FN Meka is the creation of Americans Anthony Martini and Brandon Le who say he is "almost entirely AI-generated" – the voice is human but the lyrics and music come from artificial intelligence.
The green-haired avatar quickly became popular and amassed a million followers on the TikTok platform.
The popularity was followed by the fact that the 80-year-old music institution Capitol Records announced on August 12 that they had stepped into the Metaverse and signed the virtual rapper.
Met with harsh criticism
But the popularity has now taken a turn.
FN Meka's AI uses an algorithm to find words that rhyme, and according to the creators, it has also gained access to a database of rap tropes.
The AI artist, whose ethnicity is unclear, uses the n-word in some of his songs, which has sparked strong reactions on social media as co-creator Anthony Martini is white himself.
"An AI rapper using the n-word... literally everything about this is tone deaf," wrote one user on Twitter.
"People want to use the n-word so much they create a robot that does it for them," writes another.
Throughout the criticism, FN Meka is called a caricature of black culture.
The record company backs down
Just over a week after the agreement was signed, Capitol Records is now backing down in the face of criticism and breaking with the rap robot.
In a statement to the music magazine Rolling Stone, the record company writes that it is sorry for its actions.
“We want to apologize to blacks in the US for our insensitivity, when we launched the project without asking enough questions about the process behind it.
We thank those who have reached out to us with constructive criticism over the past few days."
The creators behind FN Meka themselves have not commented on the announcement.
See FN Meka and hear the music in the clip above.