Is this Billboard Hot 100 hit AI slop?
Fenix Flexin's track "Rubberz" has climbed the Billboard Hot 100 chart amid widespread speculation and questions over whether it was generated by artificial intelligence.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Fenix Flexin's track "Rubberz" has climbed to number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart
- Experts point out audio flaws such as brittle hi-hats and abruptly cut-off reverb
- The single's cover art and lyrics were flagged by AI detectors as likely AI-generated
Fenix Flexin is best known as a member of Shoreline Mafia, a rap duo from Los Angeles. But he has recently found solo success with the track "Rubberz," which has climbed to number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100. Almost immediately, though, questions were raised about the song's origins, with many speculating that it was largely, if not entirely, generated by AI. Fenix has denied those accusations, but done little to dispel them.
Part of the suspicion is certainly due to the fact that the song is a dramatic left turn. Fenix has primarily trafficked in trap-influenced West Coast rap. "Rubberz," on the other hand, is heavily influenced by '80s UK synth pop. The vocal melody is clearly influenced by Morrissey, with Fenix even adopting a fake British accent. But artists are allowed to evolve and experiment, and that alone doesn't prove anything.
Perhaps more telling is the simple quality of the recording. Close inspection reveals a number of artifacts and anomalies that are commonly found in AI-generated music, such as hi-hats having a certain brittle quality, chorus vocals sounding like a low-bitrate MP3, and reverb tails haphazardly cutting off.
The integration of generative AI into mainstream music charts highlights a growing challenge for the industry. Because many models are trained on low-quality compressed audio, distinct digital artifacts emerge that trained ears and software can detect, signaling a potential shift in how modern hits are produced.
Speaking with The Verge, songwriter and co-host of the Switched on Pop podcast, Charlie Harding, highlighted the giveaways. "Ghostly backing vocals duck in and out unexpectedly. The drum reverb is full of unnatural digital artifacting reminiscent of a 64kbps MP3 downloaded off of Napster. Because most generative AI companies have trained their model on low-quality MP3s of unlicensed copyrighted material, we hear audibly degraded instrumentation."
"Ghostly backing vocals duck in and out unexpectedly. The drum reverb is full of unnatural digital artifacting reminiscent of a 64kbps MP3 downloaded off of Napster."
Feeding the song into an AI music detector doesn't deliver a smoking gun. Terrence O'Brien ran the track through five different tools, and they all said that there was between a 20 and 30 percent chance that it was AI or at least AI-assisted. But those sorts of tools are not necessarily super reliable and advance much more slowly than music-making models themselves.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Some of the supporting materials, however, have tripped up AI detectors. The single's cover art and a post celebrating its success were both flagged as being AI-generated with over 97 percent certainty by multiple AI image detectors. Similarly, feeding the lyrics into multiple AI writing detectors and Gemini yielded agreements that they appeared to be written by AI. Producer and YouTuber Curtiss King dropped the lyrics into Claude, and it also flagged multiple signs that the lyrics appeared to be AI-generated.
The lyrics are the sort of logical near-gibberish that AI often spits out. The rhymes are simple and clean in a way that you wouldn't expect from someone who is a reasonably accomplished rapper. There are no near rhymes or internal rhymes. Instead, everything sticks to a basic AA, BB format that clearly prioritizes the rhyme scheme over actual meaning or narrative development.
Source: The Verge
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