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Rapper Fenix Flexin Denies Billboard-Charting "Rubberz" Is AI-Generated Despite Mounting Technical Evidence

about 22 hours ago

Image via futurism.com

LA rapper Fenix Flexin is pushing back against widespread allegations that his Billboard Hot 100 single "Rubberz" was generated using AI music tools, not recorded by hand. The song drew immediate scrutiny from listeners and industry figures who noted the vocals sound unlike Fenix's known voice, hit pitches he has never demonstrated live, and sit in a stylistic register — a British-accented 80s synth-pop pastiche — completely foreign to his catalog. Producer Medasin posted a detailed technical breakdown calling out the track, and The Verge identified multiple audio artifacts characteristic of AI-generated music, including brittle hi-hats, abruptly cut reverb tails, and chorus vocals that resemble a low-bitrate MP3.

A particularly pointed detail: a snippet of the unfinished track reportedly appeared with "Sonauto" in the file name — the name of an AI music generation platform that rebranded to Treblo just two days before "Rubberz" dropped. Fenix subsequently posted a Pro Tools project video as proof of human authorship, but critics including Medasin were unconvinced, noting it could have been assembled from stems run through a splitter. Fenix later deleted the video. Producer Timbaland publicly defended Fenix, though his own well-documented advocacy for AI music tools did little to quiet the skepticism.