Fenix Flexin has admitted that AI was used during the creation of his viral song RUBBERZ, despite previously giving multiple public denials when questioned about the track.
The Shoreline Mafia rapper released the 1980s-inspired synth-pop track on June 5, marking a sharp departure from the West Coast rap sound for which he is best known. RUBBERZ went viral online before reaching the Billboard Hot 100, where it has climbed as high as No. 58.
Speculation that the song was AI-generated began almost immediately, fueled in part by Fenix’s unfamiliar singing voice and British accent. However, the rapper repeatedly rejected the claims and attributed the sound to traditional studio effects and his vocal performance.
When a viewer raised the allegation beneath Fenix’s On The Radar performance in June, he responded: “No sirrrrrrr, recorded same as all music I do!” He added that the only differences were Auto-Tune, reverb and his “fake UK accent,” according to Billboard.
In another interview clip later included in producer Medasin’s investigation, Fenix was asked directly if there was any AI on the song. He replied: “No AI on it,” before also saying he had freestyled RUBBERZ.
Fenix Flexin claims he never denied using AI #
Those denials came under renewed scrutiny on July 30 when electronic producer Medasin published a YouTube breakdown titled The Reckoning of Fenix Flexin & Purps, referring to the song’s credited producer, Purps On The Beat.
Medasin argued that RUBBERZ was generated with Treblo, an AI music platform formerly known as Sonauto. Among the evidence he highlighted was an old video from Fenix in which a previewed track had “Sonauto.mp3” in its file name. Medasin also used Treblo prompts and style tags to generate songs with musical and lyrical similarities to RUBBERZ.
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Fenix responded by posting videos of what he presented as the track’s Pro Tools project files and isolated stems. Medasin disputed the footage, arguing that a stem separator could split an already-generated song into vocals, drums, bass and instruments. Fenix later deleted the post.
Treblo then released its own classifier, which labeled RUBBERZ “very likely Treblo” with high confidence. The company claims the detector has a false-positive rate below one in 10,000, though its accuracy has not been independently reviewed.
Treblo CEO Ryan Tremblay also told The Verge that the released audio appeared to have been “generated almost entirely by our model.”
As first reported by Stereogum, Fenix has now responded to a commenter demanding that he acknowledge the technology’s involvement.
“Never said I didn’t use AI, I said it had nun to do w recording process,” he wrote. Fenix claimed he did not know what the app was until the song was being mixed, then defended the use of new technology as a tool.
His assertion that he never denied using AI conflicts with his earlier “No AI on it” answer and his claim that RUBBERZ was recorded in the same way as all of his other music. Fenix’s latest statement also does not explain how Treblo was used during mixing or address the company’s claim that its model generated almost the entire released track.
For more on AI-generated music reaching major charts, read about the AI country singer that topped a Billboard chart.