Go big or go home: Shaquille O’Neal clearly lives by these words. The gregarious NBA legend has seemingly never met a money-making opportunity he didn’t jump into in full force. Lately, he’s been headlining New Year’s Eve festivals under his DJ Diesel moniker, getting put through two tables in a pro wrestling match, and diving into the crypto-currency game so deeply, that his Twitter display name is no longer SHAQ, it’s SHAQ.ETH (a nod to the Ethereum blockchain.)
Now he’s getting ready to throw another edition of his wild Super Bowl weekend party that might just rank near the top of the insane-o meter. Dubbed Shaq’s Fun House, his Super Bowl Weekend… pardon… Big Game Weekend event at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium will feature musical guests like Lil Wayne, Diplo, and Zedd, plus DJ sets from himself and his son Myles O’Neal.
We are BACK! Shaq’s Fun House presented by @ftx_app is headed to Los Angeles on Fri. Feb 11 for BIG Game Weekend ! Don’t miss @LilTunechi, @Zedd, @diplo, a full size carnival, circus performers, sensational food, a premium open bar, and much more. Tickets on sale this Friday! pic.twitter.com/k4Yac2OUID
Did we mention that it’s open bar? That’s right, folks. Each ticket holder is entitled to a six-hour open bar, plus bites from “LA’s most iconic restaurants” like Roscoe’s Chicken And Waffles, Pink’s Hot Dogs, Diddy Riese Ice Cream, and LA… err…. institution, Papa John’s. The party is also a carnival, with the enormous FTX ferris wheel and circus performers. Shaq, who also happens to be dropping a collab track with Steve Aoki on Friday, laid out on his website that this is clearly an “over the top” affair:
“Los Angeles – I am back to win another Big Game Weekend championship! Part festival, part carnival, I recruited Lil Wayne, Zedd, Diplo and more to perform, plus will be building out a massive carnival experience. Get ready for LA’s most over the top party and celebrity filled event ever!”
This is a very of-the-moment function, with every attendee guaranteed to go home with free NFTs and even features an “Ultimate Giveaway” for $10,000 in Bitcoin among other prizes. The VIP area is hosted by Wynn Las Vegas and I’m not sure what parties you might be planning over Super Bowl weekend, but Omicron not withstanding, Shaq has you topped.
Ticketing pre-sale begins Thursday, January 6th at 10 a.m. PT here, with general on-sale starting the following day at the same link.
Riding high off the success of his debut album, Montero, Lil Nas X is everywhere these days. And this weekend, everywhere included an appearance at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las vegas, where the young rapper was a surprise guest during Diplo’s set. Of course, with all the great press comes some backlash too — Boosie Badazz issued a bizarre homophobic rant against Nas yesterday after the “Call Me By Your Name” singer playfully suggested he had a song with Boosie.
Since he was too busy getting on stage in front of a massive crowd at EDC — where he performed “Industry Baby,” “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and his first big hit, “Old Town Road” — he hasn’t said much in response to the rapper’s attack. Nas is a very progressive artist and one of the most openly queer performers to hit mainstream music for quite some time, making out with a man onstage at the VMAs and constantly advocating for LGBTQ acceptance.
Earlier this year, Diplo was sued by his ex-girlfriend, Shelley Auguste, for sexual battery, assault, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, and fraud. She alleges that the producer “recorded video of their sexual encounter despite her telling him she didn’t want that” and attempted to “coax her into a threesome with a girl she believes was underaged at the time.” The lawsuit was filed after the producer requested a restraining order against her and alleged she was engaging in revenge porn.
Diplo has yet to respond to the allegations of sexual assault, but that changed on Wednesday when he posted a lengthy message to his Instagram page. He referred to Auguste as “SA” and called her “a stalker [who] scammed her way into my life and tried to extort me for millions and then sued me when she didn’t get what she wanted.” He added, “I will keep this story easy to read because I know the Internet has a short attention span and it was my goal to never address a stalker.” He then went on:
I will refer to her as “SA” (and you can find anything easily online). She was an obsessed fan of mine, and after I relinquished all contact with her, it appears that her only purpose in life has been to disrupt my work, my business, harass me and my close friends and attack me and threaten my family. To be clear, SA was not a minor when I had conversations or sexual intercourse with her. Her own text messages admit this. More on this below.
I had a night of consensual sex with her. Basically, SA reached out to me and I declined a few times but at one time decided to meet her. After that experience, we had exchanged texts for a few months, there was small talk, sexual flirting, she would send me pics and videos.. Eventually it got too much to handle and I stopped contact with her when I realized she had started to become obsessed with me. It began as a nightmare of almost three years of her harassing and threatening me and my family and friends.
