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02 Mar 2023

Conservatives Sour About Hershey’s Canada Featuring A Trans Woman In Its International Women’s Day Campaign

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Citing Rising Cost Of Ingredients, Hershey's Raises Prices 8 Percent

Source: Scott Olson / Getty / Hershey’s

First, they were mad at M&M’s for making Maya Rudolph its spokesperson. Now, they have set their crosshairs on Hershey’s.

There are a bunch of sour people on the internet now after Hershey’s Canada announced that Fae Johnstone, a trans woman, would be one of five women to be featured in Hershey’s Canada’s International Women’s Day campaign.

Hershey’s Canada rolled out its Her For She campaign on Wednesday, which features limited edition wrappers with the likenesses of five Canadian women, including Johnstone.

Johnstone is an award-winning trans activist and a professional LGBTQ+ advocate. When speaking about her involvement in the campaign, she said, “I hope this campaign helps give more young women and girls role models and possibility models.”

Immediately bitter conservatives lost their collective marbles, and #BoycottHershey began to trend on Elon Musk’s Twitter. “How does it honor women to feature a MAN wearing lipstick? Did you feature a white man in blackface during Black History month?,” one Twitter user stupidly wrote.

“Hershey’s celebrates #InternationalWomansDay featuring a biological male You can’t make this shit up #BoycottHersheys,” another MAGA clown wrote. 

These people are genuinely not okay.

But, for every person showing expressing blatant transphobia, there was someone to defend Hershey’s for standing in solidarity with Trans women.

“It’s sad that #BoycottHersheys is trending because of transphobia. I think we’re going to see conservatives start lashing out more at gay marriage as well. This is not OK,” another Twitter user wrote. 

The right is dug in deep on identity politics. You don’t have to look further than U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who constantly spews hateful rhetoric daily toward the Trans community.

You can see more reactions in the gallery below.

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Photo: Scott Olson / Getty

1. The dog whistling is getting very loud.

2. Exactly

3. LOL, no one is erasing women

4. That’s fine more chocolate for us to enjoy.

5. L M A O, these people need help.

6. There are four other women in the campaign though

7. She sure told them.

02 Mar 2023

Kanye West Spotted With New Wife Bianca Censori In Cali

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Burberry Spring/Summer 2023 Runway Show - VIP Arrivals

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For the past few weeks, Kanye West has been on his best behavior as he’s been MIA from social media and the public eye. It could be the result of being happily married to Bianca Censori.

According to Page Six, the controversial artist was recently seen with his new wifey out and about in Carasau Cafe in Culver City, Calif. this past Tuesday (Feb. 28). The newlyweds couldn’t seem happier. Strolling to dinner in matching all-black attire, Censori and Kanye were all smiles as photographers captured every second they could of their dinner date.

The couple — who said “I do” during a non-legal ceremony in January — twinned in their typical all-black outfits for the low-key date night.

The Yeezy employee proved to be Ye’s new muse in a turtleneck vest with a sheer long-sleeve shirt underneath, booty shorts over sheer tights and knee-high heeled boots.

While Censori, 27, ditched her purse for the night, she was photographed carrying an iPad into the quaint cafe.

For a while now, Kanye West has been out and about spewing antisemitic rhetoric and far-right propaganda that caused him to lose his partnerships with adidas, Balenciaga and The Gap. The splits caused Kanye to go from billionaire status back to a simple millionaire out on these streets.

Though adidas says they have recalled half a billion worth of Yeezy’s and have them in storage with no clear plans on what to do with them, rumors have it that adidas and Kanye are hammering out a deal to move the remainder of the product before completely cutting ties with him (again). Whether that’s true remains to be seen.

But for now, it seems like Ye is simply enjoying time with his wife and keeping his nose clean from anymore controversial statements that would land him in more hot water. Can’t be mad at that.

Do y’all think Kanye has cleaned up his act or is he just holding back until the next controversial outburst? Let us know in the comments section below.

02 Mar 2023

NYC To Settle Lawsuit Over 2020 NYPD Kettling Of George Floyd Protesters

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Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty

The city of New York is poised to settle a lawsuit brought against them by protesters in the Bronx over the New York Police Department tactics involving “kettling” at a protest for George Floyd in 2020.

