Voodoo in the metaverse - Steve Aoki and the NFT Curse
We thought we left this sh*t in Web2.
Remember the Drake curse?
In 2019, bloggers and social media carried the tale of the “Drake Curse”, a paranormal event that referenced the hottest artist on the planet.
The allegation was simple: whenever Drake takes a picture with a footballer or in a club’s stadium, they lose their next game or suffer some kind of misfortune in the coming weeks.
It’s true that soccer fans (forgive me, football fans) typically stay loyal to one club and hardly take pictures with other jerseys, but your rules do not apply to Drizzy Drake —that man sure loves to roll in the big leagues.
and my personal favorite…
Even the clubs caught on!
Let’s just say, if it was 2019 and Drake was coming to your city, you’d want to keep him far away from your boyhood club.
Well, there’s a new Drake in town.
annnd the town is the metaverse.
annnd he has long hair.
annnd he’s awesome.
Only one thing - you don’t want to buy an NFT after him.
Florida born but California bred, heir to the Benihana franchise Steve Aoki is an award-winning producer, DJ and recording artiste.
In 2021, Steve told Fortune magazine that he made more money from trading NFT's than the royalties from selling his music!
Aoki noted he made $888,888.88 on the sale of his “hairy” collection. (Reason 400756 reason why you should give a damn about NFTs.)
Since that time, however, the Drake curse — the same modern-day phenomena that had United fans cursing Drake in 2019, seems to have caught on with our man Steve. Apparently, any NFT collection Aoki “apes in” (NFT lingo for purchase) quickly drops in value. Popular blue chip projects like Azuki and Moonbirds are victims of the Aoki curse, falling tremendously once news hit the tweets about a Steve Aoki buy in. Normally, celebrity endorsements are a great indicator of a good project in web3 but not in this case!
Comedians and degens alike have spoken about the curse, posting memes and videos about the subject, including this hilarious one by personal fav Kmoney featuring Steve Aoki himself.
Is Mr Aoki just buying the top of these NFT projects? Is the urban legend real?
Or is there something else that meets the eye?
I don't care; I'm enjoying this. In my African-fuelled opinion, I think the best way to break metaversal curses is to engage in a gas war on the third night of a blood moon. If that works, Mr Aoki, do send us some ETH 💛
Till the next exorcism,
Cheers!