The CEO of Treblo, the AI music-making software that Fenix Flexin used for his Billboard-charting track “Rubberz,” confirmed that a whole lot of Tyga’s latest album $tarface is “almost certainly” generated using the software.
Ryan Tremblay told Gazetteer SF Thursday morning that after putting the album through his company’s in-house detector app, most of the tracks were “probably or very likely” generated using his company’s service.
$tarface went viral earlier this week when it snagged the dubious honor of being Pitchfork’s first flat 0.0 score in nearly two decades earlier this week. (The last non-compilation release to get that rating was Jet’s 2006 album Shine On.) Gazetteer ran the opening track of the album “Spinnin in Circles,” which echoes the ‘80s synth-slop sheen of “Rubberz,” through Treblo’s detector. It confirmed, with “medium confidence,” that the song is likely made by Treblo.
That said, not all of the tracks were verified as Treblo-made. The one thing that throws off Treblo’s detection system, Tremblay said, is that some tracks bear human-made features like Tyga’s real voice or human-generated instrumentation. He suggested that artists that use AI music-makers are turning to hybrid production, where AI serves as a demo of sorts for artists to turn into human-made music.
“It seems like the kind of thing where, sure, they found us while messing around with AI, but it’s becoming more of a human thing,” he argued.
Tyga admitted to using AI for this album in a recent interview with VIBE, but didn’t specify which service(s) he used.
Both Tyga and Fenix Flexin are signed to Empire, the ascendant San Francisco-based label. But Tremblay insists that there is no connection between Treblo and Empire. He said that Treblo’s contact with the label has been limited to “very basic introductory conversations” following the music producer Medasin’s viral video that first exposed “Rubberz” to be AI slop. It’s worth noting, based on a recent Rolling Stone feature, that Tyga and Fenix have been in the studio together.
Empire did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gazetteer.
Of the Pitchfork pan, Tremblay said, “I thought that was hilarious. They’re well within their right to do that.”
He went on to point out that the review “gets it more visibility,” which may have Streisand effect-ed the album a bit.
