NFTs

Tupac Photos From His Debut Album Release Party Will Be Made Into NFTs

by
tupac
Getty Image

The non-fungible token craze will continue with rare photos of a rap legend who never lived to see high-speed internet. According to Rolling Stone, rare photos of Tupac Shakur from the late rapper’s debut album release party will soon be sold as NFTs on the OpenSea platform. The flicks are being released by the original photographer, Lawrence “Loupy D” Dotson, who took the photos at the party for 2Pacalypse Now in Los Angeles in 1992.

There will be 17 photos released, as well as one “Super NFT” collage of all 17 for a total of 18 NFTs. Each will come with a signed, framed print, and part of the proceeds will be used to plant trees in Shakur’s hometown — although it isn’t specified whether that means New York (where he was born), Oakland (where he grew up), or LA (where he became a superstar). Dotson explained how the photo collection came to be to Rolling Stone:

“I bought a disposable, black and white 35mm camera from the Thriftys on the corner of La Brea and Rodeo,” he said. “Later that night I got to Glam Slam, Prince’s old club on Boylston Street downtown. I couldn’t wait to see this brotha perform. I loved the energy he put out on stage as a backup dancer for Digital Underground; the same with his performance in the video when he dropped the verse on ‘Same Song.’ I knew that he was going to give it up that night for his debut release party. Surprisingly, there weren’t many people at the show: mostly industry execs and a few heads from the underground community.”

He says he never published the photos and remained unsure of what to do with them, although they came in handy in his job as a substitute teacher as a reward for students. Now, he says, he wants to “create a traveling exhibit of the collection” and show them worldwide.

Russell Simmons Is Putting Rap Pioneers Onto The NFT Hustle

by

Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons is entering the NFT business. The hip-hop pioneer will be releasing a a rare collection of the non-fungible tokens on Friday. Russell Simmons To Launch NFT Collection The collection will be called “Masterminds of Hip-hop,” and is the first of it’s kind. It features rare unreleased music, recordings, and […]

Eminem Contributes To A $30 Million Investment In An NFT Marketplace

by
Getty Image

Detroit icon Eminem has been one of the biggest proponents of the emerging technology of non-fungible tokens, auctioning off an NFT collection of comics, action figures, trading cards, and beats this past April. The collection drew in nearly $2 million in one weekend — which might be the reason why Eminem is now looking to invest further into the tech, announcing his participation in a $30 million round of fundraising for MakersPlace, an NFT marketplace where users can buy and sell the digital artwork.

MakersPlace, launched in 2018, announced the results of its fundraising efforts on its website, noting that Eminem was joined by other notable investors including his long-time manager Peter Rosenberg, NFL player Larry Fitzgerald, and Sony Music Entertainment. You’d have to imagine that now that Eminem and his co-investors have seen the money to be made selling NFTs, they’d want a piece of the digital forums that host the sales as well.

MakersPlace might be one of the most lucrative options. In March, Beeple sold “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS,” a digital work created for Christie’s via MakersPlace, for the most expensive total an NFT sale has garnered to date, over $69 million.

Other artists to get into the NFT game include The Weeknd, Jack White, Gorillaz, and Jay-Z.

A Tribe Called Quest Denies Authorizing The Sale Of Their Royalties As An NFT

by
Getty Image

The “industry rule” Q-Tip revealed back in 1991’s “Check The Rhime” appears to hold as true as ever. For proof, look no further than the recent sale of A Tribe Called Quest’s catalog royalties as an NFT, which the band now says they never actually authorized. Group DJ and co-founder Ali Shaheed Muhammad responded to Billboard‘s report of the sale on Facebook, revealing just how Royalty Exchange came to offering 1.5% of the band’s first five album royalties as a non-fungible token at auction.

“No member of A Tribe Called Quest has entered into any partnership with Royalty Exchange,” he wrote, as he launched into a lengthy explanation of just how labyrinthine and convoluted record contracts can truly be.

In 1989 a dream unfolds. Two teenagers sign a 5 album recording contract with Jive Records. Q-Tip and I were represented by Ron Skoler and Ed Chalpin. Ed owned PPX Enterprises, google that ish. We had absolutely no affiliation with either of these gentlemen other than them representing us as our lawyer/“agent” in negotiating the deal with Jive.

PPX aka Ed Chalpin added a clause to our agreement stating they get paid a percentage of our recording fund EVERY time we commenced to record a new album. We did not discover this hidden clause until we commenced to record The Low End Theory. We disputed this clause. Neither Ed or Ron ever told us about this bullsh*t language in the agreement. It was unwarranted and where I come from “crooked.” Ed sued us and he lost. He appealed the case. He was rich and had deep pockets to litigate. We however were not rich. We were kids with a dream, an album slowly selling and deeply in debt to our record company.

