Eminem to sell an NFT — if you had one shot, one opportunity, would you buy it?

Eminem
(Image credit: Getty)

Eminem has an opportunity to make a fortune and he's not going to let it slip. The "Lose Yourself" rapper is hopping aboard the NFT (non-fungible token) train. Marshall Mathers retweeted a post from Nifty Gateway, a marketplace for buying and selling NFTs, revealing his plans to drop an new NFT on the platform.

Eminem's announcement comes on the heels of a Saturday Night Live skit that parodied "Without Me" to explain the complexities of non-fungible tokens.

Eminem to drop an NFT on Nifty Gateway

Eminem posted nothing but a light bulb emoji in his quote-retweet of Nifty Gateway's post, but it electrified his fans and shook up the NFT industry with excitement and anticipation. "Surprise," Nifty Gateway said. "We're excited to announce that @Eminem is dropping this Sunday, April 25th on #NiftyGateway! Look out for more information and details to come."

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Eminem is joining the parade of celebrities who have decided to dive into the NFT trend, including "Mean Girls" star Lindsay Lohan, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, "Shark Tank" entrepreneur Mark Cuban, socialite Paris Hilton and more.

So what, exactly, are NFTs? We wrote an in-depth explainer on NFTs, but to keep it short and simple, non-fungible tokens are digital entities (e.g. an audio file, a JPG of digital art, a collection of videos) that are backed by blockchain technology to bolster its authenticity. 

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For example, Dorsey sold his first tweet for a whopping $2.9 million. One may ask, "Why would someone pay all that money when I can simply have a screenshot of Dorsey's tweet for free?" Well, the same way a knock-off doesn't have as much value as its genuine counterpart, a screenshot of Dorsey's tweet doesn't have the same value as the Twitter CEO handing you the "keys" to his first tweet.

Think of NTFs as a digital certificate of authenticity. Typically, non-fungible tokens run on Ethereum, making them easy to track past owners and history. As such, the chap who purchased the tweet for $2.9 million can track Dorsey as the original owner, which substantially increases the value of the NFT-minted tweet.

NTFs mostly appeal to art enthusiasts and collectors. If you're like me and you don't understand why someone would pay a fortune for Pokémon cards and comic books, then NFTs will baffle you, too. Still, there is a market for it and there are people who will splurge on NFTs, whether they're huge fans of the creator or avid collectors of lucrative items.

Nifty Gateway didn't divulge what type of NFT Eminem plans to drop, but two of Eminem's albums are the top 100 best sellers of all time (i.e. "Marshall Mathers LP" and "The Eminem Show"), so we're sure Eminem will make a killing from a wealthy "Stan."

Kimberly Gedeon

Kimberly Gedeon, holding a Master's degree in International Journalism, launched her career as a journalist for MadameNoire's business beat in 2013. She loved translating stuffy stories about the economy, personal finance and investing into digestible, easy-to-understand, entertaining stories for young women of color. During her time on the business beat, she discovered her passion for tech as she dove into articles about tech entrepreneurship, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the latest tablets. After eight years of freelancing, dabbling in a myriad of beats, she's finally found a home at Laptop Mag that accepts her as the crypto-addicted, virtual reality-loving, investing-focused, tech-fascinated nerd she is. Woot!