The well-known rapper and entrepreneur Eminem, a.k.a. Slim Shady, recently bought Bored Ape Yacht Club #9055 for 123 ETH (roughly $452,000). By purchasing the “EminApe”, the 15-time Grammy award winner joins several high-profile celebrities who have recently become NFT owners.
The BAYC appears to have a striking resemblance to the real Slim Shady (please stand up). Marshall Mathers, Eminem’s legal name, is known for wearing military-style caps similar to the “Army hat” trait the Bored Ape is sporting. It is also wearing a “Hip Hop” trait jacket and gold chain which is a nod to his Oscar-award winning rap career.
Although Eminem himself has not spoken publicly about the purchase, he did recently change his profile picture on Twitter and Instagram, confirming he did complete the purchase. A representative of Six, a web3 digital agency, recently tweeted that the firm had helped Eminem with the purchase of the “EminApe”. This is part of a trend that we are seeing in major marketing firms shifting their focus to the metaverse and brokering NFT purchases for major celebrities.
BAYC Heading To The Super Bowl?
The purchase has spurred rumors that the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which has exploded into the biggest, most lucrative NFT project in the world, may be preparing for an appearance at the upcoming NFL Super Bowl. There have been several clues that have been dropped over the past few months that have led us to believe that BAYC, if not NFTs in general, will make a cameo at the uber popular Pepsi Halftime Show. Let’s breakdown the evidence.
Pepsi has been the main sponsor of the halftime show for several years. They recently dropped their own NFTs, the Pepsi Mic Drop genesis collection, which is a nod at their role in giving artists what is arguably the biggest stage in live musical performance. Headlining the Super Bowl is considered one of the most monumental milestones in an artist’s career.
This year’s live performance will feature Aftermath Entertainment, a group of award-winning, Billboard-topping artists including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and of course Eminem.
Snoop Dogg, who recently toyed with our emotions by insinuating he is NFT kingpin Cozomo de’ Medici, has been an early adopter of NFTs. He recently collected a full BAYC set including a Bored Ape wearing a pimp coat, with its matching mutations and kennel dog. He now sports the Ape as his PFP just like Eminem.
After Eminem picked up his BAYC, it was followed by further rumors that an animation company was working on a massive project that may have links to the Super Bowl, and it leaked that the project included images of Bored Apes.
If these rumors are true, it could mean the NFL Super Bowl could kick off an NFT bullrun of epic proportions. The Super Bowl consistently draws in the largest audience in all of television, upwards of 100 million views. If only 1% of Super Bowl viewers become interested in NFTs, that equals 1 million new NFT buyers – a nearly 56% increase to OpenSea’s current 1.8 million usership. We think it would then be safe to say WAGMI (we’re all gonna make it).
