Snoop Dogg is making history as the first music label in the metaverse, but what does it mean for the music world? Will crypto-labels be the next revolution or just the latest chapter in the matrix?

Calvin Broadus Jr. better known as “Snoop Dogg” has become a household name beyond just rap music and Hip-Hop. The Crips member and first major star of Death Row records became the face and voice of West Coast gangster music in the nineties, and over the course of his twenty plus year career parlayed that into numerous ventures outside of rap music. From movies, to homemaking to commercials and sports, now “Uncle Snoop” has a commercial empire that as of Forbes last list values him at over $160 millions dollars. Snoop’s latest venture might be one of his boldest. Coming full circle earlier this year, Snoop announced that he’d acquired the rights to the Defunct Death Row Label. The prodigal son returning home to the label that sparked his fame and fortune would be a nice quaint, feel good Hip-Hop story, but it’s much realer than that. Snoop also announced that he would re-launch the imprint as an exclusively NFT label and began to pull its existing catalog from all streaming platforms. 

“There’s so much drama in the NFT…” the world of Cryptocurrency, the Metaverse and Blockchains has been rocketing into the mainstream over the last several years. A relatively obscure form of digital currency that was only being used by a small group of internet operators for digital transactions has now become the equivalent of a digital era gold rush. Sports franchises, celebrities and commercial brick and mortar companies are all getting in on the new prospects and Snoop himself is looking to be one of the shrewdest. In 2021 alone between his NFT art collection, Metaverse experience “the Snoop Verse” and NFT of his latest album B.O.D.R.  he accumulated around 62 million dollars (that’s cash, not crypto) alone.

 The simplest way to describe Non Fungible Tokens or NFT’s are that they are a digital “deed” to an original (and sometimes exclusive) copy of a digital file. The uniqueness of the file and the security of the blockchain are where its value lies. Within this new digital economy, the NFT’s appeal especially for artists is in the ability to fully profit from and control your product and thus the market. In the traditional music industry artists have little to no leverage to maximize profit. Standard contracts relinquish ownership rights to labels, in some cases even parts or all of the publishing as well in exchange for advances. As an independent artist, you may be able to maintain ownership of your art, but the split when it comes to your distribution, again leaves artists at a disadvantage. When music streaming platforms began to emerge in the mid to late aughts, it was touted as a revolution for artists and a death knell to the industry. As evidenced however by the criminal splits that occur on Spotify, Tidal and others, the industry has yet again gotten the upperhand. As the NFT market emerges and grows, however for all creatives not just musicians there seems to be a new way to level the playing field. The creator of the NFT immediately has full and sole control over its trade and purchase. The owner alone is the one who can generate profit from it, via sale or trade. Is it any wonder that Snoop, one of the first artists on “the first independent label to go major” Death Row, would look to be a pioneer in this new frontier? But what does this mean for consumers? What does it mean for an “artist” signed to an NFT “label”? According to Snoop, he wants to be “the first music label in the metaverse” and he’s clearly going to achieve that. It still is hard to know what is the long term stability and viability of crypto for consumers, investors, and in the case of NFT’s artists as well. Right now, the market still at least feels wide open, and Snoop has definitely jumped the queue in as far as his contemporaries and peers. It’s going to be a little bit of time before we know if Snoop’s role as early adopter to the NFT and metaverse world is a boom or a bust, but as of now he’s coming up all aces. 

Lost in the excitement of this new and powerful economy is precisely how will the current ways in which most people still consume music and art gell with this emerging market and relatively new technology? While fast becoming mainstream, NFT’s and cryptocurrencies aren’t fully there yet, and major companies spanning across all industries are moving quickly to not only put their marker down but monopolize the market as best they can. With every innovation, the biggest players ultimately have always gotten the advantage in the end. While an individual such as Snoop with an established catalog, fame and reputation not to mention the upfront capital and resources to market, can promote and design his NFTs and experiences at the highest level, it remains to be seen how or when a lesser known or more obscure artist can take this technology and use it solely to catapult themselves into a higher financial tier. As this world becomes more and more accepted by the masses, and more and more major companies get hip to the game, and how to rig it, at least historically we’ve seen that window will close, and we will wait for the next innovation to hopefully level the field. Until then though it appears that the chapter for the world of crypto hasn’t been fully written..yet. 

MIkal Amin Lee