Rubberz Pt 3: The Tea – The Culture Reacts

AINT 'TEE

Welcome back to PLUG RADIO, it's your girl Ain't Tee on the Tea Desk, and Marty Mar and Bahh Zoo are still right here with me. We have been talking Rubberz, the first fully AI-generated song on the Billboard Hot 100. Marty gave you the news, Zoo gave you the tech. Now pour a cup, because I'm giving you the tea.

MARTY MAR

We knew this part was coming.

AINT 'TEE

First, can we talk about the denial era? For months, Fenix Flexin looked the culture in the face and said, that's Auto-Tune, that's reverb, that's my fake U K accent. He posted session files! He was committed to the bit.

BAAH ZOO

And as we covered, the session files didn't really prove much.

AINT 'TEE

Then the file name. Sonauto dot M P 3. Baby, you cannot make it up. Then the detector says very likely Treblo. And then he goes on Instagram and says, and I'm quoting the reporting here, he never said he didn't use AI. And then, keep up with the times or get left behind.

MARTY MAR

From a pure news standpoint, that's a pivot.

AINT 'TEE

That's not a pivot, that's a full three-sixty with a spin move! But here's the thing. I don't want this to just be about clowning one man. Because the reason people were so heated is bigger than him.

BAAH ZOO

dats true

AINT 'TEE

A lot of artists have been speaking on AI in music in general, not just this song. Some of them are open to it. Dr. Dre, Will I am, Bryson Tiller, they've talked about AI as a tool, the way drum machines and sampling were tools. RZA has talked about using it to cut the cost of recording a live orchestra.

MARTY MAR

So it's not a simple for or against.

AINT 'TEE

Not at all. On the other side you've got SZA, Tyler, the Creator, Doja Cat, Destroy Lonely, who've been clear they're not with it. And Ice Cube? Ice Cube said if anybody messes with his voice using AI, he's ready to take legal action. He called it demonic.

BAAH ZOO

Ice Cube does not do subtle.

AINT 'TEE

Never has! And then there's the deeper conversation, and I want to be careful here, because this one is real. Critics have said AI models are trained on huge amounts of music, including a lot of Black creative expression, and the people whose work fed those machines often don't get credit or a check. Some folks remember FN Meka back in 2022, the AI rapper that got dropped after people called out its stereotypes. That history is why the reaction to Rubberz was so loud.

MARTY MAR

That's a fair point. It's not just a novelty story. It's a story about who gets paid and who gets erased.

BAAH ZOO

And for the independent artists listening right now, this matters to you directly. If AI tracks can fill up playlists for cheap, that's less room for you. That's why the transparency labels and those new chart rules matter.

AINT 'TEE

So here's where the Tea Desk lands. Use the tools if you want to, I'm not the AI police. But tell the people. Be honest. The culture can forgive a lot, but it does not like being played. Rubberz might have hit fifty-eight on the Hot 100, but the trust? That charted a whole lot lower.

MARTY MAR

Ooh. Somebody clip that.

BAAH ZOO

That's the headline right there.

AINT 'TEE

Now we want to hear from y'all. Would you still play a song you love if you found out it was made by AI? Does it matter to you if the artist told you up front? Hit up PLUG RADIO and let us know.

MARTY MAR

For the News Desk, this has been Marty Mar.

BAAH ZOO

For the tech side, Bahh Zoo.

AINT 'TEE

And for the Tea Desk, it's Ain't Tee. Keep it plugged in, keep it real, and we'll see y'all after the music. This is PLUG RADIO.