Controversial rapper Tory Lanez, who has attracted the attention of the wider cryptocurrency community after releasing a non-fungible token (NFT) streaming album that sold the entire stock of one million copies in less than a minute, has been stabbed in prison.
Indeed, the Canadian rapper is serving a 10-year prison sentence in California Correctional Institution at Tehachapi for shooting a fellow rapper and songwriter, Megan Thee Stallion, in the foot in 2020, and recently, another inmate attacked him, stabbing him 14 times, as TMZ reported.
According to other reports, the 32-year-old Lanez is currently stable and hospitalized with both of his lungs collapsed.
Tory Lanez and his NFT-exclusive album
That said, many crypto fans might be familiar with Lanez’s reputation as an NFT performer, as he was one of the early-birds in the digital asset space, choosing to release a full streaming album as an NFT-exclusive project – and with stellar success that saw ‘When It’s Dark’ sell out completely in seconds.
As a reminder, publisher Emmersive Entertainment, also known as E-NFT, presented the seven-track project on August 10, 2021, while Lanez was still on trial related to shooting Megan Thee Stallion. E-NFT also features albums by Nick Cannon, Bootsy Collins, Super Buddha, and others on its marketplace.
Lanez himself first announced the project in an (now deleted) Instagram post, followed by a teaser trailer and an announcement video, in which he explained to his fans that they’d be able to order the album for $1 and then resell it at a higher price (although reselling wasn’t possible before August 24).
According to the contributor notes from Genius.com, Lanez advertised his project as the “first ever ‘streaming NFT album,’ stating in the third Instagram post:
I FUCKING CRACKED THE CODE !!!!!!🤯🤯🤯 🔥MY FANS CAN NOW LISTEN TO EXCLUSIVE & UNRELEASED MUSIC FROM ME 😈🔥😈 AND THEN TRADE AND RESELL MY MUSIC AT WHATEVER PRICE THEY WANT 🌎💵💵!!! THIS IS MY WAY OF NOT ONLY GIVING BACK TO THE UMBRELLAS THAT SUPPORT ME ⛱… BUT ALSO INNOVATING A NEW TECHNOLOGY & WAY OF … ARTIST TO FAN , and FAN TO ARTIST APPRECIATION !!!! (Y’all support and buy our shit all day … ITS TIME WE GET RICH TOGETHER !!! 💵 LETS SUPPORT AND GROW TOGETHER📈📈 … AND MOST IMPORTANTLY.. LETS GET THIS FUCKING MONEYYYY !!!!💴💰💵💸💷💶🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑 …. AUG 10 #WhenItsDark #ENFT … LINK IN BIO ‼️‼️
The NFT controversy
However, as Rolling Stone reported at the time, dozens of customers have taken to Reddit and Twitter (now X) to complain about various errors on the platform that made it difficult to sell the NFT, leaving a lot of those hoping to profit empty-handed.
In fact, Anthonio Vasquez, an NFT artist known as Frag, said he purchased 10 copies during the NFT’s presale period for a total of $10, but then things started to “roll downhill” as soon as the album’s marketplace opened up, with the website crashing immediately, taking over 24 hours to fully come back online.
What’s more, he also said that none of the other websites where he had bought and traded NFTs charge 15% on every sale, only the website promoted by Tory. When he confronted Lanez about it, pointing out that the fees would make profiting from the NFT unlikely, the rapper said that plenty of people made way more than they invested, and even if reselling for only $2, it would still count.
Meanwhile, lots of other celebrities have jumped on the NFT train, be it buying, selling, or launching their own one-of-a-kind tokens, including Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Eminem, Travis Barker, Jimmy Fallon, Dave Chappelle, Madonna, Logan Paul, Mark Cuban, Method Man, Von Miller, and many others.
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