned for his extravagant lifestyle and hype-beats aesthetics. A caricature of black artists, Meka has green hair-locks and eyes, tattoos adorning his body, nose pins, golden teeth and arms, and wearing a futuristic black puffer jacket.

Meka has released 3 songs including Moonwalking, Internet and Florida Water. The virtual singer is notorious for posting pictures of himself where he is being incarcerated and beaten up by police officers. He is also seen using racist slurs and N-words in his music videos such as Florida Water. 

Controversies regarding his appearance and song lyrics have raised questions about racial stereotypes and appropriation of music forms since none of the builders of the project is black. Many black activists have also called this the “rise of virtual racism”. 

Although an AI rapper, the songs released by Meka are composed by musicians and specialists. The virtual technologies are used to determine the algorithmic function of most popular songs, keyword lyrics and beats to ensure a higher success rate.