According to reports, the city is preparing to pay a large sum of money to settle a class action suit brought on by individuals who were part of a racial justice protest in the Mott Haven neighborhood in the Bronx on June 4, 2020. In the documents filed in federal court, the sum ranges between $4 million and $6 million. Each person of the hundreds involved could receive $21,500. Those who were issued desk appearance summons could net an additional $2,500, and the plaintiffs named who brought the suit could get another $21,500.

The city will also shell out $2,550,000 to pay the fees of the attorneys involved. Amali Sierra, one of the lead plaintiffs, spoke about the settlement in a statement: “This settlement serves as testimony of the wrongdoing by the hands of the NYPD. It is a reminder that this institution is not built to protect Black and Brown communities.”

Sierra and her sister, Samira, were among the group of over 300 people protesting the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the direction of then-Chief of Department Terence Monahan in coordination with the NYPD’s legal team, officers on the scene at E.136th Street cornered the protesters preventing them from leaving until after the imposed 8 p.m. curfew that was in effect at the time.

NYPD officers then proceeded to pepper spray the protesters and strike them with batons before arresting them en masse. Legal observers from the Legal Aid Society and the National Lawyers Guild were also detained and handcuffed along with those passing by. The Legal Aid Society sent out word of the incident via Twitter at the time, which was responded to with video footage.

A spokesperson for the NYPD issued a statement denying any wrongdoing by the department: “It was a challenging moment for the department as officers who themselves were suffering under the strains of a global pandemic did their utmost to help facilitate people’s rights to peaceful expression while addressing acts of lawlessness including wide-scale rioting, mass chaos, violence, and destruction.”

The spokesperson followed up by adding that they’ve “re-envisioned” their policies since 2020. The news comes as the city is currently seeking to settle more lawsuits over the department’s behavior that year.

02 Mar 2023

Ray J Calls Off His Divorce From Princess Love for a Third Time

Ray J and Princess Love Norwood have called off their divorce for the third time. According to Los Angeles Superior Court documents filed Wednesday (March 1) and obtained by Billboard, the “Sexy Can I” singer has moved to dismiss his petition to split from Princess Love, whom he married in 2016.

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The filing requests for the divorce petition to be dismissed without prejudice.

This marks the third time the couple, who both starred on Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood and share 4-year-old daughter Melody and 2-year-old son Epik, have walked back their divorce plans. Their latest reconciliation comes more than a year after Ray J filed in October 2021 to divorce the 38-year-old Prella Cosmetics founder, citing irreconcilable differences.

Billboard has reached out to Ray J for comment.

“HAD TO GET MY WIFE BACK AND START FRESH,” he wrote on Instagram in January. “I LOVE MY FAMILY!! Ill FIGHT OVER AND OVER FOR LIFE FOR MY FAMILY AND KIDS!!”

In February, he shared videos from his romantic Valentine’s Day celebrations with Norwood.

The couple’s divorce trilogy dates back to May 2020, when she first filed for divorce months after welcoming her second child with the 42-year-old R&B star. A couple months later, she asked for a dismissal of the filing.

Then in September that same year, Ray J filed to end the marriage, asking for joint custody of their two children at the time. The couple’s second split was called off in March 2021, with Ray J saying a month prior in an interview that he and Norwood “care for each other.”

“We’re just respecting each other as human beings, as parents,” he said at the time. “We’re in a great place and who knows what the future holds.” Just a few months later, though, Ray J filed the now-resolved third divorce request in October 2021.

02 Mar 2023

EMPIRE’s Afrobeats Writing Camp: Fireboy DML, Asake & Olamide Get Together in the Bay

It was just over 18 months ago that Fireboy DML released the record that would change his life.

But the song — “Peru,” which, aided by a remix with Ed Sheeran, would ultimately reach No. 53 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 2 on the UK Official Singles Chart and No. 1 on U.S. Afrobeats Songs — was almost never released at all. Standing in the lounge of EMPIRE’s studio space in San Francisco, where he originally cut the record in 2021 (memorialized by the line “I’m in San Francisco jamming”), he’s explaining how, if it wasn’t for the enthusiasm of EMPIRE founder/CEO Ghazi pushing him to release the record, he might never have put it out due to his own perfectionism. (Which, as an EMPIRE staffer standing nearby points out, is due to him being an Aquarius.)

