Music News - Diaz Grimm spearheading Web3 music movement in Aotearoa with latest release
19 August 2022 - 0 Comments
Diaz Grimm (Ngāwhā, Ngāpuhi), the world’s first Indigenous CGI/avatar rapper, is set to agitate the status quo today with the release of a disruptive Web3 music project.
Today Diaz Grimm drops the first single, WWĀD, and accompanying Album Ownership Tokens for his newest upcoming project: Māui and The Sin.
The fourth WW track of his career, WWĀD represents the first part of the Māui and The Sin narrative. It is a Hip-Hop Haka stating Grimm’s intentions as he enters a new era.
Setting the blueprint
Combining tech from the future and mātauranga from the past, Māui and The Sin tells one story that’s been a decade in the making for Diaz.
Album producer Matt Miller (PNC, Parris Goebel) says that Māui and The Sin is a graphic roadmap that others will be using for decades to come.
“Using the capabilities of Web3 to democratise the music business, Diaz is delivering independent artists like himself the creative freedom to innovate - without giving in to doing things the way the traditional industry operates.
“He’s helping artists retain their mana motuhake or independence.”
Album Ownership Tokens
In another world first, Diaz will sell 100% of his streaming royalties for one year through OpenSourcing. From today, a limited series of 100 Album Ownerships Tokens (AOT) will be available for purchase on Whitumecca.io until November 1st.
Combining the te ao Māori concept of manaakitanga (to care for others) with Web3 investment, the AOTs are a premium collector’s item and investment that mutually benefits both artists and the token holders.
Each Māui and the Sin AO Token will be represented by a unique piece of visual artwork created by visual CGI artist, SoMuch3D. Each AOT owner will retain partial ownership of the full album project (0.65%) and receive one year of streaming royalties. AOT owners will also receive benefits such as a vinyl copy of the album, exclusive access to live and VIP shows, and membership to the Diaz Grimm meta-museum. This limited AOT drop will be accompanied by ‘Single Packs’ with each new track release. More detail on Māui and The Sin AOTs can be found at Whitumecca.io
Project collaborator Sam Taylor (Nadia Reid, [Anthonie Tonnon}) says this approach creates a way for Diaz fans to not just support, but get in on the ground floor of Web3, with him: “Together, they can get onboard the Web3 movement in Aotearoa and be part of the revolution of indigenous and Kiwi artists.”
Māui and The Sin
Māui and The Sin is made up of a two-disc record, the third in a series of seven albums. Disc one of Māui and the Sin represents the past and is set in 1771, taking inspiration from Diaz’s childhood influences, nature, and the history of his Māori culture.
Disc two comes from the future in 2071, features upcoming NZ artists, and is a bold statement of what Diaz believes to be the future of Aotearoa music. With his levelled playing field firmly Web3-based, Diaz achieves a symbiosis of the virtual and the real; the universe and the metaverse; Te Ao Māori and sci-fi; the past and the future, Art and Hiphop.
Miller says the project is more than a body of music, but an exploration into the world of Web3 and music through a te ao Māori lens - trail-blazing a way forward for indigenous and independent artists to retain ownership over their music, vision and, ultimately, livelihoods.
“Diaz is committed to achieving what all artists ultimately want - to make a living from their art while also retaining autonomy over their narrative. But his kaupapa is significantly deeper than that.
“Diaz is working to uplift all diverse and independent artists and do that not by reforming - but by revolutionising - the music business. He’s changing the trajectory.”
WWĀD is available now on all platforms. Each Māui and the Sin AO token will be sold at 0.4 ETH from today on - available from Whitumecca.io.
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