Memories from his early years with art inspired by the NFT movement
That’s right, it’s not April the 1st yet but the legendary rapper, music mogul, and entrepreneur Snoop Dogg aka Calvin Broadus Jr. has announced his own NFT collection. The collection ‘A Journey with the Dogg’ brings together Snoop Dogg’s memories from his early years with art inspired by the NFT movement. These artworks include an original music track called NFT — which Snoop dubbed ‘an instant classic inspired by the movement’.
Interestingly, similar to other music artists that have dropped digital collectibles recently such as Aphex Twin and Pussy Riot, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to charity and good causes. In Snoops case to support young, emerging artists in the crypto space as well as Snoop’s Youth Football League.
Kind of a big deal
Snoop Dogg has reigned for more than two decades as an unparalleled force in music who has raised the bar as an entertainer and globally recognized innovator. Famously appearing with Dr. Dre and Eminem on countless tracks and live shows. An award-winning entertainer, Snoop Dogg has released 19 studio albums, sold over 40-million albums worldwide, reached the top of the international Billboard charts countless times, and received 20 Grammy nominations.
Crypto.Com NFT Marketplace
The collection will premier on the new Crypto.com NFT Marketplace. A recently launched endeavor by the exchange that now has over 10 million users worldwide. The platform has been ramping up operations recently with other announcements in the last few weeks about the sponsorship of the Aston Martin racing team, whilst also making moves to become fully decentralized.
Still, it is curious as to why Snoop did not choose a more popular platform such as Rarible, OpenSea, or Foundation to premier the collection. The deal smells of commercial needs from both parties and arguably Snoop will be getting paid no matter if his NFTs sell or not.
The NFT hype has been seriously fuelled in the last few weeks by celebrities and musicians turning their hands to the creation of digital collectibles. Calvin Harris, a leading EDM producer, and international DJ has also shown his support for the NFT movement stating that NFTs “can completely revolutionize the music industry”. In addition DJs like 3LAU, Sam Feldt, Deadmau5, Carl Cox and Steve Aoki have been releasing NFTs in recent months as well.
It’s clear that the movement is strong but arguably, so will be the resistance. The music industry is entrenched in historical ways of doing business. They will need to have a serious rethink about how to move forward or else possibly risk artists jumping ship, starting new projects, and self-launching themselves. Projects such as Audius and Euler Beats have definitely started working towards that goal.
Something that’s all good for an act such as Snoop Dogg but where will it leave budding artists and grassroots talent. NFTs certainly provide a very real way to solve the long-standing problems in the creative world, but we’re just getting started.
Oh for rizzle
This collection feels more akin to the collections being dropped by NFT advocates WAX more than the digital collectibles and artwork such as NBA Top Shots or CryptoPunks. On WAX drops happened with digital collectibles from famous people like Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner, which contained never-before-seen pictures and personal memories from the two celebrities.
The Snoop Drop is planned for Saturday, April 3rd, those interested can register here.
