NFTs Are Dead, Ep. 25: IP & Art

was going on in the real world and just kind of get stabilized. Finally in a good spot. So I was like, you know, I'd been working on some art just in the background for a while and like you would say, Halloween's coming up. So I just, I'd kind of had started diving into the world of like, grotesque artwork. And I've always been a fan of that and abstract artwork. And, you know, I, I used AI for a lot of my artwork. I, you know, iterate a lot and just kind of find what I guess my mind is telling me I want to see. And I was experimenting with some kind of grotesque artwork and I went through a couple tools and out popped out the original fleshlings artwork. And I was like, you know, this is pretty interesting. Let me kind of dive into it a little bit more. And you know, I went through and made multiple versions of it. Like the original is not what the artwork that you guys will all see in the reveal is. And you know, I'll share more about the process and where I started and how I got to the final product because I think that is important to, especially if you're using AI just to kind of show people that it's not just, you know, I went in and made a prompt and here's the artwork. There's, you know, a lot of hours that went into making this artwork. And it's just kind of, I just wanted it to be, I guess a little bit of like a Halloween themed release, but also I wanted to get my, my foot back into the space and while I work on some of my larger releases kind of in the background, I don't want to, you know, look invisible. I guess I kind of want to put myself out there again. Let my collectors know that I'm still here. I'm still looking to continue to build out the IP that I've put out over the last four years. And yeah, I'm really looking forward to this launch. Yeah, fast and fast and fast and it's going to be a small launch as well, right? About 100 pieces total. Yeah, it's a hundred. And I had a couple of people ask me how I decided on that number and the reason I decided to go with a really small collection was number one, I wanted to hand pick the white list. And you know, I told somebody, if I had a thousand pieces trying to hand pick a thousand people is going to be really difficult, especially in the current state of the market. And I wanted to be able to prioritize the people that were like very active in the space are still collecting, have conviction in not just artwork, but also IP and the potential for IP in Web 3 and NFTs. And I think I did a pretty good job with the list. We're at 99 people. So I'm hoping that, you know, everybody is is able to make it to the mint. It will be for 24 hours. So it will cover, you know, international time all the way across the board. And I was actually hoping that I would be able to give away the final spot during the space. What do you guys think? Yeah, man, we all about that, you know, any perks that we can give to the listeners, we always doubt for that. So yeah, we appreciate that. Yeah, I appreciate you guys for having me on here. And I'm extremely grateful for the FUNCari community TMA for onboarding me. You know, I think maybe three years ago, I was pretty much in the infancy of releasing artwork in the space and TMA kind of put things a little bit in perspective for me with what an artist should do in Web 3 and onboarded me to FUNCari. It's a great community. Highly, highly recommend if anybody has the funds to join the community. Yeah, you should do it. Definitely a madhouse, man, and it's a fun one at that, you know. So yeah, we appreciate you, you know, the camaraderie and everything that happens there is part of the Web 3 experience of finding your tribe. So yeah, we appreciate you for vibing in there. Not like I'm part of that team, you know, the team in there, but definitely, man, it's just a fun place to be as a community member, you know, hats out to you for being there and, you know, congrats to what you got going forward back over to you, buddy. Yeah, appreciate it, AD. So yes, yeah, I mean, thanks again for letting us get this last spot, man. We're going to figure out a way to pick somebody out the audience and then we will make that happen. And as you said, FUNCari, we've been chopping it up for years at this point. We used to have a section called Underground, which is Builders and Devs and everybody had their own little area where you just, you know, chill and chop it up and talk about upcoming ideas. And I don't even think you had to be a holder to be part of Underground. Actually, that was like a couple years ago, but a lot of the underground members did end up becoming holders and then we sort of phase that out. But yeah, man, we always appreciate you. Like I said, this is a FUNCari OG and its OG in the space, you know, creating and keeping the vibes high. Let's roll over to Chimper Squad real quick. How you doing today, good brother? Yeah, good. Yeah, yeah, good. Thank you. I was actually just going to say to Seattle as well. I don't know if you're familiar with, because I was just thinking about the grotesque art and that is such like, I'm surprised that we don't see more of it like when you think about the NFT collections that like in the space now there's not really a lot of like, you know, like quite horrible to look at, but it's not horrible. But I was going to say like when I was a kid, there was this book called Flannamoles. And I spy Ricky Gibeus who's like this UK comedian. And it's this like story series of like all these ridiculous looking animals and they're like grotesque and it was like a huge hit. Like it was that really big. And even like if you think about Fuglers and you know, Plush Brown was like the sort of crazy looking vibe is actually, well, even the boo-boo to be honest, although there wasn't this sustainable, but yeah, like it's, I was just taking a quick peak and it looks awesome. So yeah, shout out. Yeah, respect on that, man. The collection is definitely unique as far as it goes with the visual appeal. And you're right, it's surprising that there's not more things of that nature in the NFT space, because it seems like such a large community, you know, and sometimes you have that art that speaks to people in that type of way. I think if you look at it in a, you know, you can elicit a reaction, I think it's a good art piece, regardless of the content or the subject matter, whatever. If you can elicit some type of reaction, whatever the reaction may be, it's like