Why the first German AI rap track was blocked and what GRiNGO has to do with it.
By now, all those who previously viewed AI songs as no threat to real art should be convinced of the opposite. The AI boom has been going on for a long time and is flooding the internet. But AI has always remained purely AI and real artists have remained real artists. The AI song with the “friendly” name “Why does ChatGPT say?” now opens a door that previously remained closed.
Why manual?
The concept is as simple as it is ingenious. While a year ago many people claimed to be able to distinguish AI from real videos or music – at least those who haven’t had a group trip from Facebook to TikTok – it now seems almost impossible to tell the difference. While artists try to boost their online presence with thousands of TikTok videos in which they lip-sync their songs, play them acoustically or do a triple flick-flack, AI can use the platform much more efficiently. Videos are not shot, they are prompt – and if the track produced does not find a direct listener, version 5.7 is just a few clicks away.
In a time where output and clicks determine success, AI seems to be the final opponent of every indie artist. But while the fear of many artists of being replaced by an AI raises emotional and ethical questions, criminal criticism also finds its way into the debate. The question “What did the AI train?” is currently filling entire rooms with lawyers who claim that the AI was trained with unlicensed material from the artists. That’s why many musicians have been trying to draw attention to this problem for years. But it is precisely this debate that is now threatening to overturn in Germany – because the man who banned Bushido from North Rhine-Westphalia in 2015 is giving the AI free rein.
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AI artist Nimi took to TikTok with his song “Why does ChatGPT say?” viral. You can see an imaginary artist who shows off his singing skills at the piano – sometimes on stage as a headliner, sometimes in a magnificent hall with an audience. After Manuellsen heard the song in one of his streams, he decided to contribute a feature. His own conclusion: It is not that easy to compete with a “perfect” AI voice. According to hiphop.de, the “artist” Nimi gained over 14,000 followers on Instagram, and the song, which was released on June 12, 2026, turned out to be a real success. He now has over 193,000 streams on Spotify – and it will stay that way for the time being.
If you want to get your own idea of the AI song with Manuellsen, you’ll unfortunately have to search TikTok for snippets or steal Manuellsen’s hard drive: Nimi is blocked. As of June 15, 2026, the song is not available on Spotify and the Instagram profile is blocked. The question is: Why does Spotify do this “ChatGPT”? Let’s just ask the AI itself – ChatGPT answers:
“There are usually only a few possible reasons for this:
- The track has been temporarily or permanently withdrawn by the rights holder (label, artist or distributor).
- There is a copyright or licensing issue.
- The song has been re-uploaded and the old version removed.
- It is temporarily unavailable in certain countries.
- It is a technical error in the platform.”
Of course, one can only speculate at this point – but could there be copyright issues? It’s almost ironic how the first rap collaboration between AI and humans in Germany is blocked by streaming platforms for unknown reasons. Whether this is related to the current legal disputes surrounding SUNO AI or has a more trivial reason remains to be seen.
GRiNGO’s AI feature
But the feature debut happened twice. GRiNGO also decided to give a very special feature guest a chance: an AI called “KiKi” – very original. “Ouch, oh oh, GRiNGO is angry” – because if you’re going to sell artistic freedom to an AI, then please do so with streams. The track “Ma Chérie,” which was also released on June 12th, now has over 56,000 streams on Spotify, while the artist KiKi has remained relatively unknown with 147 Instagram followers. At least this work can still be heard on Spotify and the Instagram channel is not blocked. Whether KiKi’s Instagram is simply too irrelevant to be blocked or whether he has adhered to all legal requirements compared to Nimi – only the platform operators and the artists themselves know that so far.