Exclusive Q&A: Curren$y Drops A Special First-Of-Its-Kind NFT With New EP, “Financial District” On 4/20

Curren$y is partnering with leading music NFT strategy and development company Bondly Finance to release an exclusive NFT only EP entitled Financial District. The release will take place this Tuesday, April 20 at 4:20pm EST exclusively on Jet Life Apparel’s site. The underground rap star will release a 7 track EP, a special one-of-a-kind virtual smoke session with him backstage at his upcoming concert in Houston on 4/20 and a one-of-one musically inspired art auction piece designed by popular NFT 3D animation graphic artist, Kid Eight, who’s provided art direction for musicians like Chris Brown, Future, Gucci Mane and more.

The New Orleans rapper and his Jet Life Recording label mates are partnering with Bondly Finance to run the auction for three days with the highest bidder also receiving flights and hotel accommodations to attend and meet Curren$y at a future event. Additionally, the winning bidder will receive a physical piece of the art printed on canvas, an Atari Metaverse and other potential virtual world integration.  The auctioned piece is creating a unique experience for the owner where the asset bridges the virtual and physical world.

Though there’s only one rare auction piece, the NFT sale will feature three separate NFT tiers which include:

• purchase of the full 7-song EP, a 4/20 Smoke Pass, a Curren$y Lowrider NFT, and a rare Jet Life Chain NFT that’s only reserved for purchases of the full EP NFT.
• scaled down 5-song selection from the EP where the purchaser will also receive a 4/20 Smoke Pass and a Curren$y Lowrider NFT.
• or a 4/20 Smoke Pass which gives the purchaser access to participate in the virtual smoke session with Curren$y and Jet Life.

We had an opportunity to speak with Curren$y ahead of the exclusive NFT EP release, and he shared his thoughts on being progressive in the digital space, recording the project in a day, recent collaboration with Jay-Z’s Monogram campaign, and his adorable relationship with his son.

Read the exclusive Q&A with Curren$y and Sammy Approved below:

Tell me about you partnering with Bondly Finance for an exclusive NFT drop of your EP Financial District. 

They reached out about making a foray into the world of NFT, putting together a collection of music to partner with some digital art and to partner with a digital pass to [my] concert backstage in Houston tomorrow. It got bigger when I really started to look into how people felt about some of the NFT purchases that they made. I realized that just going to the studio and grabbing a few songs out the hard drive would have been a disservice to what we’re doing, because it’s totally original to the purchaser. It’s not massly available. So I feel like it should be completely new.

I recorded all the records yesterday. They mixed it down last night, and mastering it today. Yeah, it’ll be available in a bit. 

You work that fast, huh? 

Yeah, yeah. F*ck it. It’s fun! The minute that this felt like work for me, I wouldn’t be doing it. 

What are your expectations for the drop? These things are pretty influential from what I’ve seen from other drops. With Bondly Finance in particular they did something with Logan Paul, which was really successful. They sold over $1 million in the first hour and $5 million within two days. So what are you expecting for your drop? 

I don’t get into numbers per say. There have been a few artists who have made moves as far as putting out NFT singles, but a complete body of work, I don’t know if I’ve heard of one. I think this will be big for my realm of music. I’m still an underground music artist regardless of how long I’ve been around. My sh*t is geared to the underground. What I think it will do is show people another avenue to get their art out and put their music out. I also think that it’s special to the people that listen to you, because they know that other people won’t just find this by mistake. Everybody who has it, is somebody who wanted it. 

I’ve always wanted to let my listeners know that I know that they are a refined bunch. 

Jet Life is a forward thinking company, how do you feel NFTs will effect the music industry as a whole? What’s going to come of this? 

It should encourage some artists to lock into the studio and create more original pieces. Not increase the originality of the pieces, but make more art. Make more pieces, because you’ll have what you share with the general public. ‘Cause that’s just a whole other world. Flipped over. So you’ll have a different group of people. You may have people who don’t even like some of you sh*t. But it’s like ‘well this is an investment.’ It’s no telling how it can go. You have to be a fool to miss the bus. You know what I’m saying?

Facts. How was it working with Kid Eight on the animations? Are you hands on throughout the entire process? 

I didn’t draw. They decide the artwork, but if it sucks I’ll tell you that I don’t want it and we can do something else. So, yeah I’m hands on. 

So, the Financial District EP is 7 songs? 