SA would offer her friends and other people to have sexual experiences with, and that’s when I began to get suspicious that she was engaging in criminal activity, and was possibly a call girl.
Diplo later explained how he was forced to block “a few accounts” that he believed belonged to SA and “thought she was out of my life” as a result. He then shared how he was affected by an alleged instance of SA stalking him. “One time I just hid in my neighbor’s house and ignored her. I don’t think she could physically harm me, but I was afraid she was going to harm herself,” he wrote. “We always took the high road when dealing with her. We tried to deal with her in court and help her find help. Our detective had found out she had a previous restraining order against her in Florida after we rounded up many of her fake accounts.”
He concluded his message by writing, “I am not this person and I won’t be extorted by anyone no matter how stinging the press can be.” He adeded, “The past 2 years I’ve never been bothered by these rumors if anything it has made me stronger and smarter, all of my friends and partners have never questioned me and that was what has been important to me. The people in my life know me for who I really am.”
You can read Diplo’s full statement in the post above.
Earlier this month, a second woman stepped forward to accuse Diplo of sexual assault in a new lawsuit. The alleged victim claims the incident occurred after one of the producer’s concerts at the Wynn Hotel back in 2019. After being brought to Diplo’s private room after the show, the woman says that he would not let her leave the room until she performed oral sex on him, an act she reluctantly did after seeing no way to exit the situation. She also claims he recorded the encounter without her permission. Less than two weeks after it was filed, however, the woman decided to drop the suit against Diplo.
According to court documents that TMZ has obtained, the woman withdrew the lawsuit and shared a statement with the publication. “In light of the evidence and after consultation with my attorneys, I have decided to withdraw my lawsuit,” she said, adding, “No payment was offered or requested. I regret filing the lawsuit.”
Diplo’s attorney also shared a statement after receiving word that the lawsuit was dropped. Bryan Freedman told TMZ that he and his client are happy the lawsuit was dropped and after hearing what the alleged victim had to say, they “will not be pursuing charges of malicious prosecution against them at this time.”
He added, “There was absolutely irrefutable evidence that proved that the allegations it contained were false. As soon as we shared that plethora of evidence with the plaintiff’s lawyers, they recognized that they needed to withdraw their suit immediately.”
Diplo still faces a lawsuit for sexual battery, assault, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, and fraud from his ex-girlfriend Shelley Auguste.
Diplo’s legal troubles are far from ending. According to TMZ, the DJ and producer has been hit with yet another sexual assault allegation involving a woman who said he coerced her into performing oral sex on him after a Las Vegas concert in 2019. The victim says the incident occurred when she was invited to an after-party by the DJ, which she attended with friends. She claims that she and her friends were all intoxicated upon arriving at the party and that they accepted weed and more alcohol from Diplo at the event.
Later on, the victim claims she was invited to Diplo’s personal room, and his security team proceeded to kick everyone out, including her friend, who was allegedly punched in the face when he refused to leave without her. Eventually, it was just the woman and producer alone in the room. Here, Diplo reportedly told the victim that she could not leave the room without performing oral sex on him. She repeatedly refused, but after realizing there was no way out, she reluctantly gave in and followed his demand. She also alleges that he filmed the encounter without her permission. As a result of it all, she’s suing the DJ for an unspecified amount in damages.
Bryan Freedman, Diplo’s attorney, denied the allegations and claims there’s a connection between the victim’s account and that of another woman, Shelley Auguste, who is also suing him for sexual assualt. “This complaint is completely outrageous, wildly untrue and yet also entirely predictable, given that it simply repeats the exact same claim already made by the plaintiff’s friend Shelly Auguste, an individual who has been harassing Mr. Pentz and his family for more than a year and already has repeatedly violated the restraining order issued against her,” he said.
He adds, “We have irrefutable evidence that this is a completely meritless claim and we will be providing it to a court as quickly as we possibly can to put an end to this shakedown by Ms. Auguste and her accomplices once and for all.”
Auguste, who is Diplo’s ex-girlfriend, sued him for sexual battery, assault, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, and fraud at the end of last month.
Diplo is facing some legal trouble once again. According to TMZ, the producer was recently sued by his ex-girlfriend for sexual battery, assault, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, and fraud. In legal documents that the publication obtained, his former partner, Shelly Auguste, claims the DJ reached out to her when she was 17 and “solicited nude photos of her.” They would later meet in person for the first time in 2018 when she turned 21. After Auguste moved to LA, Diplo allegedly tried to coerce her into sex by sending explicit photos of himself in sexual situations.
