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2021 has been the year of NFTs. Whether it was artists, musicians, or even actors - we saw everyone hop onto the trend. Perhaps what makes NFTs (non-fungible tokens) a particularly interesting choice for musicians is how it democratizes the industry and the way it’s reforming the way artists make and own their music.
While talking about how NFTs are revolutionising the music landscape, Fortune wrote, ‘There’s hardly a limit to what can be tokenized. Music tracks, artwork, pieces of text, apps, files, and even real-life objects - such as concert tickets or unique merchandise - can all be accompanied by their own NFTs, enabling artists and content creators to deliver new experiences to their audiences.’
Closer to home, more and more artists are looking at NFTs as a way to slowly enter the emerging digital marketplace. Among these is Mumbai-based rapper, Rae Mulla, who has released a digital record NFT via White Noise (an NFT based art endeavour founded by Hari Pilaka, Parth Taco & Sajid Wajid Shaikh) on the NFT music marketplace, Catalog.
To know more about the upcoming album and how NFT’s are changing the creative landscape by revolutionising the creator economy, we had a conversation with the rapper.
On The Creative Process Behind The Album
Rae Mulla released the first single– Maggi from his upcoming album lol on November 19. Talking to Homegrown about the creative process behind lol, scheduled to release on November 26, he said, ‘I’m very impressionable. I read one or two lines about one or two things and it sticks with me subconsciously. Makes me very depressed. For the album, I tapped into those ideas and stayed delusional until it was finished.’
“I would go to Hari’s house and take my chappals off, sweep my feet on the ground, make sure they got filthy; that would make me more creative. I would hate myself and everyone around me, it made the album more emo, which is what I was going for. I’m like a method actor, I like getting immersive. I’m fine though, just a dramatic guy” he added further.’
On His Music NFT Drop
What makes music NFTs incredibly appealing to musicians is the versatility and uniqueness (there cannot be two identical NFTs) that they offer. For Rae Mulla the idea for an NFT drop came from his executive producer, Hari Pilaka, who also leads NFT operations for Polygon, ‘He founded an avant-garde, art house called, White Noise, with Parth Taco and Sajid Wajid Shaikh, which initially planted the idea of an NFT release.’ says Rae. ‘I’ve always trusted him blindly with my music and I trust all three of them blindly with the NFT launch. They’re handling it.’
Expanding on how the NFT drop came to be, Hari Pilaka, one of the co-founders of White Noise said, “We believe that NFTs are the perfect delivery mechanism for art. Market value can be determined, tracked, and tagged in its truest form. We wanted to get in early on this new, cutting edge paradigm.”
Adding to this, Parth Taco, the other co-founder of White Noise says, ‘In a world where Spotify and other streaming services are sucking the worth out of musicians, NFTs bear the promise of bringing the purity back in market value for artistry. Gone are the days where people would see prophets appear on toast, if you’re an artist, NFTs are the real second coming of Jesus. I just think that the future is fucking tasty.’
The Future Of Independent Hip-Hop And Street Culture
Independent hip-hop and street culture are poised for a breakout in India, it is within this context that our conversation proceeds and he tells me what his hope for it is.
“I hope there’s room for everyone, the cool people and the weirdos.’ he explains. ‘I’m a bit of a weirdo with my music. I hope everyone does well in their own lanes. I don’t want it to be like one sound gets all the attention.’
On a parting note, I ask him what we can expect next from him. Using an anecdote to best explain his current frame of mind and musical endeavour he says, ‘My friend Manan is a photographer. He has a book with only black and white pictures. He said his second book will be only all coloured pictures. That’s how I feel. My first album was in black and white and my second album will be in colour. It’ll be called Smut. I’ll try dropping some singles next year too. I also want to write and direct a limited series or a movie one day. It’ll be sick once I actually write it.’
You can check out Rae Mulla on Instagram here.
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