How Do You Define An 'AI Song?'

Fenix Flexin’s viral “Rubberz” track may have brought us to a new gray area.

Photo Credit: Channel 5

Fenix Flexin’s “Rubberz” is accruing millions of streams and YouTube views. The song is an intriguing departure from the Shoreline Mafia member’s usual sound. He and the rest of his LA cult hero comrades are known for gritty, flashy songs like “Heat Stick” and “Bands,” spat over ominous synths and bouncy percussion. “Rubberz,” contrarily, sounds like a “[she] said she like Depeche Mode” moment. He meshes bars like “left me standin’ in the pourin’ rain, now I bought a heavy diamond chain” with dreamy, Rick Astley-aspiring lyrics like, “Can’t sleep through the night, still seein’ your face in the glass” over an 80’s synthpop beat crafted by producer Purps On The Beat.

“Rubberz” is cheeky; it’s fun to sing…is it actually him, though? Some believe his British-sounding vocals are a product of AI. Last week, I saw a clip of Fenix telling two men on an LA street that the song wasn’t AI-crafted. They asked him to recite the song to prove doubters wrong. He half-heartedly “sang” some bars from the Morrissey-channeling tune and said Purps merely put autotune and reverb on his vocals. He plans to release an album of similar songs; one of the snippets he played on the YouTube series Channel 5 sounds much more like his regular voice.