Eminem & Ellen DeGeneres are Latest Celebs Into NFTs

Another week, another batch of celebrities entering the NFT space.

Over the past month, we’ve seen Snoop Dogg sell an original NFT music track and art collection, Tony Hawk auction off NFT skateboarding videos, and Paris Hilton (who quietly sold her first NFT for $17k in August, 2020, way before the current market boom) emerge as one of the most informed and visibility passionate NFT acolytes.

Now, hip-hop icon Eminem and daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres are jumping in, too.

Drops on Drops on Drops

On Sunday, Eminem’s first NFT collection, “Shady Con,” dropped on Nifty Gateway. The collection included a 1-of-1 video with an original beat produced by Eminem currently auctioning for over $45k, two 50-edition art pieces for $5k each, and 3 open-edition virtual action figures for $313 each. Eminem collaborated with a digital artist, D.O.M, for the visual elements, and the closed-edition pieces all include signed physical goods as well.

All-in-all, Eminem’s NFT drop garnered close to $2M in sales.

DeGeneres dropped her NFT collection Monday on Bitski after monologuing about not understanding NFTs on her show. The monologue, which highlighted the ridiculous amounts of money collectors have spent on Cryptokitties, concluded with DeGeneres taking a picture holding an intentionally shoddy cat drawing and announcing that she would be selling the picture as an NFT for charity.

DeGeneres is offering fans an open-edition NFT of the selfie for $100, a 10-edition NFT screengrab of her taking the selfie for $2.5k and a 1-of-1 NFT video of the monologue currently auctioning for $10k.

At time of writing, only 38 of the open editions and one of the 10-editions has sold, bringing DeGeneres’ total current NFT sales to just over $16k.

The Volatility of Celebrity NFTs

While some celebrities involved with NFTs, like Paris Hilton, have actively done the leg-work to learn about and advocate for the space and its artists, others are potentially looking at NFTs as a flash-in-the-pan revenue stream.

The problem is that when celebrities don’t factor in the well-being and longevity of the larger space, their NFTs won’t necessarily adhere to best-practices. Some celebrity NFTs even include major licensing caveats that wouldn’t apply to a regular artist’s work.

For instance, DeGeneres’ NFT includes a Warner Bros. NFT License Terms clause clarifying that purchasing the NFT “does not give you any right, license, or ownership in or to the Artwork other than…a personal non-exclusive, non-sublicensable license to view and display the Artwork associated with the NFT solely for the following purposes: (a) for your own personal, non-commercial use; and (b) as part of a marketplace that permits the display, purchase and sale of NFTs, provided the marketplace has mechanisms in place to verify the owners’ rights to display and sell their NFTs.”

While celebrity NFTs bring increased mainstream awareness to the space, that doesn’t necessarily make them good investments. When buying an NFT from anyone, celebrity or otherwise, it’s always a good idea to make sure you understand what you’ll actually own.