Bored Ape NFT Metaverse Band Loses Beyoncé, Bruno Mars Producers

Universal Music Group announced today that their virtual metaverse band, Kingdom-which contains characters based on Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Artwork – has tapped a couple of very real music producers who have created hits for superstars like Beyoncé, Jay Z and Bruno Mars.

Veteran producers – Chauncey “Hit-Boy” Hollis and James Fauntleroy – will take on the roles of co-executive producers and songwriters behind the Bored Ape band, working to create music for NFT-inspired characters to act in videos and immersive online metaverse worlds.

Coming from UMG’s 22:22 label, Kingship was created by record executive Celine Joshua. The characters in the band are based on Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs licensed from noted collector Jimmy “j1mmy” McNelis. It’s similar to the seminal virtual band Gorillaz, albeit with a handful of valuable NFTs used as source material.

Hit-Boy is a renowned hip-hop producer and three-time Grammy winner who has produced hit singles for artists such as Beyoncé, Kanye West, Rihanna, Jay Z and Ariana Grande. Fauntleroy, meanwhile, is best known as a four-time Grammy-winning songwriter for artists such as Bruno Mars, Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake, plus he has produced music for various other musicians.

A recent kingdom teaser videoreleased in August to mark a campaign with the M&M’s candy brand, offered the first taste of their musical contributions to the project. In July, Kingship released its own NFT project, launching 5,000 Ethereum key cards that grant special access to exclusive content and token-gated future experiences.

An NFT is a blockchain token which represent ownership of a digital item, and can be used for things like artwork, Bored Ape-style profile pictures, collectibles, and access cards to online communities and live events. The NFT market swelled to $25 billion value of trade volume in 2021, per data from DappRadar.

Bored Ape Yacht Club is arguably the most famous project in space, and it’s moving up worth billions of dollars of trade volume at the same time as they gather many celebrities and athletes. Yuga Labs, creator of the Ethereum project, raised $450 million earlier this year valued at $4 billion, and works on his own metaverse the game is called The other side.

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders are granted broad rights to use their own images to create and sell derivative works of art and products. Some owners have used their Bored Ape photos for things like fast food restaurantscannabis and alcohol packaging, toys and clothing.

UMG and 22:22 are not the only creators who see possibilities in the intersection between Bored Apes and music: Storied producer and Ape owner Timbaland has also produced music from Bored Ape-based artists. He also released a single as his Bored Ape and sold NFTs of the music video itself.

Meanwhile, rappers Eminem and Snoop Dogg – also both Bored Ape NFT owners – recently released a collaborative single called “From The D 2 The LBC” which have their Ape pictures in the music video. They too performed the song live via 3D Ape avatars at the MTV Video Music Awards, selling limited edition merchandise based on their NFT characters.