On December 23, legendary musician Eminem paid roughly $462,000 for a non-fungible token (NFT) ape from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). Eminem purchased the NFT for 123.45 Ethers on the marketplace platform OpenSea.
Eminem updated his Twitter profile photo to that of the dazed-looking ape wearing a brown military-style cap and hip-hop attire after purchasing the NFT.
Rolling Stones magazine selected Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III, one of the 100 greatest artists of all time. Over the course of his career, the Detroit native has sold over 220 million records worldwide. Eminem has received 15 Grammy awards and the 2002 Oscar for best original song, Lose Yourself, from the film 8 Mile in his three-decade career.
The BAYC #9055 ape owner is known as ‘Shady Holdings,’ according to information on the OpenSea website. According to CoinDesk, Eminem has purchased approximately 20 NFTs on OpenSea under the alias Shady Holdings, including Lil Baby Doodles X NFTs, Ditaggdogg#1 with a stencil image of the rapper, and Superlative Apes #3880.
BAYC member GeeGazza, who sold the monkey, thanked Eminem on Twitter for the purchase details. “But to sell the ape that gets @Eminem into the @BoredApeYC, the ape that he is exploiting to millions of followers on social media.” Man. Crazy. It’s been manifesting for months. “It’s strange,” GeeGazza said on New Year’s Eve.
According to Georgio Constantinou, artist manager at Web 3 digital agency Six, the company assisted the rapper in purchasing “the EminApe.” According to Decrypto, the agency has worked on previous projects with bands such as electronic artists Tycho and Galantis and rap group Wu-Tang Clan.
Other celebrities, including NBA player Stephen Curry and talk show presenter Jimmy Fallon, have purchased ape NFTs in addition to Eminem, according to Decypto.
According to CoinDesk, this is not Eminem’s first encounter with cryptocurrency. In 2018, the rapper acknowledged Bitcoin in his songs from the Kamikaze album, Not Alike.
