15 (Surprising) Famous Musicians Launching NFT & Crypto Projects

Written by Ramsey Brown.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past couple of years, you’ve surely heard the hype surrounding NFTs. Non-Fungible Tokens have been shaking up both the art and crypto world but its most recent advances have been in the music industry.

NFTs offer a number of advantages for music. For starters, they can help artists monetize their work in a new and innovative way. They can also help create a more engaging and interactive music experience for fans.

But most importantly, NFTs can help artists connect with their fans in a more meaningful way. Fans can own a piece of their favorite artist's work, and artists can create a more personal connection with their fans by sharing exclusive content and experiences. 

The possibilities and benefits of NFTs are almost endless. This is why it's no surprise that many famous artists and celebrities have decided to get into the NFT space themselves. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at 15 NFT projects recently launched by some of today's biggest music artists — some of which may surprise you. We’ll discuss why these artists got into the digital art space and how their projects have revolutionized their source of income and fan communities. Let’s dive in!

Rapper, entrepreneur, and hip-hop legend, Nas took a much different approach to his NFT by essentially offering a hybrid of crypto and traditional investments.

Nas partnered with music rights startup Royal on the venture. Together, the two launched tokens that will split 50% of the streaming rights (and streaming royalties) for select songs in his catalog. 

The “Ultra Black” and “Rare” NFTs were such a success, all tokens sold out within minutes — quickly crashing the OpenSea website due to the overwhelming amount of traffic online.

In April 2021, 15-time Grammy award winner Eminem joined the NFT craze with his very own project, Shadycon. 

The variety of ‘Eminem-approved collectibles’ included original instrumental beats produced by Slim Shady himself specifically for the release. The drop was said to be inspired by the rapper’s passion for vintage toys, comic books, and trading cards that trace back to his childhood days.

Eminem raked in an estimated $1.78 million from his first NFT release, with portions of the proceeds donated back to his Marshall Mathers Foundation and charity.

Blau, better known as the EDM star 3LAU, sold off 33 NFTs to celebrate the three-year anniversary of his Ultraviolet album. Various tokens included rewards such as custom songs, access to never-before-heard music on his website, custom art based on his music, and new versions of Ultraviolet’s 11 original songs.

3LAU broke records by selling the collection of limited edition NFTs for $11.7 million in the first-ever tokenized album sale, making it one of the highest-grossing music NFTs in history. 

In March, Gemini’s NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway helped make Grimes 

nearly $6 million richer in 20 minutes. The Canadian artist made $5.8 million selling a collection of 10 exclusive digital artworks — some, accompanied by original songs — called the WarNymph Collection, Vol. 1. 

Grimes, who was born Claire Boucher, collaborated with her brother Mac Boucher in creating the works. Some of the proceeds from the NFT sales went to Carbon180, an NGO dedicated to reducing carbon emissions.

An unreleased Whitney Houston recording, made when she was 17, was bought as an NFT for $999,999 back in December 2021. Discovered by Primary Wave Music and her Estate last year, it was auctioned on the Quincy Jones-backed OneOf NFT platform.

The collection also includes thousands of fixed-price NFTs, including archival photos from Houston’s early life and career. Proceeds from the sales of the collection will go to the non-profit Whitney E. Houston Foundation.

TakeOff, ⅓ of rap supergroup Migos, launched his very own NFT project called ‘Apes in Space’. The collection launched in December 2021 featured 9,999 space-ape themed NFTs. At 0.3 ETH each, these apes cost significantly more than the primary sales of most avatar projects.

Takeoff has already begun building a brand around his budding collection, highlighting the project IRL by wearing unreleased Apes In Space merch. In the project roadmap, it also lays out plans to send one lucky collector into orbit on a real-life space journey with Takeoff.

Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer Lionel Richie teamed up with visual artist, Klarens Malluta to create an NFT that allows fans to own iconic moments from Lionel's career.

The digital assets were released in four limited editions: Hello, Vinyl Lionel, All Night Long, and Louder Than Words. Each one with a price tag of $250 and is available in 150 editions. The drop included art based on two never before published images and inspirational dialogue from the legend himself.

Snoop Dogg has long been interested in the world of NFTs, buying tokens under a pseudonym for quite some time. As of last year, he had about $17 million worth of NFTs and about 250 non-fungible tokens in his Blockchain wallet. 

Last March, Snoop released his own NFT, which consisted of the original track and the Dogge coin. However, the singer dreams higher and wants to go beyond how other brands use NFT.

Snoop is in the process of developing his own ‘Snoopverse’ in the Metaverse. Along with this venture, he also has plans to transform Death Row into the NFT record label. 

“Just as we revolutionized the industry by being the first major independent label, so I want to be the first major label in the Metaverse.” - Snoop Dogg

© 2023 Omari MC, LLC.  All Rights Reserved.

© 2023 Omari MC, LLC.  All Rights Reserved.