Syrian rapper and producer Al Darwish, looked upon as a pillar of the Arab hip-hop community, has been making music for almost two decades. Darwish recently turned his attention to blockchain-based music nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to sell and market his music. As a result, he released the first-ever Arab rap NFT track in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Darwish was introduced to NFTs by a friend and fellow rapper about six months ago. After researching the market, he chose Nifty Souq, an NFT platform launched in 2021 by Palestinian entrepreneur Nabil Al-Sayed, to distribute 23 copies of his track “Ana.” “NFTs give us leeway to be our own artists and a huge margin of independence,” Darwish said. “It’s important for people who work in the Arab music scene to push forward with NFTs.”