Yep, produced by Black Metaphor. He did all of it. People who heard the last few projects they know who that is. 

Yeah for sure.

And he has a catalogue with many illustrious artists that he’s collaborated with. 

What can we expect from the project? What are you talking about? Since it’s dropping on 4/20, is it going to give the usual Jet Life/Curren$y vibe? 

I’ll tell you this. His music gives me enough space to go off on a few different tangents. The way he does his drums and things, I’ve always got space to do anything. Because my flow is pretty much seamless, it’s pretty much whatever I’m thinking about. I just recorded it yesterday so to step back and say this record [is] going to be impactful or this one [record] here, I’m not sure because I just wrote all this sh*t yesterday. I don’t remember. What I know is the homies were f*ckin flabbergasted and they tell me the truth so had I missed my mark, we’d still be in New Orleans in the studio, but we in Houston a day early. So clearly, we nailed it. 

So you recorded everything in New Orleans? 

Yeah, at Jet Life Studio. 

Nice!

I don’t even have it in my email. I didn’t tell the engineer to bounce it down for me or anything. I couldn’t really think straight cause I was hungry, but I got these nuggets down now. So I think that’s the next move to have the engineer send it to me. I didn’t want it in my possession because I didn’t want to play any of it on Instagram live or post it to my story because that’s compromising to people’s art you know?

Right, are you going to have it come out afterwards or?

No, it will only exist in the NFT realm.

I think that’s the whole idea behind it. I hope people don’t whore it out. For them, once you buy, you do what you want but I’m assuming if you spent your hard earned dollar or crypto dollar on it, you’re going to want to carry it a certain way.

Now, you were included in the Jay-Z Monogram campaign recently as one of two artists featured, which was pretty cool.  

Yeah, Hov wants me to come out and test the weed. Like ‘Oh this good?’ ‘Yea, this is great stuff.’

It’s also cool to see that you’ve been at the forefront of cannabis since the beginning of your brand.

That’s just [a] testament to sticking to your journey. Don’t let anybody dangle the carrot in front [of] you, have you stepping outside of your realm, because your world will take care of you for staying true to it. The universe rewards faith, and that’s just another example. Have faith in yourself. Believe that you do what you want to do. 

How does it feel to be able to integrate it into your brand and with your relationship with your fans? The fact that you’re having a virtual smoke session. 

I’m honored to have the responsibility, because it’s an opportunity to normalize things a bit for people. Everything is so different for all of us right now. As I’m looking out the window of my hotel, I just see everybody walking around with masks and sh*t. I don’t go anywhere because I still can’t get over seeing everybody like this. Like who the f*ck am I looking at? I’m expecting a mass shooting every time. ‘Cause I’m like sh*t motherf*ckers already masked up, you can just do what you want. You know what I’m saying? 

But I feel like that virtual smoke session will be like… Like any of our other shows, if I step out the green room and I’m like alright you, you, you, you, those three, baby alright y’all cool and just let them in and kick it. 

Yeah, I love that. 

It’ll make sh*t [feel] like nothing even happen. Like we not living in this f*ckin movie right now. 

Did you see that tweet that said if your son raps they gotta call him Crypto? 

Yeah I saw that sh*t. [laughs] And then I saw the next three slides with people reacting to the joke with the same faces I was making when I read it.

I love your relationship with your son. 

That dude. It’s also coming back to haunt me. Dude has the craziest separation anxiety. He does not even know that I’m his dad. I think he just feels like he bought me. Somebody bought him a me, so he doesn’t want anything to happen to me and me not be in his eye sight. Like how he walks around with a Hot Wheel in his fist, I am just another thing that he just have. He does not feel like I’m supposed to do anything else. 

But it’s cool man. It’s the best bruh, because that dude… He can’t verbalize as eloquently as he wants to but he makes sure I know how much he love me and that is so cool.

That is so cool. I’m just so happy to see Black fathers with their sons being represented.

I got that fool. It’s on. 

I hope that you enjoy Houston and I’m really excited for the drop tomorrow (April 20, 2021). 

Yeah man this sh*t gone be cool man. We about to f*ck them up in the digital world. It’s going to be the Sims dancing to the album all night. 

Grab a few doobies and be sure to check out the Jet Life NFT EP exclusive auction experience dropping this Tuesday at 4:20 pm EST on www.jetlifeapparel.com.