The digital artwork is also on view in real life at Sotheby’s York Avenue Galleries and virtually via Sotheby’s gallery in the Voltaire Art District in Decentraland.Roc-A-Fella Records recently stopped co-founder Damon Dash from selling his own (non-fungible token) NFT of Jay-Z’s 1996 “Reasonable Doubt” album. Now the billionaire Hip-Hop icon has announced that he will be making the sale himself. Online bidding starts at $1000 and is open until Friday morning a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit the Shawn Carter Foundation. Heir To The Throne: An NFT In Celebration Of Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt 25th Anniversary is being sold by Sotheby’s in a special single-lot auction. My portraits aim to capture the sensibility, optimism and beauty of urban life, and in JAY’s work I’ve found tremendous kinship.” It tells the story of someone from Brooklyn occupying the urban space - a place that is as central to my own work as it is to his.
JAY’s album Reasonable Doubt changed the game 25 years ago, and continues to influence so many of us. “With this NFT project, we jointly embrace the opportunity to further the conversation about how artists of different mediums contribute to a more inclusive society. “Over the years JAY has collected and supported my work, and so this collaboration is particularly fulfilling,” Adams says. You can see a static image of it above the full animated version features glowing red embers and smoke rising from Jay-Z’s cigar in the shape of the number 25. Heir To The Throne, which was the album’s original title, is a one-of-one animated digital artwork created by multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams. And to celebrate the anniversary, Jay-Z is auctioning off… *checks notes*… an NFT inspired by the album cover. Jay-Z’s landmark debut Reasonable Doubt turns 25 today.