She adds that Diplo “recorded video of their sexual encounter despite her telling him she didn’t want that” and attempted to “coax her into a threesome with a girl she believes was underaged at the time.” When she declined the threesome, Auguste claims he “forced himself on her as she tried to fight him off.”
The accusations come after Diplo asked a judge to sign a temporary restraining order against Auguste in December, just a month after she accused him of revenge porn. More recently, in April, he sued her and alleged she was stalking and harassing him. Diplo’s attorney, Brian Freedman, spoke to TMZ and denied all the allegations from Auguste.
“As has already been made clear in the restraining order we obtained against this individual, she has repeatedly stalked, defamed, threatened and attempted to shake down Diplo and his family,” he said. “These latest false claims are just part of that ongoing campaign of harassment, and we will not allow them to deter us from pursuing justice against her to the fullest extent possible under the law.”
If someone had asked me what NFT stood for last year, I’d probably list off thousands of answers before correctly naming them “non-fungible tokens.” NFTs have become the new buzzword in recent months, and with reports of some artists making millions off them, it seems like everyone is trying to break into the cryptocurrency art market.
NFTs were originally designed as a way to allow artists profit off of their shareable digital content. Once an NFT is purchased, artists can continue to make a percentage from any further sale. If you’re looking for a in-depth description on what exactly an NFT is, revisit Uproxx’s explainer here, but Jack Harlow actually gave a fairly succinct definition of NFTs in a recent SNL sketch. In a rap with Pete Davidson, Harlow detailed how NFTs are unique, built on blockchain technology, and can be sold once they’re “minted.”
Since March, NFTs have been all over the news, with everyone from sports teams to toilet paper brands joining the craze. But the music industry in particular has been seeing an explosion of NFTs, and major artists like Grimes and Steve Aoki have made a head-turning sum of money off of them. All this begs the question: How did NFTs go from an obscure acronym to one of the biggest trends in the music industry in just the matter of a few months? Let’s take a look.
Grimes has always been a pioneer in music and culture, which is why it makes sense that she was one of the first big-name musicians to sell artwork as an NFT. The singer had teamed up with her brother, Mac Boucher, to release her first collection of digital artwork as NFTs. Titled WarNymph Collection Vol 1, Grimes’ art sold out in just one day and ended up raking in $6 million.
March 3, 2021 — Disclosure
UK electronic duo Disclosure were also early to the NFT party. After seeing the success fellow EDM artist 3Lau had with NFTs, Disclosure decided to produce a brand-new song live on Twitch and mint it as an NFT. Ever since, the duo have continued to sell various NFTs, including a token for the original “Disclosure face” seen in their press photos and album art.
Despite the public scrutiny Tory Lanez has faced in the past year after allegedly shooting Megan Thee Stallion her in the foot, the rapper has continued to debut new music. Days ahead of the release of his recent album Playboy, Lanez paired two of the LP’s songs with digital art and minted them as NFTs. He also gave fans access to an unreleased song off his upcoming ’80’s-themed album, which has yet to be announced.
Kings Of Leon had a similar approach to Lanez when it comes to NFTs. The veteran group minted their entire LP When You See Yourself, which they referred to as NFT Yourself, as an NFT and sold it alongside a collection of other art. Those who purchased the NFT were able to snag a digital download of the album, as well as limited edition physical vinyl.
Steve Aoki‘s addition to the NFT industry was a 11-piece collection of vibrant digital artwork titled Dream Catcher, and he was extremely successful. A part of the collection ended up being purchased by T-Mobil CEO John Legere, who bought just one piece for a whopping $888,888.88. In total, Aoki was able to earn $4.25 million in the 24 hours that the auction took place.
March 12, 2021 — MF Doom
MF Doom was one of the early adopters of NFTs. In fact, he tragically passed last October just one day after his first NFT auction of augmented reality masks closed. With the help of his wife Jasmine and his estate, more of MF Doom’s augmented reality were once again sold as NFTs in March in partnership with the crypto marketplace Illust Space.
In a statement about the second auction, a representative from Illust Space said: “Due to blockchain’s immutable and decentralized ledger technology, all of MF DOOM’s AR NFT collection will be available for future generations of fans and collectors, creating a new model for royalties and posthumous creative control legacies.”
