Fenix Flexin denies claims his Hot 100 song was AI-made

In short: A Fenix Flexin song on the Billboard Hot 100 is drawing debate over whether it was made with AI, and he says it was not.

What's going on

Fenix Flexin, a rapper known from the Los Angeles duo Shoreline Mafia, has a solo track called “Rubberz” that has climbed to No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100. Soon after it started rising, people online began claiming the song was partly, or even fully, generated by AI.

Fenix Flexin has denied those claims. According to reporting from The Verge, he has not provided much additional evidence to settle the question either way.

Part of the suspicion comes from how different the song sounds compared with his earlier work. “Rubberz” leans into 1980s UK synth pop, and the vocal style is compared to Morrissey, including a noticeable fake British accent. A big style change is not proof of AI use, but it helped spark the debate.

The Verge also points to sound issues that some listeners associate with AI-made music. These include odd, inconsistent background vocals, drums that sound unnaturally processed, and echoes and reverbs that cut off abruptly. One music writer described parts of the track as sounding like a very low-quality MP3 (like a blurry photo, but for audio), which can happen when AI models are trained on poor copies of songs.

What to watch

This dispute shows a growing problem: it can be hard for regular listeners to tell whether a song was made by people, by software, or by a mix of both. Expect more pressure on charts, labels, and streaming services to ask for clearer proof of how a track was created.

Source: The Verge AI