You Down With NFT?

April 21, 2021

Originally published March 26, 2021.

Front Seat

This is what's driving hip-hop this week….

NFT, yeah you know me. If you’re like me, pretty much all you’ve probably seen on your social feeds every day is talk about NFTs, blockchain and cryptocurrency. It’s either the future, a fad, or somewhere in between. Or a pyramid scheme wrapped in coding. Perhaps it’s all of these things. We still don’t really know and there’s still not a firm baseline for any of this stuff yet. However, while American life is undergoing change while we’re in the midst of two pandemics, Covid and a reckoning around race, there’s been a hard look at the economics in this country and how financial technology could even the playing field. Today, we’re going to take a closer look to get familiar.

Back Seat

Respect my mind or die from lead shower.

In the past week, outlets ranging from The New York Times to Vulture to XXL to the Money 4 Nothing podcast have all attempted to tackle the NFT craze.

To understand what an NFT is, first one has to believe in the full potential of the internet. That the democratization away from gatekeepers, market manipulators or the powerful, tilts favor toward creators. Specifically digital creators. Because an NFT, short for non-fungible token, is essentially a digital craft: memes and gifs come to mind, but also code and images, and also music, videos, games and text.

Donald Glover littered the web with offerings, but in essence he could have bundled these up and sold them as an NFT.

And the key is that these are sold in limited quantities directly from the creator to the consumer. The authenticity is registered via blockchain, a public digital ledger, of sorts, to keep everything on the up and up. Depending on the parties involved you can pay with dollars or cryptocurrency.

Got it?

An example I keep thinking about to streamline the idea (at least in terms of music) is what Enhanced CDs were supposed to be; the CD-ROM technology that featured extras whenever you bought an artist’s album. Oftentimes, however, these weren’t actualized to their fullest extent because of dial-up internet, computers that didn’t have the processing power or faulty product. But what about what Donald Glover did with his Because the Internet album? He lodged clues deep on message boards, performed a limited run of shows, built a boutique site and also a meme generator. Glover littered the web with offerings, but in essence he could have (and still can) bundled these up and sold them as an NFT. (Examples abound: unreleased Drake material, Puff Daddy conference call recordings [I AM A SAVAGE!], or all those blog rap records that have been lost to expired Hulkshare links.)

There’s been headlines of soaring price tags attached to NFTs. That has some thinking is a get-rich scheme. Or that the powerful are already infiltrating. What’s the make of these price points?

I think Ian Schafer said it best on Twitter. If you’re going to invest in an NFT, you’re banking on the future of the creator, not the value of the NFT present day. Think of it as if you bought one of the first 50 pieces KAWS made when he was hawking them in Jersey City as a kid. You would have to have believed in him then to have that massive value now. Some participants are driving up prices for reasons of their own; I’ve seen it called activism to bring attention to this new frontier and I’ve seen it described as a way to cut it down by pointing out the absurdity of it (like buying a fart for $85).

It remains to be seen in a world where everything is copy and pasted online, remixed and borrowed, and lifted from TikTok to boost media company’s IG profiles, if there’s a continuing market to own numbered 1’s and 0’s of code.

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Blockchains are databases of transactions but not quite databases. It has more in common with Wikipedia than Excel, because of the public nature of contribution to decentralize it. Again, in music terms, more Napster than Spotify. Unlike Wikipedia, though, it’s not meant to be edited, only imputed into as a harbinger of recordkeeping. Sort of like the certificates of authenticity for those coins they would hawk during commercials between A-Team reruns.

The blockchain is the big hedge or the grease that makes this system between cryptocurrency and NFTs work.

As Investopedia cites:

The goal of blockchain is to allow digital information to be recorded and distributed, but not edited. Blockchain technology was first outlined in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta, two researchers who wanted to implement a system where document timestamps could not be tampered with. But it wasn’t until almost two decades later, with the launch of Bitcoin in January 2009, that blockchain had its first real-world application.

The Bitcoin protocol is built on a blockchain. In a research paper introducing the digital currency, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, referred to it as “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.”

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Cryptocurrency is the elixir in all of this in ways that, to be honest, I still don’t fully comprehend. Akon has his own Akoin. Jim Jones is heavy in the game, too. Ja Rule has the audacity to sell a Fyre Festival poster as an NFT. Creators of all stripes are launching their own currency to be used in transactions by their fans for their goods. Best believe we’re going to see more and more rappers pivoting away from starting liquor brands and moving toward crypto. After a pit stop of launching cannabis lines, of course. The idea, though, I imagine, is the small transaction fee for converting your real money into their currency and done at the scale of a fan group could net an artist some real revenue stream.

The internet has always had a Wild West feel to it and as the structure in society changes and we inevitably move from one industrial revolution to the next, parties jockey for position in the next iteration of their respective economy. Chance The Rapper couldn’t exist to the degree he has and originally launched in, say, the late ‘80s when the means to operate as an indepent were too high of a hurdle. We’re going to get a bubble, for sure, before that we might get the next rap star who finds a way through this digital maze.

