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I recently had the good fortune of dropping "Money Badger" in the second wave of the new Async.art programmable music pieces using Ethereum. The drop featured 5 songs from Mike Shinoda, pak, Lee Gaito, Richie & Matthew Hawtin, Beats Antique and myself. I put together 1 layer of 3 different music pieces, 1 layer of 3 different programmed drums & a layer of vocals from 4 different emcees. The rappers are Willie Waze on "Rug Pull," Kane Mayfield on "Crypnology," & Born Unique & Kaimbr on "Proof Of Work." The layers are all available for sale and the owner of the layer chooses which state it inputs into the master track. In addition, you're able to mint a "blank" NFT and record the master output of the desired state you want, as soon as it is made available byt the layer owners.

There ends up being 27 different possibilities of final music, and also 27 different artworks. Each state of music has a corresponding state of art. For instance, the honey badger changes its head and chain depending on who's rapping. The drum machine switches between an MPC2000XL, SP-404 and a DR-550 depending on which drum layer is picked. The music features one track that is derived from the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin Audio, aka D, is known for his ability to find melodies by using the merkle roots and hashes and use a midi synth to get a melody (he explains it better than me) from the Bitcoin blockchain. So we took block 673782 and I chopped parts of it up and we were able to actually incorporate a "bit" of Bitcoin into the artwork and music. The music track changes trigger the triangles and background to change colors, with the Bitcoin logo prominently featured in the layer featuring that music. Shoutout to Mister Wise for helping with that music track as well, and for his overall mix engineer work on the individual tracks. It's a different beast to tackle when you have to mix something that won't be mastered but needs to all sound good changing and co-existing with one another.

Sophie Sturdevant does a real good job breaking it all down here.

The whole concept of programmable music and art is wild. The gamification of owning the layers can be far and wide. It will be interesting to see how this new way of creating will play out. Some cool points of programmable music are the fans can interact with the artist in ways they couldn't before, the art and music is a living and changing piece, the the gamification of quick minting, holding layers hostage, and much more, is just some thing I'm looking forward to seeing play out with all of the releases.

On May 27, 2021, I kicked off my first live 24 hour auction, with no reserve price, for my SOUND MONEY Collector Edition Set of a Hand-crafted, gold-framed record, 5 custom 7" clear vinyl records and an NFT, "Sound Money reDux." The auction took place on the Bitcoin Lightning- powered Scarce.city auction site. I created a promo video and got it out that morning, then proceeded to chat with Chris, the co-owner of the site, on a live stream to kick the auction off. You can still watch the interview and chat here. 

I created the Sound Money album over the course of 5-6 months from Fall of 2019 until late winter 2020. I dropped the album in April of 2020 and have kept finding new ways to keep pushing it out to the masses to spread the Bitcoin gospel. The latest piece is a culmination of my hard work and I decided to handcraft and build the vinyl and framed record, to add the proof of work ethos to my collection. I went record digging in Florida and secured some old vinyl jackets, this was not an easy task- most vinyl jackets have holes in them. I then, spray panted them black and ordered custom 7" stickers of the Sound Money front and back images. I placed the stickers on to make new sleeves, then I got custom lathes cut of each record on the album (front and back) and put the records in a repurposed 45 record box I found at a thrift store. All of the records have 10 custom art pieces as hubs on the vinyl. The gold frame was created by spray painting a Missy Elliot record gold, printing and cutting out card stock label for the center of the record and then gluing the record to a couplw 1 inch foam mounts to give the record a hovering effect. The details of the record were printed on a card stock paper and glued in the same manner as the record. I then went and custom matted the record with 1 inch thick artwork from the Sound Money cover and wrapped it around the piece and framed it in an acrylic glass, gold frame I ordered form the frame store. The NFT was minted on raretoshi, a new Liquid sidechain focusing on Bitcoin art.

25 Bids came in and the winning bidder was FFMAD! 

Look out for the 100 edition Sound Money LP dropping. Each numbered and the first 21 have custom designed album covers.

NEW MUSIC

Rare Scrilla Records Presents

"Genesis 1:27" Rome Streetz & ANKHLEJOHN

Album streaming everywhere now.

The album is ten tracks long, has no features, and is fully produced by Chops and myself. The album came together super easy and I whipped up the artwork to make the whole experience have a psychadelic vibe. We recorded the album during the Great Plandemic of 2020 in DC and NY.  We've dropped 2 videos thus far, for "Vyrus Life," and "Stovetop Serenade" and we've gotten great reviews thus far, here's a few looks on okayplayer, reddit, and hiphopgoldenage.

If you pre-ordered the album on bandcamp by June 1, 2021 then you received an email explaining how to claim your FREE NFT- a proof of purchase NFT- showing your support of the album early on. This is an experiment with gifting and claiming NFTs using indie music. Most people probably get turned off to seeing 3-9 figure NFTs and this is a way to give a free joint that can be viewed and traded on HEN. I chose the HEN (hicetnun.xyz) to drop the piece because the market has been strong there and it was super cheap to mint, around 5 cents each.

All unclaimed NFTs will be burned August 10, 2021 or shortly thereafter.

Be on the lookout for the vinyl drop coming this summer!

Rome Streetz x FARMABEATS x Rare Scrilla

THIS IS A RARE 1/1 AUDIO-REACTIVE NFT AND RARE 1/1 7" 45RPM CLEAR VINYL, THAT PLAYS THE VIDEO ON THE VINYL WITH AUGMENTED REALITY. 

CHECK THE AUGMENTED REALITY SPICE HERE: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJtmStcBB0g/

ENJOY THIS HISTORIC DROP!