But four hours later, that alternate timeline where Fireboy’s single didn’t break through into the U.S. and help Afrobeats’ global takeover seems implausible, even absurd. Shortly after 10:00 p.m., Ghazi leads Fireboy into the studio’s white marble lobby, where two dozen EMPIRE employees, songwriters, producers and managers, as well as fellow Nigerian Afrobeats artists Asake and Olamide, the latter of whom also runs their YBNL record label, are waiting to surprise Fireboy with an RIAA plaque of platinum certification for “Peru.” After a short bow and a swig from a bottle of champagne, Fireboy gives in to the calls for a speech, thanking everyone in the room and calling the plaque the “perfect definition of success,” to a round of applause.

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The impromptu ceremony is the highlight of another day at EMPIRE’s afrobeats writing camp, which the Bay Area-based independent music company initiated last month to bring together some of its leading African artists to record together at the ever-evolving studio space near San Francisco’s Mission District. It’s a space that currently boasts three studios and a live room, but one that is still being developed. When it’s finished, some time this summer, it will include two more recording studios, a pair of podcast studios, a gaming room with a massive, 30-foot LED screen along one wall and a swimming pool in the back yard, in addition to the lounge (which will eventually become a theater space with Dolby Atmos sound), kitchen and dining room, all of which is outfitted with EMPIRE logos, custom lighting and specially designed sound systems, which Ghazi has overseen.

“We’ll literally be able to create pieces of content around all these verticals, and then this becomes a hub of where you gotta visit,” he says, giving a tour of the space earlier in the afternoon. “There’s gonna be no way around it. It’s going to create too much energy, it’s going to be impossible to overlook.”

The studio serves as the center of the writing camp, with Fireboy, Asake and Olamide the resident stars of the show. It hasn’t all been work since the three Nigerian artists got to the Bay — over the previous few days, they sat courtside at a Golden State Warriors game, went to wine country in the Napa Valley and took in the sights on a tour around the city. But each day, starting around 3:00 p.m., it’s back to the studio to get back to business, building on the momentum of recordings from previous days and channeling the creativity that comes from working in an environment designed to let them simply exist as artists, with few distractions.

For us, however, this particular Tuesday started out with oysters and clam chowder at Hog Island Oyster Bar on the water (Shrimpy is the hookup; if you know you know) before braving the spitting rain to head to a photo shoot for Fireboy and the shoe company Clarks, where he’ll be part of a campaign that will result in a concert in the metaverse down the line. (In addition to the regular photo shoot, Fireboy was tasked with filming things like catching a rolled up magazine, which will be transformed into a microphone in the digital realm.) The shoot had been in progress since 10am, but the afternoon started to wear on, so soon it was into a sprinter van and off to the studio, where Asake and Olamide are holed up in Studio B, looping a section of a track that Asake is workshopping, with Olamide over Asake’s shoulder reading lyrics off his phone.

Forty-five minutes later, Olamide was holding court outside around an electric fire pit, while two engineers — one of them multi-Grammy winning mix engineer Jaycen Joshua, who EMPIRE flew up from L.A. for the occasion — worked on the mix to Olamide’s next single in Studio A, tweaking drums to get the punch just right. The room was still under construction just days before, and was finished just as the artists started to arrive in the city, having been rebuilt in just three weeks. In the lounge, Fireboy was talking about his new grill and his plans to dye his hair blue — while in the kitchen, a local chef, brought in to make okra soup, smoked mackerel, shrimp and garlic crabs and cornbread for the Nigerian contingent each night, was mid-cook, blasting Kevin Gates in the newly-remodeled space. But then it was back to work, with Asake and Fireboy disappearing into different studios, then swapping spaces a half hour later.

Shortly after 7:00, it was time to eat, with staff and crew at the long banquet tables and the artists sitting in the backyard, before EMPIRE’s regional head of West Africa, Mobolaji Kareem, brought a half-dozen of us into the live room to hear new Asake and Olamide records that the two have been working on over the past week. The songs are unmixed and only half done, he said, and I was the first non-EMPIRE person to hear them, and he danced through them and broke them down after each. We moved to Studio A — for the bigger speakers — to hear them again, as well as forthcoming records from Kizz Daniel, who is also working on his next release, albeit not in San Francisco at the moment. Eventually, EMPIRE’s senior vp of A&R Tina Davis kicked us out of Studio A — there was mixing to do, after all, and while listening to the records is exhilarating, there’s still work ahead.

