Azealia Banks

Not to be a Luddite or an alarmist or anything, but it might be time to put the brakes on the whole crypto experiment. Aside from the ecological effects, which look pretty bad overall, I never wanted to type the words “Azealia Banks sex tape” at any point in my career — and yet, here we are.

The controversy magnet — who was at one point famous for making the romping 2012 hit “212” and is now much more liable to go on a bigoted rant or try to start a beef with whichever female rapper is currently closest to the top of the charts — decided the non-fungible token (NFT) game was too good to miss out on and found the perfect (in her mind, I’m sure) way to capitalize: the aforementioned sex tape. According to Vice and NFT marketplace Foundation, the first-ever audio sex tape NFT was created by Banks and sold for quite the sum.

Of course, being Azealia Banks, she had to throw some troll-ish curveball on it. The tape, which features Banks and her fiance, conceptual artist Ryder Ripps, is audio-only. I’ll leave whether that’s a good or a bad thing up to you, but there’s one thing it absolutely is: profitable. The 24-minute recording apparently sold for well over $17,000 — or 10 Ethereum, technically speaking. The buyer, Rulton Fyder, received full ownership, distribution and display rights, and a signed LP vinyl record.

Only time will tell if Fyder’s (a play on Fulton Ryder, a pseudonym of Richard Prince’s) NSFW NFT investment will pay off. Crypto-art is still relatively new and the element that gives traditional art its value, generally speaking, is time. However, with this new technology running rampant and the internet re-writing all the rules faster than anyone can learn them, it’s the wild west and we might be looking at a whole new ballgame, where ownership comes with two-factor authentication.