The Weeknd has divulged more details regarding his anticipated NFT debut.
According to Abel, his first NFT drop will take place on Saturday (April 3) at 2:00 p.m. ET on the digital art platform Nifty Gateway, where it will be available for 15 minutes. The collection, titled “Acephalous,” features new music and limited edition art created by The “Heartless” singer and LA-based design team Strangeloop Studios.
The Weeknd’s relationship with Strangeloop Studios dates back to 2015 when the Canadian singer began collaborating with the immersive experience company on concert visuals and audio-visual works. Strangeloop consistently incorporates his signature dark digital aesthetic into his stage design. They’ve created eerie, brazen stage designs for The Weeknd’s 2018 Coachella set, his “Starboy: Legend of the Fall Tour” in 2017 and his festival tour in 2016, among other concerts.
The limited edition NFTs resemble their previous work. And “Acephalous” offers fans an uncanny opportunity to own pieces of their collaborative virtual designs. “The creative conversation between The Weeknd and Strangeloop Studios has always been a synaesthetic process of cross-influence between audio and visual,” reads a description on Nifty Gateway. “The medium of NFTs provided an opportunity for the teams to collaborate in a new space with unprecedented autonomy, where both sides of the creative process could flourish and enhance one another. The ‘headless’ implication of ‘Acephalous’ refers both to the decentralized governance of blockchain communities, and the decapitated visage featured in the pieces, severed from the source of its initial value.”
Within the eight-piece package — which will undoubtedly be in-demand — there is an unreleased synth-heavy song by The Weeknd and a 1/1 sculpt called the “source.” The collection also includes three audio-visual pieces, each containing a section of the same song featured within the “source” and futuristic filtered effects. Lastly, there are two static artworks fans can bid on and two others that will be delivered through a random drawing. Nifty Gateway’s site says the description of each piece contains epigraphs from thinkers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Baldwin, Judith Butler, Susan Sontag, and Walter Benjamin.
In order to purchase artwork from “Acephalous,” you’ll need to fund your Nifty Gateway account with a credit card or Ethereum cryptocurrency. Fans solely interested in hearing The Weeknd’s exclusive new song can visit the website now to listen.
Nifty Gateway
Nifty Gateway
Nifty Gateway