Friday Roundup (of News & Thoughts & Such) - August 26th, 2022

Thoughts

Skip to 7:08 in “Stairway to Heaven.” The next couplet clearly begins “And if you listen very hard, the truth will…” but how does the line end? It sounds to me like some gibberish. “The truth will ah ee oo ay ah.” Phonetically, the closest I could come up with was “the truth will bother you a lot.” I never really put any stock into it for years. I assumed the lyric was wrong but I didn’t care much. 

One day, I decided to look up the official lyrics, which are apparently “the truth will come to you at last.” I said, “this can’t be right” and proceeded to play that line over and over on a loop for about 15 minutes. Now, Robert Plant may very well not be singing “bother you a lot” but I’m damn sure he’s not singing “come to you at last.” In summation, I listened very hard and the truth did not come to me at last, but it damn sure did bother me a lot.

Hey, let’s do a roundup. 

News

For the first time ever, I’m dedicating the entirety of the Roundup to one story. Mostly because I’m not especially interested in writing about anything else that happened this week. So let’s talk about FN Meka, the most ambitious crossover in human history, as the Friday Roundup meets Why Does This Exist?

If you haven’t been following this story, FN Meka is an “AI rapper” designed by a collective of grifters crypto enthusiasts called Factory New. The gist: there exists an AI that has been programmed to analyze rap lyrics and to generate original songs of its own. These songs are then performed and recorded by what I have seen described in various articles as “an anonymous black man.” 

Because corporations and media are still somehow desperately trying to make fetch happen with the whole crypto/NFT space, the AI rapper was signed by Capitol Records, who boasted having secured the services of the first “augmented reality rapper,” a niche for which the general public has been clambering, calling him/it “just a preview of what’s to come.”

What was to come, however, was immediate backlash from online observers complaining of “digital blackface” in regard to this character, programmed by 2 non-black developers, proceeding to engage in a frankly astonishing amount of stereotypical conduct. Significant criticism also arose from the fact that the project featured collaborations with Gunna, who is presently incarcerated on RICO charges due in large part to lyrics in his songs. In a statement concerning the matter, activist group Industry Blackout said in relevant part, 

“This digital effigy is a careless abomination and disrespectful to real people who face real consequences in real life. For example, Gunna, a Black artist who is featured on a song with FN Meka, is currently incarcerated for rapping the same type of lyrics this robot mimics. The difference is, your artificial rapper will not be subject to federal charges for such.”

Less than 2 weeks after Capitol announced its partnership with Factory New, the relationship was severed, with the label offering its “deepest apologies to the Black community for our insensitivity in signing this project without asking enough questions about equity and the creative process behind it.”

What a silly thing this was.

Such

What’s channel.WAV listening to this week?

Ritter: It has been a long week. Very long. I have read three books just this week, which I am being told is a "light" week. 

Idk what was playing in the background while I read. I think this, which is also one of my favorite songs of all time. 

I don't feel alive.

Slone: Here, have some good Ramones as a palate cleanse from whatever the fuck I was talking about earlier this week.

Botts: Who tf is Olivia? I need me some HAIM

Theatrical Banger: Anything Goes

As Kendrick Lamar said, “DAMN.”

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- Slone

Dane here, hijacking the comment begging. I can't think of much that is funny, but I once heard Aaron do an acoustic cover of "Get Low" by Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz. If you'd like him to recreate that sensuous moment, please comment below.