A few weeks after Grimes made a sizeable sum from selling her artwork as an NFT, Elon Musk decided to follow suit. When he’s not working on the future of space travel or tweeting out esoteric memes, the billionaire makes EDM music in his spare time. As the self-professed “technoking of Tesla,” Musk decided to make a song about NFTs, and sell it as an NFT.
March 17, 2021 — Halsey
“People Disappear Here” An Original NFT Collection available March 17th on @niftygateway. A portion of sales will be donated to @MFPLA, as well as @carbon_180, a NGO dedicated to the mission of creating a world that removes more carbon that it emits. pic.twitter.com/0lPlNc7513
While Halsey is known for her music, she’s also an incredibly talented interdisciplinary artist. That’s why she was relatively early to the NFT game. The singer auctioned off a handful of hand-painted characters she created in the collection People Disappear Here. “The characters are all inspired by figures that occurred in a series of sleep paralysis nightmares I had at home during the quarantine,” Halsey said in a statement. “After seven years of bed surfing hotel rooms around the world, adjusting to my own pitch black cave in California had a little bit of a learning curve. From toddler TV programming evil dentists, a child born with massive claws who scratched her way out of the womb, to a woman who stood at the foot of my bed and demanded I watch her masturbate. They were memorable to say the least.”
March 22, 2021 — Rico Nasty
It’s been nearly half a year since Rico Nasty released her anticipated debut studio album Nightmare Vacation, and she decided to commemorate the release with an NFT. The rapper teamed up with her “OHFR?” video creator Don Allen III to sell artwork from the video as an NFT. The highest bidder not only claims ownership of the NFT, but they also received the physical hammer Rico Nasty used the video, signed by the rapper herself. One of the reasons why she decided to join the NFT fad is that it “needs more women entering the space.”
March 23, 2021 — Diplo
When Diplo decided to break into the NFT industry, he did it a little differently. His series of NFT art, titled Cloud10, was made in collaboration with the artistic duo of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III and features several cutesy animated characters. But rather than opening up the artwork to a bidding war, Diplo and his collaborators decided to offer their first NFT for only $1 in order for “for young collectors to grow their own wealth through the ownership of art.”
March 26, 2021 — Gorillaz
When Gorillaz announced they would be hopping onto the NFT game, it didn’t go quite as smoothly. While other musicians were welcomed into the world of NFTs, Gorillaz werechastised by their fanbase. The band announced that they would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album by teaming up with the toy company Superplastic for a series of toys, collectibles, and, of course, NFTs. Fans weren’t to happy with the news though, and were quick to point out the devastating environmental impact that the sale of a single NFT has. A petition was even created to get the Gorillaz to stop producing NFTs, and it already has over 3,000 signatures.
April 3, 2021 — The Weeknd
Excited to announce that my first NFT drop is taking place on Saturday at 2:00 pm EST on @niftygateway. The collection will feature new music and limited edition art. I developed the artwork with Strange Loop Studios pic.twitter.com/627BO4JekK
After The Weeknd was snubbed for a Grammy nomination in all categories this year despite the success of the album After Hours, the singer has begun to call for greater transparency in the music industry. He’s since decided to boycott the Grammys all together and made his displeasure about various aspects of the music industry abundantly clear. Seeing all the potential that NFTs have to offer, The Weeknd decided to hold a cryptocurrency auction where he would sell exclusive artwork, including an unreleased song, as an NFT.
About his decision to join the NFT market, The Weeknd laid out his vision for the future of the music industry: “Blockchain is democratizing an industry that has historically been kept shut by the gatekeepers. I’ve always been looking for ways to innovate for fans and shift this archaic music biz and seeing NFT’s allowing creators to be seen and heard more than ever before on their terms is profoundly exciting.”
M.I.A. is no stranger to taking her music to unconventional platforms. Last year, the musician launched a subscription-based Patreon page as a platform to share her new projects. Taking things one step further M.I.A announced a 24-hour NFT auction where she will be selling some of her original art for the first time in 25 years. “It’s only now that the appropriate gallery for my work finally exists,” she said in a statement.
Mick Jagger and Dave Grohl teamed up for the surprise collaboration “Eazy Sleazy” in April, which was meant to bring “some much-needed optimism” about coming out of COVID-19 lockdown. But a few days following the track’s release, Jagger announced that Berlin-based 3D artist Extraweg had turned the track into a digital animation, which he sold as an NFT during a 24-hour auction. All proceeds from the sale were divided up and donated between music-related charities.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
! Don’t miss @LilTunechi, @Zedd, @diplo, a full size carnival, circus performers, sensational food, a premium open bar, and much more. Tickets on sale this Friday! pic.twitter.com/k4Yac2OUID