Indeed, even as everyone gathers in the lobby for Fireboy’s plaque presentation, the celebration is short-lived; before long, Fireboy is back in Studio B, listening back to a song he had initially cut last night. It was after 10:00, but time hardly matters; the night before, they were in the studio until around 3 a.m., and the likelihood is that the evening will be trending in that direction again. But what comes of those late night hours will be the subject of another day, and another round of listening, tinkering and building, creating the next generation of records that will continue spreading the Afrobeats movement across the globe.

02 Mar 2023

Bad Bunny Scores Tenth Video to Hit 1 Billion Views on YouTube With ‘Soy Peor’

Bad Bunny has scored his tenth music video to hit one billion views on YouTube. One of Bunny’s earliest hits, 2016 trap anthem “Soy Peor” was one of the songs that helped put him on the map. The track — produced by the artist himself — peaked at No. 19 on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart.

The official visual for the song is Bunny’s tenth video as lead, featured artist, or collaborator to achieve this milestone. Elsewhere on YouTube, the chart-topping artist also has presence on the platform’s U.S. Top Songs chart thanks to the the swooning “Ojitos Lindos” video, which rises to No. 25 as “Titi Me Preguntó” takes No. 4 and his collaboration with Arcángel “La Jumpa” comes in at No. 81. Bad Bunny takes No. 2 on U.S. Top Artists and No. 5 on Global Top Artists. 

Since “Soy Peor,” Bunny has only catapulted to global success with albums YHLQMDLG, Las Que No Iban a Salir, El Último Tour del Mundo and Un Verano Sin Ti. The latter two of those debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making him the only artist to top the tally with a Spanish-language album — not once, but twice.

Most recently, Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti won the IFPI Global Album Award, becoming the first Latin artist to ever win an IFPI global award, according to the organization. The set spent a total of 13 non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 and became the first Spanish-language album to be nominated for album of the year at the Grammy Awards.

Revisit “Soy Peor” below.

02 Mar 2023

Wayne Shorter, Legendary Jazz Composer/Saxophonist, Dies at 89

Wayne Shorter, one of the most admired and singular American jazz composers and saxophonists of the modern era has died at 89. At press time no information was available about the cause of death, but a spokesperson for label Blue Note Records confirmed to Billboard that the 12-time Grammy winner had passed in Los Angeles on Thursday (March 2).

After brief runs with the Horace Silver Quintet and the Maynard Ferguson big band, Shorter’s career began in earnest in 1959 when he joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, a four-year tenure that found him graduating to musical director for the group while blossoming into a multi-faceted composer and master of the driving, hard bop sound.

“Visionary composer, saxophonist, visual artist, devout Buddhist, devoted husband, father and grandfather Wayne Shorter has embarked on a new journey as part of his extraordinary life – departing the earth as we know it in search of an abundance of new challenges and creative possibilities,” read a statement from a spokesperson for Shorter. “Always inquisitive and constantly exploring – ever the fearless and passionate innovator – Shorter was 89 years young and had just won his 13th Grammy Award in February.”

“Shorter was surrounded by his loving family at the time of his transition and is survived by his devoted wife Carolina, daughters Miyako and Mariana, and newly-born grandson, Max.  Most recently Wayne had been contemplating his next project, a Jazz ballet,” it continued.

He then moved on to a fruitful six-year run with jazz icon Miles Davis, first in his Quintet, where Shorter was able to stretch his musical wings and add layers to his already formidable talents, including on Davis’ landmark 1969 jazz fusion albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew.

A master on the tenor saxophone, by the time Shorter left the Davis orbit he had moved on to playing soprano sax in the 1970s and 80s with keyboardist Joe Zawinul, bassist Miroslav Vitous, percussionist Airto Moreira and drummer Alphonse Mouzon in the fusion supergroup Weather Report; other members of the group of the years included genre-defining jazz bassist Jaco Pastorious, beloved session drummers Steve Gadd and Omar Hakim and Sly and the Family Stone drummer Greg Errico.

