Obey Artist Fairey: NFTs ‘Wild West’ for Creators

Art, music and animation combined in the non-fungible token world late last month in a mashup between artist Shepard Fairey and hip hop producer Mike Dean.
 
Fairey is the artist behind Irvine-based Obey Clothing, which is part of this week’s Business Journal list of the area’s top apparel companies (see page 17). Dean has produced songs for artists such as Kanye West, Travis Scott, The Weeknd and Selena Gomez.
 
The pair, their first time working together, released three editions of what they called “Cryptosonic,” amid the popularity of NFTs (which use blockchain for the sale of unique digital assets).
 
The open editions, which means an unlimited amount of each piece was available for sale for a set period of 15 minutes, were plugged in a conversation with the two artists on the invite-only, voice-based social media app Clubhouse just before their release.
 
“I’m trying to reach people with every platform possible and for me clothing was, in addition to doing street art and public art, the way that I could connect with people that I wanted to hang out with like my culture, my crew,” Fairey said during the Clubhouse chat.
 
“Now with where the NFT space is going, it’s got that same innovation that punk rock and hip hop and street art and graffiti all have. It’s sort of like the Wild West. People that get in there and do something special that stands out, they’re basically creating their own path forward. Also, it empowers DIY creators, so even though I’m established now, that’s my whole roots. So when I see new things like [NFTs] emerging, I just want to be involved.”
 
In the 15 minutes the art was on sale, a total of $86,696 was sold. The first edition priced at $1,000 saw 58 minted, the second edition 41 minted at $422 and 27 of the third edition minted at $422.