No matter how deeply connected with Notorious BIG, those in charge of pioneering rapper real estate believe it could be even deeper. “Wait on the digital line and drop $ 100 on AI-generated art.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the estate will make available to the public a list of fans who first showed their dedication, and then to the general public a 3,000-piece NFT collection that uses algorithms to restore the look of late icon signatures. I made it. Notorious NFT is working on a suggestion that keeping an artist alive is more about keeping the artist in mind than keeping it in a digital wallet.
For backers, this provides an opportunity to convey the essence of Biggie in a way that even the most raw bootlegs can’t. However, like many things in web3, no one looks upside down.
“This is an opportunity not only to push the legacy to the fans, but also to give them some of his legacy,” said Wayne Barlowe, a longtime friend of the rapper who is currently helping manage his property. Told. Rather than just buying what someone is selling. “
According to Barrow, Drop’s Big Popper isn’t even digital art. It is the membership of the collective that empowers the fate of “Fulton Street Freestyle”. Famous bit of viral video 17-year-old Christopher Wallace improvised the lyrics on a street corner in Brooklyn to worship the crowd.
Performance has never been licensed out. However, 3,000 NFT owners can vote on whether payment entities that want to use it as a sample or in other derivative works can do so. Organizers say details have not yet been clarified, but members may see some revenue from such sales.
This drop, called “Sky’s the Limit,” is a reference to Biggie’s posthumous 1997 hit about dreaming of a big song, and he’s the only one who has a cell phone. It’s a hint of how far the technology is from.
Of course, Biggie died 25 years ago. An industry group in Los Angeles was shot in the wake of a coastal lap feud with Tupac Shakur, who was killed a few months ago. The posthumous celebration, and the market economy, began almost immediately with the release of the Afterlife. Diamond to go (10 million copies).
Since then, it has hardly slowed down, Recorded $ 600,000 sale of its famous crown years ago.Empire State Building to commemorate his 50th birthday this year Illuminated with biggie color Combs record label has released a deluxe box set for “Life After Death”.
However, there is no commercialization that tempts you like the commercialization of web3. Barrow, entrepreneur Elliott Osagi and Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace have joined the NFT company OneOf, which was advised by Quincy Jones a while back. Auctioned Unreleased Whitney Houston demo truck NFT.
For this, OneOf chose from a series of Biggies Famous looks And I adapted them to NFT. This is a “generated drop”. That is, AI uses a small number of templates and spits out its own image with slight differences. For example, change the background color.The artist itself doesn’t exist — the organizer worked with an animation company Seriously fun.
A two-hour pre-sale “permit list” was put together by fans who submitted testimony to their dedication to determine who cracked first. Proponents say they wanted to avoid having too many speculators who would later push prices up, but admit that this is almost unavoidable (and perhaps desirable).
Biggie was known for his deep, laid-back rap style, talking about his hardships, praising his aspirations, and enjoying his success (and excess). His music was a comment on class, crime, wealth, death, and other topics that were not previously so wrapped. That’s one of the reasons he was chosen by Source as the best rapper of all time.
According to the organizers, even a simple image of Biggie holding a bag of cash has a commentary appropriate for his music.
Christopher Seeley, Creative Director of OneOf, said: “We have what Biggie has a bag of cash, and the reason he included it is not because he was talking about money, but if you still talk to his neighbors they are all him Will say how generous the community was. “
Boretta Wallace called the NFT an opportunity to “commemorate my son Christopher.” It will give fans “an opportunity to participate in and pay homage to him and their love for his music,” she said in her earlier statement.
OneOf’s Whitney Houston demo sold to a single buyer for nearly $ 1 million. Grimes also sold the collection for nearly $ 6 million, which could be seen later. A plunge in value. At $ 100 per pop, this produces $ 300,000 — less money, and perhaps less problems.
Not all musician NFTs will take off immediately.Struggle singer Chris Brown saw Only 3% of his collection went on sale a week after its release last month. (Sealey and Barrow say they expect the Biggie NFT to sell out within minutes.)
The release of NFTs is related to an initiative called “The Brook”. This is the so-called Biggie “Metaverse” where people can take on avatars and travel around the world, recalled by his songs. It can hit users as either the future, new participatory storytelling, or brand overkill, undermining the purity that many people have fallen in love with artists in the first place.
The principal says, at least, it fits perfectly into the rapper.
“When you think of Biggie, you think of a man sitting at home looking out the window and giving you a big picture of what he saw,” Barrow said. “He was connecting you to the story by putting himself there, but he was bringing you there. So, in Biggie’s heart, the Metaverse was already there. “
But what about the speculative bubbles that are unique to NFTs? Is this a unique compliment? Or is it a way to make more money by making heavy use of code?
Sealey said he believes Biggie’s drop points the way forward and stays true to hip-hop roots. “The essence of hip-hop is remix culture. We give our fans creative control over the most famous freestyle ever,” he said.
He said that technical tools such as watermarking, AI art, and the unified spirit of blockchain go far beyond re-release of the album and far beyond recreating the artist’s work in the present tense.
“This is not a post-mortem decline,” Sealey said. “It brings everything here now.”
