The rapper Jay-Z is auctioning a newly commissioned NFT inspired by his 1996 debut album Reasonable Doubt. The NFT draws from album’s original cover art which features a portrait of the young musician. It will be sold in an online Sotheby’s auction. A physical version of the image painted by Adams resides in Jay-Z’s personal art collection.
The work is offered in a single-lot sale titled “Heir to the Throne: An NFT in Celebration of JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt 25th Anniversary by Derrick Adams.” The bidding started on June 24 at $1000 and will remain open until July 3. The sale proceeds will go to benefit Jay-Z’s charitable organization the Shawn Carter Foundation, which supports access to secondary education for underserved adolescents.
In statement about the work, Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture, said the NFT sale commemorates the album’s “deep legacy of cultural importance.” Jay-Z owns Adams’s painting Style Variation (2020). A painting by Adams appeared in Beyoncé’s 2020 film Black Is King.
Sotheby’s has also made moves to tap into the music industry, staging its first sale devoted to hip hop memorabilia last year. Some criticized the sale for profiteering from a genre that had long been rejected by New York’s cultural elite. “These spaces only wanted a piece of hip-hop once it proved to be profitable,” wrote Alphonse Pierre via Pitchfork.