Snoop Dogg and Eminem's NFT Music Video, Explained

The collaboration people usually mean is the song From the D 2 the LBC, which Snoop Dogg and Eminem performed at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards. Instead of appearing as themselves, the two rappers were presented as animated Bored Ape characters, based on Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs that each artist was publicly known to own. The staging was set in a stylised virtual world linked to the Bored Ape ecosystem, run by the collection's creator, Yuga Labs.

A few points are worth separating, because headlines often blurred them:

• The artists used NFTs they owned. The ape images were their own tokens, used as avatars for the performance and video.
• It was a marketing and creative choice. The NFTs acted as characters and branding, not as a ticket to a financial product.
• Ordinary holders did not become co-owners of the song. Owning some other Bored Ape did not give you a stake in the music or the video.

The phrase "NFT ownership for a music video" is therefore best read as ownership of the avatar identity on screen. That is a real and interesting use of NFTs, because it showed a profile-picture token being used as a character in mainstream television. But it is different from the models where fans receive royalties, early access or voting rights through a token.

Because details such as sale prices, current floor values and how the video is hosted change over time, check the artists' official channels and a marketplace for current information rather than relying on old coverage.

Profile-picture collections work as identity. A Bored Ape is an image, but it is also a membership signal: the owner is publicly tied to a specific token on a blockchain. When a musician uses that token as their avatar, the token stops being a picture and becomes a persona.

There are several practical reasons an artist might choose this route:

• Consistent character. An avatar can appear in animation, games and virtual spaces without the artist being physically present.
• Community reach. The audience that already follows the collection sees the artist as part of it, which can bring attention both ways.
• Visual novelty. A cartoon performance stands out in a crowded awards broadcast.
• Proof of ownership. Because the token's owner is publicly visible on-chain, anyone can check which wallet holds it, which makes the claim "this is my avatar" verifiable.

The last point is the most NFT-specific. On-chain ownership records are public, so a claim that an artist owns a given token can be checked by looking up the token's history on a block explorer. That is very different from a claim in a press release.

It also carries a caution. Public wallets reveal holdings, and a wallet that is tied to a famous name becomes a target for impersonation and phishing. Some artists use separate wallets or well-known aliases for exactly this reason. If you see a wallet attributed to a celebrity, verify the attribution through the artist's official channels, not through social posts from unknown accounts.

This is the question most buyers actually care about, and the answer depends on the license, not on the token itself.

A blockchain records who holds token number X. It does not, by itself, record what legal rights come with it. Those rights are set by terms published by the collection's creator, and they differ widely:

• Some collections grant holders commercial rights to the specific image they own, for example to make merchandise or use it in their own content.
• Some grant only personal or display use.
• Some release artwork into the public domain, so anyone may use it whether or not they hold a token.
• Few, if any, transfer the underlying copyright or trademark in the whole brand to individual holders.

Bored Ape Yacht Club became known for giving holders commercial usage rights to their own ape. That is how celebrities and companies could build content around an owned token. It did not make every holder a part-owner of the brand, and terms can be updated or replaced, so always read the current version.

Before relying on any right, do the following:

1. Find the official terms on the collection's own website.
2. Check whether the terms apply to the token you are buying or only to earlier ones.
3. Note whether rights transfer when you sell, which they usually do not after the sale.
4. If you plan to use an NFT commercially, get qualified legal advice.

None of this is legal advice, and rules differ by country.

The video is one example of a wider pattern: tokens used as keys, characters or licenses in media. The main models differ in what the owner actually receives.

Model	What the holder gets	Typical risk
Avatar or character use	The right to appear as, or build content around, one specific token	Rights are limited to what the license says
Token-gated access	Entry to a stream, event, chat or download if the wallet holds a token	Access ends if the project shuts down
Royalty or revenue share	A claimed portion of music income	Legal and tax treatment varies; claims can be unclear
Collectible edition	A numbered copy of a track or video as a collectible	Value depends on demand, which may fade
Membership or voting	Say in future projects or priority access	Promises depend on the team delivering

The Snoop Dogg and Eminem performance sits in the first row: avatars owned by the artists. Other celebrity NFT projects have used other rows, so a headline mentioning "NFTs" tells you very little until you know which model is in play.

A useful test is to ask what happens if the website disappears. If the benefit is a promise from a team, it is only as durable as that team. If the benefit is stored fully in a smart contract and permanent files, it is more durable, though even then the artwork's hosting can be a weak point. Check whether images and metadata are stored on a decentralised storage network or on a company server.

Musicians have tried several ways to connect NFTs and music, and they are easy to confuse with the avatar approach used in this video.

Music as a collectible. An artist releases a track or album as a limited edition. Buyers hold a numbered copy, sometimes with extra content. The value is mostly collector demand.

Royalty-linked tokens. A token is marketed as entitling its holder to a share of streaming income. These raise securities and consumer-protection questions in many places, so details matter. Treat any such claim with caution and check how payments are made and who is legally responsible.

Access passes. A token opens private streams, meet-and-greets or early releases. The benefit is real while the artist keeps delivering it.

Identity and character tokens. This is the approach shown in the Snoop Dogg and Eminem video. The token is the persona, and the artist's association with it is the draw.

What these share is that the NFT is a container: its worth comes from the rights, access or culture attached to it, not from the file. A buyer should always be able to answer two questions in a sentence each: what exactly do I receive, and who is obliged to deliver it?

Where a project cannot answer those questions clearly, the safest assumption is that you are buying a collectible whose price depends on sentiment alone. That is not necessarily wrong, but it should be a conscious choice.

