{"id":4824,"date":"2026-08-01T18:25:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=4824"},"modified":"2026-08-01T18:25:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:25:42","slug":"fenix-flexin-billboard-hot-100-rubberz-ai-slop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=4824","title":{"rendered":"Is Fenix Flexin\u2019s Billboard Hot 100 hit Rubberz AI slop?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Fenix Flexin is best known as a member of Shoreline Mafia, a rap duo from Los Angeles. But he\u2019s recently found solo success with the track \u201cRubberz<\/a>,\u201d which has climbed to number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100<\/a>. Almost immediately, though, questions were raised about the song\u2019s origins, with many speculating that it was largely, if not entirely<\/a>, generated by AI. Fenix has denied those accusations, but done little to dispel them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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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<\/a> West Coast<\/a> rap<\/a>. \u201cRubberz,\u201d on the other hand, is heavily influenced by \u201880s 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. That alone doesn\u2019t prove anything.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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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. Hi-hats have a certain brittle quality, the chorus vocals sound like a low-bitrate MP3, and reverb tails haphazardly cut off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Speaking with The Verge<\/em>, songwriter and co-host of the Switched on Pop<\/em> podcast, Charlie Harding, highlighted the giveaways. \u201cGhostly 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Feeding the song into an AI music detector doesn\u2019t deliver a smoking gun. I ran the track through five different tools, and they all said that there was between 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some of the supporting materials, however, have tripped up AI detectors. The single\u2019s cover art<\/a> and a post celebrating its success<\/a> were both flagged as being AI-generated with over 97 percent certainty by multiple AI image detectors. Similarly, I fed the lyrics<\/a> into multiple AI writing detectors and Gemini, which agreed they appeared to be written by AI. Producer and YouTuber Curtiss King<\/a> dropped the lyrics into Claude, and it also flagged multiple signs that the lyrics appeared to be AI-generated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Swipin\u2019 cards and stackin\u2019 chips, I saw you sinkin\u2019 ships<\/p>\n

Left me standin\u2019 in the pourin\u2019 rain, now I bought a heavy diamond chain<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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Who is sinking ships? Are we the sinking ships? No clue, this idea never comes back up. Similarly, the individual lines of the chorus might make sense, but when combined are meaningless.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bankrolls on the table<\/p>\n

Watchin\u2019 local cable<\/p>\n

Hatin\u2019 that I\u2019m able<\/p>\n

Hatin\u2019 that I\u2019m able<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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Ignoring the \u201clocal cable\u201d bit, which is just awkward (and nearly sent King into a rage spiral), what is Fenix able to do? Why does he hate it? The lyrics raise more questions than they answer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The way the lines are delivered is also odd. Verse three seemingly ends mid-thought on the line, \u201cNot the jewelry.\u201d Harding noted that it has a \u201ccomplete lack of flow.\u201d He says that, \u201cNo half-competent rapper would ever sing the title line \u2018I just let the rubber band snap\u2019 in such an awkward manner. The syncopation is highly unusual, emphasizing all the wrong syllables.\u201d He goes on to explain that, \u201cby smashing so many syllables together, it forces the word the onto the downbeat, instead of the word rubber, forcing all of the subsequent syllables to accent with unnatural syncopation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Live \u201cperformances\u201d of \u201cRubberz\u201d haven\u2019t done Fenix any favors. The first couple of in-studio appearances featured the rapper awkwardly<\/a> lip-syncing<\/a>. At times it seems like the awkwardness of the flow and the lyrics trip him up, as if he can\u2019t remember his own song. Honestly, he\u2019s not even trying that hard<\/a> to convince anyone that he\u2019s actually singing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Things only get worse when Fenix actually does sing. It\u2019s abundantly<\/a> clear<\/a> in multiple clips<\/a> that he is incapable of recreating the vocal range and accent from the recording (and that he doesn\u2019t know the lyrics). In many of the clips of live performances<\/a>, even when he\u2019s singing, they\u2019re simply playing the original vocals over his. His real vocals are kept extremely low<\/a> in the mix, and the DJ strategically<\/a> drops out the backing track briefly in an effort to prove the authenticity of the song, but fails.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Fenix has defended himself, saying the difference between the recorded version and any in-the-flesh performance is down to vocal processing, including AutoTune. However, multiple people, including Harding, King<\/a>, and Anthony Fantano<\/a>, have disputed this assertion. King compares AutoTune to spellcheck, and that\u2019s not a bad analogy. While yes, it can be pushed to its limits to create unique robotic textures, it\u2019s designed to clean up errors \u2014 it would not extend a performer\u2019s vocal range or introduce an accent, as Fantano points out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Perhaps the most compelling argument for \u201cRubberz\u201d being authentic is just how bad it is. Harding says, \u201cI would assume it was written by someone who has never written a song using an \u201880s kids practice keyboard.\u201d If the song was indeed created using generative AI, it was clearly made with an inferior model. \u201cI am concerned that audiences find this song interesting when it is created by one of the lesser generative AI music companies with a terrible model. More sophisticated models have already made big improvements in the audible artifacts and awkwardly sung rhythms.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Fenix has posted clips<\/a> of what he says are Pro Tools session files. But that doesn\u2019t actually prove anything. Unless he shares the original recording and project files publicly, it\u2019s likely he\u2019ll never shake the AI allegations. And I don\u2019t see that happening anytime soon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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