Born on August 25, 1933 in Newark, N.J., Shorter studied music at New York University in the mid-1950s, developing a style influenced by such jazz pioneers as John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. In addition to helping to pioneer the fusion movement — which encouraged improvisation and the folding in of rock, funk and R&B styles and the addition of electric guitars and keyboards — the deeply intellectual Shorter also released a series of beloved solo albums during his tenure with Davis.

Among those albums are Juju — which featured members of Coltrane’s quartet — and Speak No Evil — with some of his Davis bandmates — the latter considered by many jazz critics to be one of the finest examples of both Shorter’s compositional brilliance and a foundational text for students and lovers of the post-1950s jazz era.

In addition to his stints in those bands, Shorter also collaborated with folk icon Joni Mitchell on 10 albums, Brazilian composer/singer Milton Nascimento, fellow former Davis bandmember Carlos Santana (on 1980’s The Swing of Delight) and, in perhaps his most high-profile non-jazz collab, he played the extended solo on the title track to Steely Dan’s 1977 Aja album.

Shorter continued to record and perform into the 2000s, forming his “Footprints” acoustic quartet in 2000 with drummer Brian Blade, bassist John Patitucci and pianist Danilo Perez, with whom he released four live albums, including the 2006 Grammy-winning album Beyond the Sound Barrier. He also toured with the supergroup Mega Nova in 2016, which featured Santana and Hancock, as well as bassist Marcus Miller and drummer Cindy Blackman Santana.

In the statement, Shorter’s friend of six decades Hancock said, “Wayne Shorter, my best friend, left us with courage in his heart, love and compassion for all, and a seeking spirit for the eternal future. He was ready for his rebirth. As it is with every human being, he is irreplaceable and was able to reach the pinnacle of excellence as a saxophonist, composer, orchestrator, and recently, composer of the masterful opera ‘…Iphigenia’. I miss being around him and his special Wayne-isms but I carry his spirit within my heart always.”

After more than half a century on the road and in the studio, Shorter retired from performing in 2018 due to health issues. Over the course of his career, in addition to the dozen Grammy awards, Shorter received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016, the Polar Music Prize in 2017 and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2018.

Over his 70-year career, Shorter’s works were performed by a long list of orchestras and performers, including: the Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Lyon Symphony, National Polish Radio Symphonic Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as ensembles including soprano Renée Fleming and the Imani Winds; he also received commissions from the National, St. Louis and Nashville symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the La Jolla Music Society.

Shorter released his final album, Emanon, in 2018.

Listen to Shorter’s “Footprints” below.

02 Mar 2023

Here Are the Biggest Music NFTs in February as Rihanna-Linked Project Takes No. 1

February was a big month for music and NFTs. Spotify plugged into Web3 with a token-gated playlist experiment, while Def Jam Records signed a virtual band. Snoop Dogg returned with a fresh NFT drop and Rihanna fans got the chance to own streaming royalties in “Bitch Better Have My Money,” right in time for her Super Bowl halftime show — although the NFT drop was not without controversy.

Overall, crypto prices crept higher in February, with Ethereum now up 46% from the start of the year. Based on analysis of sales data from 19 different NFT platforms, independent releases combined with secondary sales volume on OpenSea, here are the 10 biggest-selling music NFTs and collections in February 2023.

1/ Rihanna – “Bitch Better Have My Money”
Monthly trading volume: $532,452
Primary sales (Feb.): $63,000
Secondary volume: 284 ETH ($469,452)
Drop date: Feb. 9

While Rihanna was making history at the Super Bowl, her music was making headlines in the NFT space. A portion of streaming royalties in her track, “Bitch Better Have My Money”, were sold via NFTs on Web3 platform Anotherblock, netting $63,000 in sales and a further $469,452 in secondary trading volume. The hype was amplified as Rihanna opened her Feb. 12 halftime set with the track, sending global streaming figures 594% higher in the week ending Feb. 16.

The NFT drop was controversial, though. It was not officially endorsed by Rihanna; instead, the royalties were unlocked through producer DEPUTY’s share in the track, and it’s unknown whether Rihanna was aware of it. The NFTs also quadrupled in value on the secondary market, shooting far beyond logical expectations for return based on the streaming calculations.

