Earlier today, Death Row Records announced an upcoming NFT collection celebrating the record label’s 30th anniversary. The collection, set to release tomorrow (November 23) is completely inspired by Snoop Dogg’s debut album, Doggystyle, and each of the eight tokens included within the collection feature music from the 1993 record.
And according to Rolling Stone, Snoop’s Death Row label mate, the late Tupac Shakur, will also be the subject of a brand new collection of NFTs.
The Tupac collection, consisting of 18 tokens featuring unseen photos from the “Changes” rapper’s debut album release party, is being sold by hip hop journalist Lawrence “Loupy D” Dotson, and will be available on the NFT platform, OpenSea.
Dotson told Rolling Stone that he took the photos at the party for Pac’s 1992 album 2Pacalypse Now, and had them developed but never published them. During his years as a substitute teacher, Dotson said he would show the photos to students as a reward for good behavior, but admitted to Rolling Stone that he didn’t know what to do with them until the idea of an NFT collection rolled around.
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Now, Dotson is making the photos available for purchase, and says they show a side of Tupac fans never got to see.
“When you look at these photos you can see it in his eyes: the determination, the passion, the swagger, the shine,” Dotson said. “These photos show a side of the man not many people got to see. This ‘Pac wasn’t covered in jewels and Versace; this ‘Pac was humble and hungry. He knew what he going for on stage that night, and that was to become the legend that he is.”
This NFT collection comes on the heels of The Shakur Estate’s announcement that Tupac Shakur. Wake Me When I’m Free, a fully-immersive museum experience, will open in Los Angeles in January, 2022, before it makes its way around the United States and other international cities.
Check out the NFT collection on OpenSea, and let us know what you think of the NFT trend in hip hop down in the comments.