Fenix Flexin and the AI Enigma: The Mystery Behind 'Rubberz'

Fenix Flexin and the AI Enigma: The Mystery Behind "Rubberz"

Fenix Flexin is primarily known as a member of Shoreline Mafia, a rap duo based in Los Angeles. However, he has recently found solo success with the track "Rubberz," which reached 58th place on the Billboard Hot 100. Quickly, questions emerged regarding the origins of the song, with many speculating that it was largely, if not entirely, generated by AI. Fenix has denied these accusations but has done little to dispel them.

Part of the suspicion certainly stems from the fact that the song represents a radical shift. Fenix has primarily operated within West Coast trap-influenced rap. In contrast, "Rubberz" is heavily inspired by 1980s British synth-pop. The vocal melody clearly shows an influence from Morrissey, with Fenix even adopting a faux British accent. However, artists have the right to evolve and experiment. This alone proves nothing.

Perhaps more revealing is the quality of the recording. A close examination reveals several artifacts and anomalies often found in music generated by AI. The hi-hats have a certain brittle quality, the chorus vocals sound like a low-quality MP3, and the reverb tails cut off randomly.

In a discussion with The Verge, composer and co-host of the podcast Switched on Pop, Charlie Harding, pointed out the clues.

• "Ghostly background vocals appear and disappear unexpectedly."
• "The reverb on the percussion is full of unnatural digital artifacts, reminiscent of a 64 kbps MP3 downloaded from Napster."
• "Most generative AI companies have trained their models on low-quality MP3s of unlicensed copyrighted material, resulting in audibly degraded instrumentation."

Testing the song with an AI music detector does not provide conclusive evidence. I ran the track through five different tools, and all indicated there was between 20 and 30% chance it was generated by AI or at least assisted by it. However, these tools are not necessarily very reliable and lag far behind the music creation models themselves.

However, some supporting materials have confused the AI detectors. The single cover and a post celebrating its success were both flagged as being generated by AI with over 97% certainty by several AI image detectors. Similarly, I submitted the lyrics to several AI writing detectors and Gemini, which agreed that they seemed to be written by AI. Producer and YouTuber Curtiss King also submitted the lyrics to Claude, which reported several signs indicating that the lyrics appeared to be generated by AI.

The lyrics are the kind of logical gibberish that AI often produces. The rhymes are simple and neat in a way that one wouldn’t expect from a reasonably accomplished rapper. There are no near rhymes or internal rhymes. Instead, everything follows a basic AA, BB format that clearly prioritizes the rhyme scheme at the expense of meaning or narrative development.

• "Swipin’ cards and stackin’ chips, I saw you sinkin’ ships"
• "Left me standin’ in the pourin’ rain, now I bought a heavy diamond chain"

Who sinks ships? Are we the sinking ships? No idea, that idea never comes back. Similarly, the individual lines of the chorus may make sense, but when combined, they become nonsensical.

• "Bankrolls on the table"
• "Watchin’ local cable"
• "Hatin’ that I’m able"
• "Hatin’ that I’m able"

Ignoring the line about "local cable," which is just awkward (and nearly sent King into a spiral of rage), what can Fenix do? Why does he hate it? The lyrics raise more questions than they provide answers.

The way the lines are delivered is also strange. The third verse seems to end mid-thought with the line, "Not the jewelry." Harding noted that there is a "total absence of flow." He says that "no half-competent rapper would ever awkwardly sing the title line 'I just let the rubber band snap.' The syncopation is very unusual, emphasizing all the wrong syllables." He explains that "by cramming so many syllables together, it forces the word 'the' onto the strong beat, instead of the word 'rubber,' forcing all the following syllables to accent with an unnatural syncopation."

The live "performances" of "Rubberz" have not helped Fenix. Early studio appearances showed the rapper awkwardly lip-syncing. At times, it seems that the awkwardness of the flow and lyrics disrupts him, as if he can’t remember his own song. Honestly, he doesn’t even really make an effort to convince anyone that he is actually singing.

Things don’t improve when Fenix actually sings. He is clearly unable to reproduce the vocal range and accent of the recording (and he doesn’t know the lyrics). In many live performance clips, even when he sings, the original vocals are simply layered over his voice. His real vocals are kept extremely low in the mix, and the DJ strategically makes the backing track briefly disappear to try to prove the authenticity of the song, but fails.

Fenix defended himself by saying that the difference between the recorded version and any live performance is due to vocal processing, including AutoTune. However, several people, including Harding, King, and Anthony Fantano, have challenged this claim. King compares AutoTune to a spell checker, and it’s not a bad analogy. While it can be pushed to its limits to create unique robotic textures, it is designed to correct mistakes — it wouldn’t extend a performer’s vocal range or introduce an accent, as Fantano points out.

Perhaps the most convincing argument for the authenticity of "Rubberz" is simply how bad it is. Harding says, "I would assume it was written by someone who has never written a song using a child’s practice keyboard from the '80s." If the song was indeed created using generative AI, it was clearly done with a subpar model. "I’m concerned that the public finds this song interesting when it’s created by one of the least performing generative music companies with a terrible model. More sophisticated models have already made great improvements in audible artifacts and awkwardly sung rhythms."

Fenix has released clips of what he claims are Pro Tools session files. But this doesn’t actually prove anything. Unless he publicly shares the original recording and project files, it’s likely he will never be able to shake off the AI allegations. And I don’t see that happening anytime soon.