The collection was later halted on OpenSea for “promising fractional ownership and future profit based on that ownership” — something OpenSea doesn’t allow — proving that NFT projects positioning themselves purely as investments are still at risk of regulatory scrutiny. 

View the collection on OpenSea.

2/ Violetta Zironi – “Another Life”
Monthly trading volume: 167 ETH ($276,552)
Primary sales (Feb): ~110 ETH ($182,160)
Secondary volume: 57 ETH ($94,392)
Drop date: Feb. 17

After a successful genesis drop last year, singer-songwriter Violetta Zironi returned in February with a new collection, Another Life — an EP encompassing five tracks and 5,500 unique profile picture illustrations. Holders get access to virtual shows, live concerts and the ability to use the songs for their own projects. To celebrate the drop, Zironi hosted a 14-hour Twitter Spaces marathon with her community.

View the collection on OpenSea.

3/ Kids of the Apocalypse
Monthly trading volume: 10748 SOL ($243,979)
Primary sales (Feb): 6,666 SOL ($151,318)
Secondary volume: 4082 SOL ($92,661)
Drop date: Feb.. 9

Several years in the making, Kids of the Apocalypse (KOTA) is an ambitious, immersive music NFT project built on the Solana blockchain. It features graphic novel characters, dystopian storylines and a dark-pop soundtrack from veteran Swedish producer Stefan Storm, previously of pop duo Sound of Arrows. KOTA is now the biggest music NFT project on Solana, a blockchain that offers faster speeds and cheaper transaction fees than Ethereum.

View the collection on OpenSea.

4/ MyFi Studio – “Wind Tunnels” + “Circles Are Bad”
Monthly trading volume: 94.48 ETH ($156,458)
Primary sales (Feb): 70.33 ETH ($116,466)
Secondary volume: 24.15 ETH ($39,992)
Drop dates: January 2023 (“Wind Tunnels”) and February 2023 (“Circles Are Bad”)

“Wind Tunnels” and “Circles are Bad” are innovative NFT instruments that you can play and interact with in real-time. They are fully coded onto the Ethereum blockchain itself, which is a significant departure from most music NFTs, in which music is typically stored on an external server while the NFT simply contains a link to the music. “Wind Tunnels” and the follow-up drum machine project “Circles are Bad,” however, are fully coded onchain.

View the “Wind Tunnels” and “Circles Are Bad” collections on OpenSea.

5/ Shilly: The Access Pass
Monthly trading volume: 82 ETH ($135,792)
Primary sales (Feb.): N/A
Secondary volume: 82 ETH ($135,792)
Drop date: Jan. 31

Shilly — a Bored Ape that makes chaotic pop-punk records — dropped a series of access passes in January, letting the community get involved in music releases. The most exclusive pass, the Band Pass, gives fans the opportunity to work on music with Shilly and even feature on tracks. The project was incubated by Universal Music’s NFT imprint Probably a Label.

View the collection on OpenSea.

6/ KINGSHIP
Monthly trading volume: 76 ETH ($125,856)
Primary sales (Feb): N/A
Secondary volume: 76 ETH ($125,856)
Drop date: July 11, 2022

The Bored Ape supergroup was part of a new pilot experiment with Spotify in February, through which KINGSHIP Key Card holders can now access an exclusive ‘token-gated’ playlist on the streaming platform. The news triggered a fresh wave of buying activity in the KINGSHIP collection, which captured 76 ETH in volume last month. Spotify has partnered with a total of four projects in the NFT space to test the new feature.

View the collection on OpenSea.

7/ Snoop Dogg – XYZ
Monthly trading volume: 45.2 ETH ($74,851)
Primary sales (Feb): 44 ETH ($72,864)
Secondary sales: 1.2 ETH ($1,987)
Drop date: Feb. 3

Snoop Dogg returned to Web3 to capitalize on one of the biggest current trends in the space: open editions. Rather than a fixed supply of NFTs, with open editions — which are typically sold at a lower price to make them more accessible to collectors — fans can mint as many editions as they want within a set time frame. Web3 music pioneers RAC and 3LAU both dropped open editions this month, but Snoop Doog blew the doors off. The rapper sold more than 10,000 editions in a 3-day period via Sound.xyz. Snoop Dogg’s “XYZ” sold for 0.0042 ETH (about $7) each, totaling more than $70,000.

