Nas Selling Streaming Royalty Rights to 2 Songs as NFTs

Nas is the latest rapper to embrace the NFT world as he prepares to sell partial rights to two of his songs.

Two tracks belonging to the legendary rapper, ‘Ultra Black’ and ‘Rare’, will be released as “tokens with embedded streaming royalty rights” on January 11th through Royal, the startup founded by 3LAU. It launched last year with one of 3LAU’s own tracks.

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“Having Nas be the first artist to sell royalty rights through Royal is an incredible affirmation of our mission,” said Royal CEO and co-founder Justin Blau (3LAU). “It’s proof that artists across genres feel strongly about democratizing ownership of their music, and that they want to be connected to their listeners on a deeper level,” he added.

Nas said in a statement: “I am always looking for new and unique ways to connect with my fans, so I am excited to partner with Royal on their new endeavor in order for my fans to connect with my music in a new way.”

Without further ado.. we're honored to announce Hip Hop legend, innovator and entrepreneur @Nas will be the first artist to drop his music on royal on January 11th! https://t.co/TkyWvOJOvY pic.twitter.com/hQGGXVuPhz
— royal (@join_royal) January 6, 2022

The first sale starts on January 11, where users can invest in Nas’ music by buying LDAs, or “limited digital assets”, backed by streaming royalty rights, reports Decrypt. LDAs are Royal’s “extended standard of an NFT”—essentially a Polygon-based NFT with additional functionality which in this case is streaming rights.

The two songs are ‘Ultra Black’ from his 2021 GRAMMY winning album King’s Disease, and the single ‘Rare’ from the follow-up 2022 album, King’s Disease II. Both albums were released independently through Nas’ own label Mass Appeal which gives him greater control on what he wants to do with them. Find more details on the Royal site here.

Nas recently released his new album Magic over the holidays which has gained a lot of critical praise.