The legendary Detroit rapper Eminem has aped in to the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
He purchased one of the Ethereum-based Apes for 123.45 ETH ($452,000) on Thursday night and has since made the ape his profile picture on Twitter. Meanwhile, he appears to have collected at least 15 NFTs so far on OpenSea under the name Shady_Holdings.
Eminem is one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, having sold more than 220 million records worldwide. He’s also the only rapper to have ever won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, which he won for “Lose Yourself” in the movie “8 Mile.” He’s also won numerous American Music Awards and 15 Grammy Awards.
Fellow BAYC member GeeGazza sold the blonde ape to Eminem, announcing today that the sale becoming a reality is “madness” and remarking, “I’m living in a simulation.” Eminem has not yet commented publicly on the sale.
GeeGazza had in fact been hoping to sell this ape to Eminem for months now. Back in November, he said, “I still think Eminem is destined to buy my Bored Ape one day.” He also admitted, “You don’t understand how long I’ve been manifesting that Eminem buys my ape.”
The digital agency Six has taken credit for the BAYC NFT sale to Eminem, writing on Twitter that their creator-focused agency helped secure the ape, which they are calling the “EminApe.” (Indeed, the ape does look like the rapper.) The agency has previously worked with the rap group Wu-Tang Clan and electronic artists Tycho and Galantis on other projects.
With his new EminApe, Eminem has officially joined the second-largest NFT project on OpenSea by volume. The BAYC has traded 11,705.97 ETH ($43 million) so far in secondary sales, and the floor price is currently sitting at 60 ETH ($220,000). Eminem has joined the many other celebrities who have aped in so far, including NBA star Stephen Curry and talk show host Jimmy Fallon.
BAYC recently surpassed CryptoPunks in overall OpenSea ranking and floor price, a huge achievement for a project that just started in April 2021.
