Who knew a LA street rapper had a viral 1980s-sounding New Wave hit on his hands?

It is a song that has spread quickly through the Instagram stories of such huge media influencers as Kylie Jenner. There are even murmurings of a new direction in rap taking place.

The song is also - blatantly - a creation of AI.

If you ask rapper Fenix Flexin about the song, entitled RUBBERZ, it is entirely of his own creation. A seeming love of yearning Smiths melodies and late-night Duran Duran drama kept to himself until now.

But the keen-eared can’t be fooled for too long, and the tells are obvious if you know what to look for. The strange digital artefacts persistent in the song’s audio imply that it was not a natural process of human to recording. The lack of fade-outs and the way the track suddenly ends (AI-generated music seems to have an issue understanding how songs start and conclude). Even the interesting choice of an easily replicable New Wave style, which AI has no trouble approximating and generating the sound of.

Flexin has attempted to dispute the rumours and accusations of AI use, even posting footage of him supposedly recording the song. In the brief clip posted to his TikTok and Instagram Reels, he stands in front of a high-end microphone,........

© Herald Scotland