Celebrity use of NFTs, including this performance, gave the technology a very visible moment on mainstream television. For many viewers it was the first time they saw a profile-picture token used as a character rather than a social media icon.

But attention is not the same as lasting value, and it is worth being clear about what a celebrity link can and cannot show:

• It can show cultural relevance. A well-known artist chose this collection, which signals brand reach.
• It cannot show that prices will hold. NFT markets are volatile, and many collections lost most of their trading activity after peak interest.
• It does not guarantee liquidity. A token can be hard to sell at the price you see listed.
• It may reflect sponsorship or commercial arrangements that the audience does not see.

Floor prices, trading volume and holder counts change constantly, so they are not stated here. To check current conditions for any collection, look at several marketplaces and analytics dashboards, compare listed prices against actual completed sales, and note how many different wallets are trading.

The broader lesson from this period is that NFT demand has historically been closely tied to hype cycles. A token's cultural role can persist even when its market price falls, and the reverse can also happen. If you hold or consider an NFT, decide in advance what you would do if the price fell sharply, and only commit money you can afford to lose.

Celebrity involvement attracts scammers as much as buyers. Defensive habits matter more than any prediction about prices.

Common risks

• Fake collections and copycats. Imitation tokens use similar artwork or a famous name. Only the genuine contract address from the official source is the real collection.
• Impersonation. Fake accounts claim to be an artist or their team and promote a mint, giveaway or "exclusive drop".
• Phishing and wallet drainers. Links that ask you to sign a transaction or approve a token can empty a wallet. Signing is permission, so read what you approve.
• Overstated benefits. Posts promise royalties, passes or rewards that the contract does not provide.
• Illiquidity. You may not be able to sell when you want.

Habits that reduce risk

1. Reach a project only from links on its verified official channels, and cross-check the contract address in more than one official place.
2. Use a separate wallet for minting and experimenting, kept apart from your main holdings.
3. Review and revoke old token approvals periodically.
4. Never share a seed phrase with anyone, including people who claim to be support staff.
5. Be suspicious of urgency, such as countdowns and "only today" pressure.

Nothing here is investment advice. NFTs can lose all their value, and a famous name attached to a project does not change that.

If you want to understand what an NFT really gives you, follow a short routine before you spend anything.

1. Find the official source. Start at the collection's own website or the artist's verified social accounts, and note the contract address listed there.
2. Check the contract on a block explorer. Confirm the name, the creator address and the supply. A copycat often has a different address or a suspiciously tiny history.
3. Read the license. Look for wording on commercial use, whether rights transfer on resale, and whether terms have changed over time.
4. Inspect the token history. The explorer shows when a token moved and between which wallets. Unusual patterns, such as the same few wallets trading repeatedly, can suggest artificial activity.
5. Check where the artwork lives. Metadata and images stored on a single company server can vanish. Decentralised storage is more durable.
6. Compare listings across marketplaces. Look at completed sales, not only asking prices.
7. Decide your exit. Ask who would buy, and how you would sell, if you changed your mind.

If an artist is said to own a token, you can check it, because ownership is public. Search the token on a block explorer and see the current owner wallet and its history. Then look for the artist's own confirmation of that wallet. Unconfirmed wallet claims, including those repeated in articles, are worth treating as unverified.

This routine applies equally to avatar tokens, music editions and access passes.

Several marketplaces and tools in the NFT space illustrate the different ways tokens are bought, sold and valued. Which suits you depends on the chain and the type of asset, and their features and status change, so check each one's current state before using it.

• NFTX turns NFT collections into vault-backed ERC20 tokens, so users can trade against a pool at floor-style pricing rather than waiting for a single buyer. It is a liquidity tool, and pool prices reflect the pool, not the rarity of an individual token.
• Stargaze is a Cosmos-based chain for NFTs with a marketplace and launchpad, relevant to collectors and creators in that ecosystem.
• AtomicHub is a multichain marketplace focused on gaming items, collectibles and art, centred on WAX and EOS-family chains.
• Courtyard deals in tokenised physical collectibles, such as graded cards held in a vault, which is a different model from digital-native art.
• Foundation was an Ethereum art marketplace for creators. According to our records, the team took it offline indefinitely on April 27, 2026, so confirm its status before depending on it.

Marketplaces differ in fees, supported chains, creator royalties and how they handle disputed or copied listings. Read each platform's terms and fee schedule, and check whether a collection is verified there.

None of these platforms makes a token safer or more valuable by listing it. A listing is not an endorsement, so the verification steps in the previous section still apply.

Because this article leaves out anything time-sensitive, a few items need checking directly at the source before you act on them.

Where to look

• The video and performance: the artists' official channels and the awards broadcaster's official pages will show the current version and credits.
• The collection: the official website and verified social accounts of the project's creator, for the current terms and any changes to licensing.
• Ownership and history: a block explorer, searching the token by contract address and ID.
• Market conditions: several marketplaces and analytics dashboards, comparing completed sales over a period you choose.
• Platform status: each marketplace's own announcements, since platforms can change fees, pause services or shut down.

Things that change and are not stated here: token prices, floor values, trading volumes, holder numbers, sale amounts, and the exact terms of any license.

A practical way to think about this story is as a case study. It shows a real use of NFT identity in popular media, and it shows how a token can carry cultural weight without carrying financial rights. Before you buy anything inspired by a celebrity example, write down what the token legally and technically gives you, who delivers it, and what happens if they stop.

NFTs are high-risk digital assets. Check the rules that apply in your country, including any age or tax requirements, before you trade.