Welp here we are. I’m putting out my first NFT!

Let me catch you up:

I’ve been producing for about 10 years now and singing & rapping for about 4. I started producing under the moniker Blaklyte. I used to make fairly producer-centric electronic music made up mostly of remixes, bootlegs, and instrumentals. I had some mild success gaining support from various notable tastemakers and artists, opening for some of my idols in electronic music, and competing in original song competitions that took me across the country to LA and Electric Daisy Carnival in LV. But eventually I began feeling boxed in with electronic music and felt my creativity was being constrained to very specific formulae in order to get my music placed in front of larger audiences. (Story of a creative’s life, right?) So in 2018 I switched my focus over to my side project, Mozado. Mozado was centered more around pop and R&B than electronic music and over the years this eventually morphed into hip-hop and pop as I began experimenting with recording my own voice over my own beats. Nowadays I am creating hip-hop and pop mixed with whatever genre I am identifying with most on a project to project basis. Pre-pandemic is was a ‘trappy-go-lucky’ style and more recently with my upcoming album ‘Girls Run the Internet’ I’m exploring rock, alternative, and grunge influences. Wherever I go next will explore those same hip-hop and pop sensibilities while inserting a new theme or genre that I feel encompasses both my personal experiences, as well as what is going on in the world.

I produce, write, mix, and master all my music. And I conceptualize, write, and direct shooting for my music videos, which are currently shot on iPhones. All of this solo talk was born out of necessity (art creation is expensive). And what began as a hinderance, has turned into something I take pride in. Being able to see my ideas come to life from the spit-balling stage all the way to a fully fleshed out, finished work is like a drug to me, and I’ll do it forever. That said, I don’t work in a complete vacuum. My friends for life at WeGDaw (a Boston collective), my brother, my girlfriend, and my artist friends and collaborators (shoutout Ry who is responsible for so many sounds on the album) all continue to amaze me with their help and support, creatively, logistically, and administratively.

The Problem (and Solution):

Web3 offers new up and coming artists a unique opportunity. Attention is in extremely high demand in 2022. It’s easier than ever for anyone to try their hand at creating music. Additionally, live performing opportunities have taken a hit with many independent music venues closing their doors as a result of the pandemic. On top of all this, inflation has increased the prices of just about everything, especially here in the states.

I say all this to say it’s more expensive than ever to find potential fans, appear consistently in front of them, win them over, give back to them, and ultimately launch an artist’s career.

This is where web3 music comes in for me. In a music industry where historically, ‘independent’ has almost always meant ‘underfunded’, music NFTs are in a position to give power back to creators. Fans, believers, investors, and anyone else can buy an artist’s NFT and in return join a community, gain social status or clout, become a unique and identifiable supporter, and even potentially flip the NFT for a profit. This opens the doors to some new concepts and incentives that are some of the biggest news in the music industry since its formation over 100 years ago. These developments are still being hashed out and discovered, and new technology is being created to take advantage of different aspects of this new frontier. I love talking about the current happenings of tech and web3 in particular so if you’re interested in discussing or learning about these developments hit me up on my Twitter.

When all is said and done, my most fundamental goal right now is to fund my growth by selling collectibles based around my music and my experiences as an artist.

I want to allow fans to support my career endeavors directly and get something of real value in return. I believe owning something fully traceable is the future of value store. I also believe we’re moving towards a micro cultural world where large-scale cultural moments and people exist in ever-fleeting moments, while niche cultures thrive and experience consistent support and community participation for longer periods time. And I believe NFTs will play a huge role in facilitating that consistency via a healthy cycle of value exchange within these niche communities.

If there’s one point that the GameStop short squeeze or the Dogecoin run drove home its that value is determined by the people. Not by large companies, or conglomerates, or middle men, and not by critics, marketplaces, or algorithms. A breathtaking number of platforms from Spotify, to Apple Music, to YouTube, Tiktok, Instagram and more not only center their businesses around using other peoples creations, but they also don’t pay those creatives anything close to a fair compensation for it. Them deciding that each of the millions of songs on their platform are worth the same amount of money (fractions of a penny) per play to millions of listeners is painfully convenient for their business model and even more painfully inconvenient for artists. Luckily those methods of valuation will end up becoming obsolete within the next couple decades as blockchains allow mini markets to form around products in ways they haven’t been able to before.

I want my NFTs to be valuable long after I’m dead, with royalties off of secondary sales supporting my grandkids. Walt Disney went around collecting intellectual property because he understood that ideas, under the right circumstances, can be timeless. Major labels have done the same with music for over a century, collecting recordings and IP of music. Now artists and fans get to partake in ownership in a new way.

About Cannibal:

Cannibal, the song

Cannibal is a comparison between record labels and vampires. The song is a single off of my upcoming album entitled “Girls Run The Internet”, a title that seems to steeped in truth even as we speed towards web3. Shoutout all the women in the space getting shit done, building communities, tools, apps, careers, and fighting to keep the space inclusive and positive in its formative years.

The song unabashedly taunts artists who fall victim to bad label situations, warning about advances, minimal royalties, and the forfeit of ownership and control. All for the comfort of having the label “hold your hand” through the process.

Cannibal, the video

I purposely made the storyline for the music video a mirror of the song’s lyrical content. Vampires suck the blood of people the way major labels suck the creativity of artists and on a darker tone, both labels and vampires will even bring people back from the dead to do their bidding and exploit them.

The video follows a new label signee as he’s caught off guard by the executive he’s working with (me). Its just another cautionary tale about dealing with record labels.

The whole video was shot by friends on iPhones and directed by me. We rented out a few locations, apparently trespassed in one location, and even shot right in my back porch to create this story of an artist falling victim to a bloodthirsty vampire label executive.

If you’re a fan I hope you liked my performance. If you’re an artist I hope it made you think about doing your research on record labels and ownership, and if you’re a potential investor/collector I hope you are realizing that if I can create this with a few friends, an iPhone, and Premiere Pro, then there’s no telling what I can create with the funding for a whole production team, pro cameras, set designer, actors, and the works. Sky’s the limit. And if you’re here after the NFT has already been sold, stick around and look around, because there will be plenty more coming. More on that below in the FUTURE section.

Cannibal, the NFT

The Cannibal music video is a 1/1 NFT to fund the marketing for my debut album. The owner will own Mozado’s very first NFT and be considered highest level of fan and supporter one could be. This comes with perks including but not limited to:

• access to unreleased music (as it comes)

• access to all live performances

• back stage passes whenever possible

• my personal phone number

• physical merch

• and many more perks as they become logistically feasible

It’s important to note that while these perks are great, the true value of any music/art NFT I release will be in the art itself and it’s connection to the career and community I am building.

This NFT is my very first foray into web3 as a creator and is set to be minted on Zora. Funds from the sale will go directly into marketing the video to a wider audience via web2 channels. The goal is to grow simultaneously on web3 and web2 with one fueling the other.

The future:

From here the plan is to get more musical content on the blockchain(s). Next up, the album will drop as editions, and then I’ll be releasing my back-catalogue bit by bit all the way back to my first rap song ‘Hellacopters’. This as I continue writing and releasing new music, and shooting new music videos. I’m also very open to collaborations, though full disclosure, I am selective on who I work with based on a number of factors. If you’re interested in creating together reach out via email, or DM.