We were determined to not to be taken advantage of by PPX Enterprises. We wanted to fight on. Jive offered to help us with our lack of capital to litigate the appeal however they required us to sign a sixth album with them. Without any other means to get this (do not use slanderous adjectives) entity out of our lives, we signed for the 6th album, added Phife to the contract and Jive made the PPX issue disappear or so we thought.

It wasn’t until reading this incomplete article by Billboard on June 29, 2021 that I learned PPX Enterprises wasn’t entirely out of our business. Apparently PPX sold their share of a settlement they made with Jive Records to an individual whom entered into a partnership with Royalty Exchange. Be clear that is the NFT that was created and auctioned.

Had we known this percentage of our art was out there we would have bought it directly from PPX Enterprises as it should have never been sold by Jive Records.

So, there you have it. The group never wanted to sell their royalties but now, bidder Stephen F, who paid 40.191 in Ethereum ($84,765), will be receiving semi-annual checks from every stream, sample, or media appearance of songs from the first five Tribe albums (you know, the ones that have appeared EVERYWHERE since the ’90s revival boom in television and film over the past decade) until the copyright expires. Yikes.

A Tribe Called Quest Is Selling A Portion Of Their Royalties As An NFT

by
Getty Image

While it shouldn’t be a surprise to see hip-hop acts getting in on the NFT craze at this point, the latest rappers to announce their non-fungible product have attached some real value to it. A Tribe Called Quest is selling an NFT through Royalty Exchange which will grant holders access to a 1.5% share of the royalties from the iconic rap group’s first five albums: People’s Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm, The Low End Theory, Midnight Marauders, Beats, Rhymes And Life, and The Love Movement.

The NFT is being auctioned on the Royalty Exchange website using Ethereum, beginning today and running through the next 27 hours as of press time. The starting price was 16.500 ETH (or $35,000) and so far, that number has gone up to 16.659 ETH ($35,921), with just two bids. Expect that number to jump as the deadline nears You can watch the bids in real-time, and the winner can expect a biannual distribution of around $3,000, provided that CDs, vinyl, streams, and sync licensing hold steady.

The site describes Tribe’s catalog as “celebrated by critics and fans alike as the most intelligent, artistic rap group of the 1990s.” Some of the places their music has appeared include the 2021 live-action Tom And Jerry film, the 2020 Pixar film Soul, the fan-favorite Apple+ series Ted Lasso, and tons of video games, movies, shows, and advertisements.

Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records Sues Co-Founder Dame Dash Over An Attempted NFT For ‘Reasonable Doubt’

by
Getty Image

More than 25 years ago, Jay-Z, Dame Dash, and Kareem “Biggs” Burke came together to form Roc-A-Fella Records. The label would eventually become the home of Jay-Z’s first album, Reasonable Doubt, which was released in 1995. The project is heralded as a hip-hop classic and one of the best efforts in Jay’s discography. Fast-forward to the present and Reasonable Doubt is now at the center of a lawsuit between Roc-A-Fella records and Dash.

According to TMZ and Page Six, Dash was sued by the company after he attempted to auction Reasonable Doubt as an NFT. Roc-A-Fella claims that Dash is unable to mint the album to sell because he does not own the rights. According to court documents filed by high-profile attorney Alex Spiro, Dash planned to sell the Reasonable Doubt NFT at a now-canceled auction and Roc-A-Fella’s current fear is that he will try to sell it again elsewhere.

“The sale of this irreplaceable asset must be stopped before it is too late, and Dash must be held accountable for his theft,” the court documents read. “Dash can’t sell what he doesn’t own. By attempting such a sale, Dash has converted a corporate asset and has breached his fiduciary duties. The court should stop Dash….and hold him accountable for his brazen theft.”

The lawsuit comes shortly after Jay-Z sued photographer Jonathan Mannion, who shot the cover for Reasonable Doubt, for using his name and image without consent.

Jay-Z Got In On The NFT Wave After His Marcy Venture Partners Invested In Bitski

by
Getty Image

While NFTs might be something the youngsters are pushing nowadays, there’s no such thing as being “too old” for cryptocurrency. Just look at Mick Jagger, who recently dropped an NFT of his own. As this sector of the cryptocurrency world continues to grow, more and more musical artists are throwing their hats into the NFT mix, and the latest to do so is none other than Jay-Z.

He along with his Marcy Venture Partners joined a $19 million funding round for the NFT marketplace, Bitksi. Roc Nation’s co-founder Jay Brown, Troy Carter, Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, and 3LAU are also found on the list of investors.

Marcy Venture Partners joins the likes of Serena Williams, Wendi Murdoch, and executives at TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, 100 Thieves and Adobe as the newest investors in Bitski. The San Francisco startup describes itself as the “Shopify for NFTs” and aims to provide an easy platform for brands, game developers, and consumers to create, buy, and sell digital goods. Prior to this, the San Francisco startup teamed up with Adidas and 2021 NFL Draft No. 1 pick Trevor Lawrence to drop an NFT collection of 3D animated trading cards.

