FLASH MINTS: Imprinting Hip-Hop’s Legacy on the Blockchain
Iconic Hip-Hop Photography for the People
Not one shred of media imbibed on most of this planet has escaped the blunt force bogey beat impact of the 80s and 90s hip-hop scene. During those decades, a culture of rapid-fire linguistic twisting driven by the heritage of black experience tore through the entire world, leaving indelible scorch marks on every industry imaginable.
Flash Mints is a fresh NFT marketplace dropping heretofore unseen photos of some of the biggest movers and shakers of that musical epoch and today. Blending the excitement of blind minting with random rarity, the Flash Mints platform aims to empower photographers who documented that era while, true to the art they chronicled, adding excitement and opportunity to the mix.
“Good photographers do more than just take pictures. They curate moments, discern subjects, hunt for unique perspectives, and tame shadow and light. If it weren’t for photographers, so many prolific and iconic moments throughout history would be lost in our memories.” — Flashmints.com
Founder Enrico Moses credits legendary hip-hop photographer Chi Modu with the initial concept. Chi Modu resonated with the idea of making his art available to everyone. He knew NFTs were the trojan horses to democratize art, bringing high-end collector pieces to the masses — and urban culture to the auction houses.
“He was selling on Sotheby’s for twenty-some thousand dollars but he also had his art for the people. That was a really important thing to him. So when he minted his first NFTs, he made sure that he made a part of the collection that was accessible because he believed the hip-hop community deserved to be able to tap into some of these pieces,” Moses explains.
COMING TOGETHER WITH PURPOSE
When Chi Modu passed on in May of 2021, Moses and Chi Modu’s wife wanted to make sure his legacy would be forever preserved on the blockchain. Moses connected with giant photographers Jamil GS and T. Eric Monroe, as well as some additional photography powerhouses like the late Ricky Powell’s estate and civil rights empress/bereaved mother and mother figure of Yaki Fula and Tupac Shakur, Yaasmin Fula.
Regarding the project’s spotlight on the 90s, Jamil explains, (This) …”was really a very defining moment for hip-hop. A lot of these photographs in these collections (are) part of defining that visual story of that era. That's really why this had to come together at this point…”
“There’s a reason why these images still resonate today and while we’ve even able to talk about them, they’ve definitely gained some value over time… such an important part of not just hip-hop culture but American culture now. That time was for many of us what might have been like the 60s for the generation before us. It’s definitely a very special time. It’s not coming back.” — Jamil GS.
THE VISION
Moses compares the Flash Mints vision to NBA Top Shot. “I love what Top Shot has done in the space. We’ve all seen these games and there’s these moments that we remember. So when it came time for us to create Flash Mints…we wanted to kind of duplicate what the NBA did…creating these special moments. But our moments are these “flashes”, right? We wanted to (both) pay homage to one of the godfathers and the founders of hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash, (and to utilize the idea that) when that camera flashes, that moment’s actually captured.” 📸💥
“Joining Enrico on this project is Allen Hena, the mastermind behind the successful launch of The Hundred’s first NFT collection, The Adam Bomb Squad, which sold out of 25,000 NFTs in 40 minutes. Hena who is also a part of the Hashmasks and Vaynermedia’s NFT team is an experienced software engineer and architect, focused on developing strategies, leadership, and education in the rapidly changing cryptocurrency and Web3 sectors. Rounding out the crew are the folks from NFT Media Box, led by Kelvin Troy. Their team is behind the sold-out Monster Rehab and Arabian Camels collections.” — Flashmints.com
T. Eric Monroe, a prolific photographer whose art spans genres like skateboarding and fashion as well as hip-hop, had a specific focus when deciding what to drop for his first mint on the Flash Mints platform.
“For my first release,” he explains, “I wanted to show a wide cast of the time period I captured. My work is made up of portraits, moments with artists in their lives, historic events — a look behind hip-hop’s curtain that gives a more personal view of the artist that is usually reserved for family and friends.”
“It’s fun to be able to…get inside the personal space of these musicians and of these people that we knew as friends. We helped guard their legacies as entertainers but also (showed) being friends with them without their stage names.”
RARE OPPORTUNITY
One of the most interesting and intrinsic features of Flash Mints is the random minting and blind rarity. This means anyone, at the same price, has the ability to mint a seriously rare NFT gem.
There is a limited supply of photographs. Under each drop, there is a table depicting a certain percentage of chance to mint each tier of photo (the tier being how many copies it has, such as 1/1s, or 10/10s, etc.).
It’s a blind mint, but as each drop progresses toward its full reveal date, the buyer will soon see what treasure s/he has sourced. The chance to win historical 1/1s that no one else in the entire world possesses definitely adds a heightened mystique of gamification and scarcity to the drop.
Just like Chi Modu wanted, Flash Mint drop dynamics mean that this priceless art is accessible to anyone with enough resources for one blind mint: it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, or how much money you have. You have the chance to go to the moon.
And that is a system that indelibly reflects the resiliency, defiance, and fight of 80’s and 90’s hip-hop in the first place. ✌🎤
📸 FLASH MINTS
Published drop Lineup:Dec 4: Jamil G.S.
Dec 10: T.Eric Monroe
Dec 18: Ricky Powell
Dec 24: Chi Modu
Jan 02: Yaasmyn Fula 💥
You can learn more about FLASH MINTS at the following links:
💥 Flashmints.com
💥 Twitter
💥 Discord
💥 Instagram
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