HIP-HOP ON THE BLOCKCHIAN

I know i know, the headline is so misleading. So much wrong.

"The space is called NFT art now, Scrilla." - Everyone

"Actually, by my calculations, the President makes more by taking advantage of networks, Scrilla." - Karen

"Beeple doesnt even make cryptoart, he's been fucking wizard, Scrilla." - Beeple fans

"Its not cryptoart it is all design, Scrilla " - Pak

(these are made up quotes in case anyone doesn't enjoy muh good spirited jabs)

Look. This space is unbelievable. I mean, Beeple transcends cryptoart, NFT space, rare digital art, blockchain art or whatever you want to call this wacky and wild arm of crypto. He has been making these succulent pieces of art for 13 straight years, everyday. EVERY-Fucking-DAY. He's like the monk of Octane. The high priest of Tiger - style digital art. He just got into the cryptoart space ("cryptoart" is the term I like and I will continue to use it for the unforsee-able future, but I'm no maniac and I welcome whatever name you use, just respect my term for this article that I am freestyle writing) like a few weeks ago. Well, many many months ago if you count his ETHDenver auctions. 

Whoever is helping him and guiding him through the ideas of rare digital art-  damn, just like that the term "rare digital art" seems more appropriate than "cryptoart" for the context, in this instance - is doing well. I salute you. I'm guessing it's the Nifty Gateway team. But, since Beeple seems to be a bad man (not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good- Run DMC) and a one - of - one himself, maybe he is calling the shots. 

Lets quickly recap.

He dropped a historic 1/1 Presidential piece that wasn't even final until after the election. I don't have time to describe it, but look up the "Crossroad" piece that collector, and Metaverse- All-Star Pablo "Pyrex Picasso" won. He also had an open edition sale that 99 lucky bots and a Grammy- award winning musician were able to land. (I'm not checking for facts, but, I think RAC scooped one.) It sold out in less than a nano second. I had my window open with a UTC clock to grab one right at the drop but I lost to those damn bots. The piece was $1. He made $100. But, because he gets royalties on resales, that's not entirely true, as several went up for sale immediately for 6,000x the price and are an extremely hot commodity. 

That 1/1 Trump/Biden piece that he dropped commanded $66,666 and is in the MOCA, the most notorious cryptoart museum in the Metaverse. (I don't say that just because I have a piece in there - honk honk.) I believe his piece is probably worth closer to half a million dollars just a month later. But, I doubt it goes on sale anytime soon.

But, the real headlines just happened over the weekend. Grab yer gawd damned popcorn. He sold off his 2020 collection of Everydays for around 2.5 million dollars. Or as my VPN likes to say 408,029,369,000 Swedish Krona. That's like 131 Bitcoin. I am lucky enough to have grabbed an open edition. The open edition idea that Nifty Gateway added is great by the way. It allows anyone that wants to collect an artist's work, to grab a piece without having to battle the mega-rich collectors. I also happily grabbed a Slime Sunday piece this way after losing to bots a week or so earlier. 

I was enthralled all weekend by this Beeple drop. I literally ran traffic lights and endangered my son's life driving through Florida to make it home in time to grab one. I got one of the last open editions after I missed the initial 100 drop because I couldn't remember my Nifty login and I just switched computers. I was breaking a sweat to spend a G and be part of this moment. The open editions went for $969 each. Side note: Another interesting tactic in this cryptoart land is that spiritual numbering sequences are very important. You will see bids of 696.96, 6666.66, 102,201 and so on and so forth if you watch prices and auctions.

The next day, Saturday, December 12, the auctions of 21 of the 1/1s and the whole collection were running and some ran into Sunday. The biggest lot was sold for $777,777 to a guy named Tim. Everyone seems to know Tim. Hi Tim. Holy shit Tim. That number is the God number 6 times over, A play on God defeating Satan? TRIPLE SIX MAFIA USING GOD NUMERS. That's fucking Juicy J on crack! Juicy Jesus? Number don't lie! That shit just ties it all up perfectly. I am in awe. (I know Juicy J didn't make NUMBERS DONT LIE but he could've!)

All said, the dude sold over 600 pieces this weekend for around 131 Bitcoin. 1 + 3 + 1 = 5. 5 is Phi. The basis to the Golden Ratio! 

These numbers tell truths! I am fucking livid I didn't stick to my 3D Max classes in the early 2000s. I could've been the next Kidmograph, the next Carlos Marcial, the next Love Visuals, the next Gavin something, the next... idk. I doubt it, those folks are truly ridiculous too. High praises due.

Nobody could be the next Beeple though. He is a 1/1. A true non- fungible human. The discipline required to do what he does at such a high level is quite amazing.

I have been in the cryptoart space since before it had a name and it was just 100 people in a telegram chat making frog drawings and attaching them to a blockchain. This weekend made me really appreciate this space more. This article doesn't even count that I got to pitch cryptoart and music to a roundtable of hip-hop legends on Saturday. 

I am a nostalgic guy so I went down the rabbit hole and dug up an old interview I did in 2016 (it was published in 2017,) where I was just scratching the surface of the blockchain layers. It's a quick 7 minute joint with the Blockchain Billions podcast. I know, I know, I'm tying this amazing article up about the Lord Beeple and ending it with some posturing about myself. Well, it is my stupid blog and you can leave if you don't like it. Fuckos.

No, don't leave. Stay and download my SOUND MONEY album. I gotta eat too playaz. Or as Beeple would maybe say, "stick your dick in this shitty new music I made."

(NOTE: A lot of this info came from memory and I did not fact check the exact numbers and ownerships, but if anything needs to be edited just holler. The article is suppose to be fun and informative.)