Will that make for a more fair process?

Trunk

Music, reads, podcasts and videos (music and more) I'm checking for.

(The floodgates for hip-hop 2021 are starting to open up; there’s been a lot of new music the past two weeks. This week some notable albums arrive. Gonna list those first.)

  • You already know, if you been reading BF for a minute now, I’m geeked for this album, out today: Young Dolph and Key Glock, Dum & Dummer II. [Listen]

  • Rod Wave is really becoming the truest in the motherfucking game. His latest, “Tombstone,” is a hustler’s poem with a wild visual that will put a lump in your throat. His new album, Soulfly, will be a priority this weekend for me. He also stopped by the Breakfast Club. [Watch] [Listen] [Watch]

  • YBN Nahmir drops Visionland. He has resiliency in his voice on the project and some Lord Have Mercy in his flow (at least on “Still.” Unrelated, but of note, he samples Toto’s Georgy Porgy on “Streets.”). I’m rooting for him. [Listen]

  • 24kGoldn looks to shine bright once the pandemic passes. He’s getting the big The New York Times treatment: rapper on the rise to stardom. His new LP, El Dorado, is out today; “Top” is dope, “Love Or Lust” could fit on alternative radio, “Empty” with Swae Lee is gonna be big. [Read] [Listen]

  • Had a chance earlier this week to hear Vic Mensa speak on a Zoom call about his new EP, I Tape. I admire the clarity he has about his work. I did a live interview with him a few years ago, where his sister was in the green room and she was in tears afterward over his thoughtfulness speaking about “Wings.” [Listen]

(On to singles….)

  • M-Town wins again. Moneybagg Yo teams with Future for “Hard For The Next.” It’s like Space Age Pimpin but in Auto-Tune. Ha. [Listen]

  • Anuel AA is built for a record like “Whoopty.” CJ recruits the heavy hitter for the Latin Mix of his banger and the Puerto Rican fire spitter delivers. Ozone is in the cut too (and rips it) and I’m wondering why they didn’t I’m call this the Boricua Mix? [Listen]

  • Speaking of Latin though, this Karol G single, “El Makinon,” featuring Mariah Angeliq, slaps. It’s from Karol G’s looong-delayed third album, KG0516, out today. [Listen]

  • I haven’t been impressed much by Coi Leray (other than her shots at her dad, Benzino) but, here, she gifts us a quality raunchy anthem, “Big Purr,” with Pooh Shiesty riding shotgun. [Listen]

  • Brockhampton back. The unruly collective recruits Danny Brown for “BUZZCUT.” More please. [Listen]

  • Complex hits up Roddy Ricch for their cover story treatment. I liked it better when their was a video component to this splashy editorial. Because this particular profile is zzzz; too long and goes nowhere. Spotlighting it, though, because Roddy is important and Complex is too. Just didn’t happen here. [Read]

  • We’re gonna be back outside again soon and shows will return. This Marker piece sorts through what that means. [Read]

  • Dom Kennedy is readying From The Westside With Love 3. [Read]

  • Salute: Verzuz wins an NAACP Image Award. National Registry now includes illmatic. The “Desus & Mero” writing team (which includes the hosts) won a WGA Award (and Mero back after a Covid spell.) [Read] [Read] [Read]

  • Jimmy Iovine talks to Rich Kleiman for the Boardroom: Out Of Office pod and the legendary producer got off his hagiography treadmill and really came with the gems [Listen]

  • Calboy reloads with Lil Wayne on “Miseducation.” [Watch]

  • Lil TJay announces second album, Destined 2 Win, is dropping 4/2 and he let the tracklist loose and also the video for “Headshot.” [Read] [Watch]

  • Curren$y pays homage to “Jermaine Dupri” and JD was impressed. [Watch]

  • Justin LaBoy visits the Breakfast Club. Dude is hilarious on IG and he’s been able to translate it to his Revolt show, so far. This was a good chat where the Queens native talks about hooping overseas, his come up and Demon Time. Respectfully. [Watch]

  • Quavo is dipping his toes further in the Hollywood pool as an executive producer for “The Resort,” a predictable thriller but looks like it could be a fun watch. The trailer hit online this past week. Related: Freddie Gibbs is going to make his acting debut and as a leading man. [Watch] [Read]

  • Rob Kenner’s “The Marathon Don’t Stop: The Life and Times of Nipsey Hussle” bio is in stores now. [Buy]

Backseat Freestyle is written and produced by Jayson Rodriguez for Smarty Art, Inc. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, feel free to email me: [email protected]. And follow me elsewhere:

Instagram: @jaysonrodriguez

YouTube: smartyartllc

Podcast: coming soon