Did an AI Music App Simply Snitch on the Track of the Summer season?

There isn’t any such factor as a common “music of the summer time” anymore, however should you’re into rap music, Fenix Flexin’s “Rubberz” is a reasonably sturdy contender.

Formally launched in June, it at the moment sits at No. 58 within the Billboard Scorching 100 and has a music video with 7 million views. Lyrically, it’s received every part you’d need: boasts about money and jewellery, and bars that work as a double entendre for braggadocio and melancholy.

However there are two attention-grabbing twists to “Rubberz.” First, it isn’t a rap music in any respect; it’s a synth-pop tune that might be at house in a moody ’80s playlist. Additionally, because it dropped, it’s been the main focus of accusations that it was utterly or partially AI-generated.

The argument reached a peak this weekend after an unbiased music producer claimed he’d found out not solely how Fenix had made “Rubberz” however that the rapper’s labelmate, Tyga, additionally appears to have used a little-known generative AI music app to create some ’80s-themed tunes of his personal.

And now, the creators of that very same AI music app have successfully snitched on each: The service’s new built-in detector is now flagging the songs made by each Fenix and Tyga as seemingly AI-generated.

This may increasingly lastly settle the argument followers have been having all summer time. It received’t settle the one they’re about to start out.

Tune Up

Folks have been suspicious of Fenix from the start; “Rubberz” shouldn’t be solely an uncommon style shift for the artist, it additionally doesn’t sound like his voice within the music.

Fenix Flexin grew up in East Hollywood, and he sounds prefer it, and when he debuted as a part of the group Shoreline Mafia within the late 2010s, you may at all times acknowledge which bars have been his due to his considerably nasally, congested voice. The voice on his June 5 launch of “Rubberz,” nevertheless, is totally unrecognizable. It’s so much brighter and crisper, and the accent sounds nearer to a really chipper Morrissey.

Each he and the credited producer, Purps on the Beat, have denied utilizing AI at each flip. Fenix advised Channel 5 that he “freestyled” the lyrics, and within the feedback of an On the Radar efficiency, he replied to individuals accusing him of utilizing AI: “No sirrrrrrr, recorded similar as all music I do! Solely distinction is auto-tune reverb and me utilizing my pretend uk accent lol.”

Not everybody purchased his rationalization, however there was no proof in any other case. Because the summer time continued, music media debated whether or not “Rubberz” had been AI-generated. However not one of the well-known AI music detectors flagged it, Fenix denied it, and the music continued to rack up performs. Followers had no selection however to get comfy with the query being unresolved.

Then, issues shifted immediately. On Thursday, a music producer named Medasin posted a video claiming he’d found out how Fenix used AI to make the observe.

It wasn’t Suno, or Udio, the 2 most distinguished generative AI instruments for making music. As an alternative, Medasin says, Flexin had used a lesser-known app referred to as Treblo. Medasin breaks down his accusation methodically: First, he factors out that the app was referred to as Sonauto till two days earlier than “Rubberz” was launched. After which he exhibits a display screen cap of certainly one of Fenix’s previous Instagram Tales teasing his new ’80s sound. A freeze-frame and zoom reveals {that a} filename being proven on display screen has the suffix “Sonauto.mp3.”

However probably the most compelling accusation comes when Medasin exhibits how he was ready to make use of Treblo to create a really related observe. By utilizing tags like “80s synthwave” and prompting the app to jot down lyrics a few “rapper life-style,” Medasin received a similar-sounding music. The lyrics even bear greater than a passing resemblance to “Rubberz.”