View the collection on OpenSea.

8/ Sammy Arriaga – “Metagirl (remix) featuring Nessy the Rilla”
Monthly trading volume: 30 ETH ($49,680)
Primary sales (Feb): 30 ETH ($49,680)
Secondary volume: N/A
Drop date: Feb. 25

Following in Snoop’s footsteps, independent country artist Sammy Arriaga also launched an open edition on Sound.xyz in February, aiming to beat Snoop Dogg’s 10,000 sales with a series of NFT incentives. The biggest collector will receive a special reward, while the rest will be entered into a lottery to win a valuable NFT. At the time of writing, Arriaga has generated 5,000 sales. One collector purchased more than 1,000 NFTs, briefly becoming Sound.xyz’s biggest all-time collector in terms of NFTs held.

View the collection on OpenSea.

9/ Tycho – “The Science of Patterns”
Monthly trading volume: $19,000
Primary sales: $19,000
Secondary volume: N/A
Drop date: Feb. 25

Electronic producer Tycho reissued his 20-year-old EP, The Science of Patterns, in February as a digital release for the first time. As a twist, the record is only available as an NFT through Tycho’s Web3 fan club portal. Powered by Web3 tech company Medallion, the multitrack album format is brand new to Web3, allowing fans to stream the entire album within the NFT itself, unlike previous album NFTs which simply unlocked access to music elsewhere.

10/ WVRPSound
Monthly trading volume: 11.09 ETH ($18,365)
Primary sales (Feb): N/A
Secondary volume: 11.09 ETH ($18,365)
Drop date: January 17, 2022

WVRPSound is the biggest music NFT project ever in terms of trading volume. Since launching in January 2022, the collection of AI-generated music and animated characters have earned more than 6,000 ETH in volume (approximately $7.3 million). The project recently announced plans to launch playable versions of its characters in The Sandbox metaverse.

View the collection on OpenSea.

Methodology: The chart was compiled using data from primary music NFT sales across 19 different NFT platforms, independent releases and combined with secondary volume data from OpenSea. Data was captured between Feb. 1 – Feb. 28, 2023. Conversion rates from crypto to US dollars were calculated on Feb 28.

02 Mar 2023

Sound Engineer For Club Nebula Says Travis Scott’s Punch To The Dome Landed Him In The Hospital, Allegedly

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On Wednesday (March 1), Travis Scott made news after allegedly getting into an altercation at club Nebula in New York City. And though his team says the situation was “blown out of proportion,” a sound engineer says Scott did indeed put hands on him.

TMZ is reporting that sound engineer only known as Mark, was on the receiving end of a Travis Scott knuckle sandwich to the head after Scott flipped him off for messing with the volume to his music. Apparently, the punch to the dome was enough to land Mark in the hospital. Speaking to Fox 5 News, Mark says the assault at club Nebula left him with pain from the head down.

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Mark said he can’t turn his head and “My neck is f**ked up. My arm is tingling. I have pins and needles going down it. “He also described the events that led to the violence, saying Travis was playing the DJ music so loud the sound was distorted. When Mark tried to lower the volume, he said Travis flew into a rage.
Travis “stuck his middle finger in my face,” Mark said, adding, “So I lowered the monitor a little bit so I could talk to him, and that’s when he ran around the speaker and attacked me.”Mark’s account of the incident comes after managing partner of Club Nebula, Ritchie Romero, released a statement saying “This is blown completely out of proportion. It was a great night.” After going off in the DJ booth and attacking Mark, Scott allegedly went on to damage a speaker and TV screen to the tune of $12,000 before bouncing out of the club.
Authorities are looking to question Travis Scott about the incident. But his lawyer Mitchell Schuster says everything is “a misunderstanding being blown out of proportion by clickbait and misinformation.” Schuster says he’s currently working with law enforcement and is confident that Scott will be “cleared of any wrongdoing.”

Even if Scott doesn’t get charged with any wrongdoing don’t be surprised if Mark files a civil suit at some point.Check out video of the damage Scott allegedly caused. And let us know your thoughts on the situation in the comments section.