Black NFT artists think they are this generation’s hip hop
Ethat same year, people from all over the world make a pilgrimage to a green Harlem whirlpool on E. 126th Street in hopes of conjuring up history. It was there in 1958 that 57 jazz icons, from Thelonious Monk to Dizzy Gillespie, gathered to take a now iconic photo for Esquire Magazine. Forty years later, hip-hop royalty, including Rakim, Grandmaster Flash and A Tribe Called Quest, took the same steps for XXL Magazine, claiming to be the generational heirs of black artistic excellence.
In June, a new group went up the stairs in hopes of getting to know the same legacy: Black NFT artists. Such a statement could give some skeptics a break. Crypto has been one of the year’s foremost cultural lightning rods, as the crypto market has fallen aggressively, hacks and thefts have increased, and pyramid schemes have thrown themselves over themselves.
But these artists and crypto-builders are confident that there is an unequivocal thruline between jazz, hip-hop and the so-called Web 3. They say that crypto can be the key to a brighter, more resilient future for black artistry, and are determined to continue bring their peers on board, bear market and neiysayers be condemned. “It’s the same: It started from nothing,” says rapper Fat Joe, who stood solemnly under the bronze staircase just as he had done for the hip-hop shoot 26 years earlier. Referring to NFTs, he said: “It’s actually the only place where you can find a level playing field. It’s time to raise awareness and let everyone know that there are opportunities for everyone.”
Fat Joe, photographed by Gordon Parks in the 1998s A great day in hip hopstands next to George Butler, who was photographed in Art Kanes in 1958 A great day in Harlem.
Gioncarlo Valentine for TIME
It is not so long ago that the number of blacks in the NFT community was close to zero. When Oakland-based photographer Brandon Ruffin became interested in space in November 2020, he found “not even a few” black voices in NFT conversations on the audio chat club Clubhouse. “It would make you ask, ‘Is this a place for us?'” He recalls.
But Ruffin, known as Ruff Draft, was still fascinated by the space, in part because it offered a strong alternative to the relentless churn of Instagram, one of the main platforms he used to showcase his work. “On Instagram, I felt more limited, as if I really had to be grounded in the algorithm if I wanted to be relevant,” he says. “When I came to the Clubhouse and met other photographers, I felt inspired and liberated from many things that did not matter. It helped me focus more on the art, and made some really good friends. ” Ruffin sold NFTs worth more than $ 40,000 in December 2021 alone.
The artists, together with various members of the community, came out for the photo recreation at stoop on Tuesday 21 June.
Gioncarlo Valentine for TIME
In November last year, chef and event organizer Manouschka Guerrier appeared at NFT.NYC – a series of lavish events that took the city by storm at the height of the beef market – and found that she was often the only black woman in the room. “It was my Uber drivers or bartenders who looked at me and started asking me questions about NFTs,” she says. “I found myself aboard many New Yorkers.” Little by little, Guerrier and others made a joint effort to bring black artists and builders into the NFT room via social media and word of mouth. A community grew.
Read more: When the NFT market explodes again, artists avert old power structures in the art world
Encouraged by this growth, Guerrier was increasingly inspired by the space’s potential for decentralization and ownership, and the way it could open up a world where artists create freely, free their work to the public and serve directly without the need for small intermediaries. . At the next NFT.NYC in June 2022, she had the idea of organizing an event that would bring together a community that had previously only interacted digitally, plant a flag for its artistic precedence and link it back to a rich cultural past.
So she sent out an open call to Black NFT artists and enthusiasts to come to Harlem on June 19 to recreate the iconic jazz and hip-hop stoop images. Around 90 people turned up, from key artists at the forefront of the NFT movement, such as Ruff Draft and Cory Van Lew, a painter whose colorful works have sold at Sotheby’s for hundreds of thousands of dollars, to entrepreneurs such as Nait Jones, a founder of NFT music startup Royal. (Notable appearances included: photographer Drift, who takes photos from the top of skyscrapers and has sold NFTs for millions, and curator Diana Sinclair, who runs the Digital Diaspora series, and hip-hop artist Latashá.)
Nait Jones, a founder of the NFT music startup Royal, left, and rapper Ja Rule.
Gioncarlo Valentine for TIME
The event also drew an older, hip-hop-oriented guard who believes that NFTs will be as powerful for them as they will be for a younger generation. Many of hip-hop’s foremost senior statesmen have jumped into crypto, including Jay-Z, Nas and Snoop Dogg. And in Harlem, a trio of beloved rappers appeared who became prominent in the 90s – Fat Joe, Ja Rule and Bun B – to enjoy the crowd and talk to younger artists. Former NBA star Metta World Peace, who launched her own NFT community in April and has long been involved in hip-hop culture, also arrived brilliantly.
Yes, Rule, who has several NFT initiatives, spent most of his time at the event hyping up one of his prostheses, NFT artist Nick Davis, who created the art series “Black is Beautiful”. “We are so programmed to believe that only the art that was made many years ago is the art that is most valued. But such great art is made today in the NFT and Web 3 area,” said Ja Rule. dream is to have Nick to be a famous name like Basquiat or Rembrandt. ”
Photographer Brandon Ruffin orchestrates the photo session with a bend.
Gioncarlo Valentine for TIME
The Web 3 site is still far from fair, both in terms of race and class. A recent study from the blockchain data company Chainalysis found that in several large crypto communities known as DAO, less than 1% of all token holders have 90% of the voting power. Back in Harlem, the event participants criticized the overwhelming whiteness of the NFT.NYC events in the city center, and the tasteless monkey sounds coming from ApeFest, an event organized by the hyper-popular NFT collective, Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Guerrier says she understands why the NFT room is being criticized, and would like to help reorient some of the goals. With the June event, she wanted to show an alternative vision for the future of NFTs, one that was not based on violent speculation, but artistry; which is common instead of recovery; which centers on black culture instead of copying it for profit, as the jazz, rock and hip-hop industry had done for generations. “There are some people who are just about money and influence. But for many of us in this room, it is about community, art and love that prevails, she says. “For black people, generational wealth has escaped us for so long. Our creation of art and the way we express ourselves has inspired so many people, but we have not been financially rewarded. At least in this space we get to do it.”
Kai Miller, a digital strategist, repeated her comments, pointing to NFTs as a potential solution to the exploitative nature of the music industry. “When you start licensing and scoring on an album, you realize that many of your favorite Black artists do not even own their masters. Why did Michael Jackson and Jay-Z have to buy back their masters?” she says. “In the NFT area, ownership is from day one.”
Artists and NFT enthusiasts showcase NFT art from the Harlem stoop.
Gioncarlo Valentine for TIME
As the group marched across the streets of Harlem, they carried posters of Davis’ lively artwork and sang “Black is Beautiful.” Once there, it took a while before everyone squeezed into Ruffin’s frame. In the end, it was Ja Rule who took command by using his booming voice to lead people into the shot. Many spectators watched, including George Butler, who was part of the original 1958 day as a child, and remembered sitting for hours on the curb next to pianist Count Basie.
Fat Joe, who was on the recordings in 1998, reflected on the link between the two events. “Everywhere you looked you saw hip hop royals,” he said of the 1998 recording. [Rule] trying to do here with the NFT world: mostly trying to use the DNA for what was – and what will be in the future. “
A Great Day in Hip-Hop, Harlem, New York, 1998 photographed by Gordon Parks.
Gordon Parks – Gordon Parks Foundation
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