In case you’ve lost track of Jay-Z’s business moves this year, the rapper sold half of his champagne company, Ace Of Spades, to LVHM (for a price Forbes estimates to be $315 million) and his streaming service, Tidal, to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Square for $297 million in cash and stocks. He also invested in the Los Angeles-based fitness company, LIT Method, and most-recently filed a trademark for a TV and film production company.

XXXTentacion’s Estate Plans To Turn His Unreleased Songs Into NFTs

by
YouTube

Late Miami rapper XXXTentacion‘s estate is joining hip-hop’s crypto craze, announcing plans to turn his unreleased tracks into a series of NFTs, according to Rolling Stone. The estate will also release previously unseen tour footage in the format.

XXXTentacion’s estate and his manager Solomon “Sounds” Sobande tapped YellowHeart to create the tokens and artist Stephen Bliss to create unique art to accompany them. YellowHeart previously worked with Kings Of Leon on the band’s own NFTs earlier this year, while Bliss is best known as the artist for the popular video game series Grand Theft Auto, which was XXXTentacion’s favorite game.

Although YellowHeart did not share many details of the drop with Rolling Stone, the company did note that the collection will be launched with the company’s in-house online marketplace on May 10 at 12 pm ET, continuing through May 15 at 12 pm ET. YellowHeart did reveal that there will be five songs in the collection that were “all big on SoundCloud,” but that the estate was never able to monetize, according to Sobande. “Some of these songs aren’t even on his SoundCloud page anymore,” he said. “There are just the remnants of them being reposted. These were the songs that built his career and led up to the explosion he had.” The release will make the late rapper the first to have posthumously released music via NFT.

YellowHeart is also donating its portion of the proceeds to the XXXFoundation started in the late rapper’s honor, as well as to organizations helping women with domestic abuse, something XXXTentacion also did (before he passed, XXXTentacion was facing trial for his own brutal abuse of his former girlfriend).

Eminem’s NFT Collection Made Nearly $2 Million

by
Getty Image

Eminem, who counts himself an avid collector of items like action figures, baseball cards, comic books, and $600 cassette copies of classic hip-hop albums, recently became the subject of a collection of valuable goods himself — with the caveat that those “goods” only exist digitally. Em released a collection of NFTs to take advantage of the swiftly expanding crypto bubble which included digital copies of the above-mentioned items last weekend, with the resulting sales raking in nearly $2 million. According to CryptoBriefing, the collection raised “just short of $1.8 million” on Nifty Gateway on Sunday.

Other stars, like The Weeknd have also released NFTs that have made over $1 million, but Eminem is arguably the biggest artist to enter the game to date. NFTs — or “non-fungible tokens” — are like a digital certificate of authenticity for a piece of art, keeping a sort of chain of custody within the code that is associated with the item, which may have a physical component. If that seems like a confusing explanation, Saturday Night Live actually repurposed an Eminem song to try to explain NFTs, with Pete Davidson and Jack Harlow employing the beat from “Without Me” to break down how the newfangled wealth laundering devices work. Eminem seemed bemused, but quickly announced his collection, which turned out to be a wise decision for the rap icon.

Eminem’s Upcoming NFT Collection Includes Comics, Action Figures, And Beats

by
Getty Image

While some people are still trying to wrap their heads around what NFTs even are, artists from all over the music world have been quick to take advantage of this growing digital realm. Names like Doja Cat, Jack White, and The Weeknd have all released NFTs of their own. Now Eminem is joining in on the fun. The rapper announced his own line of digital collectables after a Saturday Night Live segment that saw Jack Harlow and cast members explaining what NFTs are through a rap over the Detroit native’s classic song “Without Me.” Now, a day before he drops his line, Eminem has finally revealed what it will contain.

The upcoming release, which drops Sunday, April 25, is a part of an event Eminem has dubbed “Shady Con,” in collaboration with NFT marketplace NFT Gateway. He’ll release original instrumental beats, digital comics, and action figures. The latter will come in three forms, each capturing various Eminem’s rap personas: Marshall Mathers, Slim Shady, and Eminem himself.

“I’ve been collecting since I was a kid, everything from comic books to baseball cards to toys, as well as every rap album on cassette I could get my hands on,” Eminem said on his website. “Not much has changed for me as an adult…I’ve attempted to recreate some of those collections from that time in my life, and I know I’m not alone. I wanted to give this drop the same vibe of, ‘Oh, man I gotta get just that one or maybe even the whole set!’ It’s been a lot of fun coming up with ideas from my own collecting passion.”

You can watch a video from Eminem’s website above.