Oakland R&B singer Kehlani has publicly criticized the AI-generated artist Xania Monet, who recently secured a $3 million record deal with Hallwood Media after achieving top-five R&B chart success. The controversy highlights growing tensions between human musicians and artificial intelligence in the music industry, as artists grapple with AI’s ability to create complete songs and compete for traditional recording contracts.
What you should know: Xania Monet is an entirely AI-generated R&B artist created by Mississippi writer Talisha Jones, who feeds lyrics into AI systems to produce both the music and visual appearance.
- Monet has garnered more than 674,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and landed among the top charts earlier this month.
- On September 16, Billboard reported that Monet secured a multi-million dollar deal with Hallwood Media.
- Jones started the project over the summer, using AI to generate all aspects of the artist’s public persona and musical output.
What they’re saying: Multiple prominent R&B artists have voiced strong opposition to AI’s role in music creation.
- “There is an AI R&B artist who just signed a multi-million dollar deal, and has a top five R&B album, and the person is doing none of the work,” Kehlani said in a since-deleted TikTok video. “This is so beyond out of our control.”
- “Nothing and no one on Earth will ever be able to justify AI to me. Especially not AI in the creative arts,” she added. “I’m sorry, I don’t respect it.”
- Grammy-winner SZA shared the news on Instagram with the caption “Ion fw this either why devalue our music ??? Something tells me they wouldn’t do this w another genre.”
The broader implications: Artists are raising concerns beyond just creative authenticity, pointing to environmental and societal impacts.
- SZA urged fans to consider environmental consequences, writing “I hate AI. Please don’t make any AI images of me or songs. Ppl and children are dying from the harm n pollution AI energy centers are creating.”
- Kehlani emphasized AI’s comprehensive capabilities: “AI can also make the entire f—ing song. It can sing the entire song. It can make the entire beat.”
Local resistance: Bay Area venues are taking proactive steps to limit AI’s presence in the music scene.
- Thee Stork Club, a local venue, banned the use of AI for creating promotional artwork for gigs earlier this month.
- The venue now provides a list of Bay Area graphic artists offering discounted “homie prices” to help acts comply with the new rules.
Industry context: Xania Monet joins other AI acts like Velvet Sundown and FN Meka that have entered mainstream music, signaling a growing trend of artificial intelligence competing directly with human artists for commercial success and industry recognition.
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