Lil Nas X, typically an enormously talented trendsetter, has finally jumped on to the hottest bandwagon of… six or so months ago, with Variety saying that he and artist Rudy Willingham are among the first group of people getting official TikTok NFTs. The Lil Nas X NFT is based on Willingham’s stop-motion “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video, which, if you haven’t seen it, is very cool.
For those who don’t remember what NFTs are, they’re meaningless things that cost money for no reason. They’re not worth any money, except to people who think they are, and while the same could be said about a dollar bill, we do live in a society that is partially built on everyone agreeing that a dollar bill has some value. Buying an NFT is like buying a one-of-a-kind painting, except anyone can copy your painting and get the exact same experience as owning it for free. It’s like paying money for the right to tell people that you have a girlfriend in Canada.
Do we need to keep going? Because there are also environmental concerns about the energy used by the supercomputers that make NFTs work. The Variety story says the TikTok NFTs are being “powered by Immutable X,” which is apparently “the first carbon-neutral Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum,” which is… good? Is Immutable X what created the Powerpuff Girls?
The other TikTok people and artists involved in this NFT program are Bella Poarch, Curtis Roach, Brittany Broski, FNMeka, Jess Marciante, Gary Vaynerchuk, Coin Artist, x0r, RTFKT, and (oh thank god, a name we recognize) Grimes.
Much like the first carbon-neutral Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, we’re going to assume that’s all good. It’s hard to say, though, because writing out those names caused our bones to turn to dust like the guy in Last Crusade.