okay, yeah, mission accomplished. Yeah, 100%. I was going to say Mutants was probably the one that fits the book at the best, but yeah. So tell us a little bit about what's with Chimper Van Hat was going on lately with Chimper's man and you know, you're another community of sogy, the space been around for years, built in and innovating and creating. So just tell us what's going on lately with Chimper's and catch us up a little bit. Yeah, definitely. Appreciate it. Yeah, so I guess like the past month really, I mean, for October, we went back to Pixels, which is quite a contested thing. Obviously, you know, we started with Pixels out. And as we have lightened up to grow the brand and really sort of shape our social media and just all of the sort of web to world, like they are sort of evolved alongside that and I think it was back in February, we introduced the sort of illustrated, Kauai versions so that we could sort of unify the community together. So it's been like several months since then and everyone really enjoyed it. But I think a lot of people like deep down, like they love the Pixels and even ourselves like we're just thinking actually, you know, like I think people are forgetting like how good Tempaz is as a pixel artist and was like, well I think we need to put them back on as like a PFP on OpenSea for October. And yeah, sort of shifted back to that. So that's been fun, like everyone's been pushing the Pixels back to the roots. Tempaz has been streaming, he's been, you know, chimpifying people in the timeline, like creating them in sort of the pixel version. And yeah, sort of bringing communities together because I think the last month, really, to be honest, has been pretty good and gloom when you think about it, like everything that's been happening, you know, projects between projects, marketplaces, just the market. And I think that's something that, you know, turned the sort of down sort of turns, like I think with Chimpaz, we always sort of relish that to try and bring people together. So I think like Tempaz doing that, like, you know, chimpifying different PFPs from different communities is like a really, it's been a really fun way to sort of, yeah, bring people together and at the same time coming back to Pixels on our sort of open sea has been, has been really fun. But yeah, I mean, for us, like, it's, you know, all about sort of experiences in Web 3, we released this new collection called Chimpanians, which are sort of sidekicks to Chimpaz. Like a very small collection of 222 Thurak Electahub, so given Chimp's the opportunity to win these sort of companion characters, which essentially are sort of inserted into Chimpaz inventories, because we introduced the RC6551, like last month or the month before, where now all chimps have their own sort of unchained wallet, they have their own inventory and there's all these fun things that we've been throwing in there, like RNFTs, tokens and Chimpanians being like this new sort of cast of characters that tie to your chimps, so that's been fun as well, and we'll be really since sort of a mini-game experience, which sort of brings the Chimpaz holders, the Chimpanian holders into this game, which will be launched in soon, which we want to like, you know, bring everybody together within it as well, not just Chimpaz holders, so that should be fun. But yeah, you know, at the same time, I continually grow in the brand, you know, IP is the space and a lot of people do say that the night IP narrative is dead and obviously it's sort of reflected in the market because, you know, you look at all the brands that are doing amazing things and it's, you know, it's not really sort of reflected, but, you know, for us, it's the long term sort of process, so, you know, for us growing the socials, the content, continually building the community outside of Web 3, we've just signed a couple of months back a licensing representation, partnership with the big sort of player in the character brand space and sort of helping us really sort of grow globally through products and, you know, we're starting all of that onboarding process and just going through all the motions of meeting the teams and really sort of educating them on Chimpaz and, yeah, sort of all of that world. But yeah, you know, just before I sort of rambling, you know, the IP narrative, like people say that it's dead, but it's just about how you combine the two together, like, I think for us, like, we've never put one to the side, it's always like how do we balance, you know, being in the trenches, making sure that the communities having fun and experiences are, and at the same time, like, bringing them, you know, on the journey of, like, growing the brand, so that ultimately, you know, more people can enjoy the experience of being in Chimpaz, like, not just a few thousand people. So, yeah, I'd say that that's really what we've been up to. Good stuff, man. Good stuff. And definitely, we know IP is definitely not dead, just looking at how, how big the things that's going on right now in, you know, the last couple of weeks, how big the, the eight festivals and how that brought everybody together and, you know, it's pretty much centered around IP, but, so you recently announced a six-year global license in partnership, and we noticed that Japan is one of the first markets that you target, and can you tell us a bit more about that? Like, what does it mean for Chimpaz and Chimpaz? I'm sorry, and what kind of products or collaborations can we look for coming from the Chimpaz guys? Yeah, it's, to be fair, it's, if we've not announced it yet, but it's something that we've been, like, teasing so early, and it's, yeah, I mean, it's, it's not really something that is, again, like, most things, it's not going to be an overnight thing, it's like a just gradual thing that sort of compounds over time, and to be fair, like, we've, you know, since 2023, starting our social media, you know, really sort of growing that, like, it's been a arduous long-drawn-out process to try and knock on doors and, you know, be recognised, because ultimately, you know, a lot of these sort of partnerships and collaborations, they don't just come out of nowhere, like, there's got to be a reason for them to invest the time into you, and I think, at first, it was always like a, with love, you know, we know Chimpaz can be that brand-unpartner, but there needs to be that sort of evidence there, so it's just been like a small compounding process through.