Ghostface Killah is set to release NFTs based around previously unpublished lyrics the founding Wu-Tang Clan rapper wrote over 20 years ago.
The latest high profile artist to jump in on the buzzy tech craze, Ghost tells Rolling Stone he was looking back through notebooks of old lyrics — some of them over 20 years old — as he was getting ready for the 25th anniversary of his debut solo album Ironman. He and his team decided those lyrics would be a good foot in the water to determine how the NFT marketplace would fit for him going forward. He hasn’t shunned the idea of releasing music directly as NFTs but says he’s looking at the lyric release as an experiment. It isn’t clear yet how many NFTs Ghost is releasing or when the drop will be, but all the lyric NFTs will be one-of-ones.
“We’ll see how it goes. If I want to do more of these longer-term, there’s a lot of options I can do,” he says. “Music, art, or in this case, some of my lyrics, there’s a lot we can do, so I have to do some experimenting and find out what works. But for this one, people are going to get a vintage rhyme from Ghostface.
Ghostface Killah and the rest of Wu-Tang now have an association with the NFT market past the fate of the group’s seventh studio album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Wu-Tang infamously released only one copy of that album in 2015, which sold at auction to convicted felon pharma-bro Martin Shkreli for $2 million. A group of crypto enthusiasts bought the record for twice as much in July and plan on marking their deed of ownership over the record with an NFT. Ghostface says the album has had little trajectory on his decision to try his hand with the crypto tokens.
“I’m just going to be straight up, I don’t give a fuck about that album,” Ghost says of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. “I don’t care who sold it or the owner now, I’ve got nothing to do with that shit, and that album didn’t affect my decision to do any of this. I’m just releasing a rap sheet of my own music.”
Ghost is releasing his NFTs through the S!NG Market, one of several NFT marketplaces launched more specifically around music. Ghost says he had several suitors for an initial NFT drop but went with S!NG because they gave him the best offer and he felt they were the most artist-friendly. Among the artists and music groups who’ve already established partnerships and NFT drops on S!NG include Aloe Blacc, Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland and management and record company Shelter Music Group, whose client list includes Fleetwood Mac and ZZ Top.
Raine Maida, lead singer for Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace and S!NG’s chief product officer, has advocated for NFTs as a means both of putting more value on music and connecting with fans in novel ways.
“Fans wanted to support an artist,” Maida says. “Just because DSPs happened doesn’t mean fans didn’t care about putting value on the music they love. Look at Bandcamp Fridays; they’ve done so well each week since they launched. “We’re still so early in with the market, and music fans still don’t really know what NFTs are, but they certainly have a better idea of them than a year ago.”
NEWS
There’s a high probability that Jorja Smith has new music coming this summer. The British singer revealed plans for her What Are the Odds LP on Thursday (July 2), with the album set to arrive on Aug. 21 via FAMM.
Smith reunites with producer P2J — who served as a primary collaborator on her 2023 album Falling or Flying — for the entirety of the project. J Money and P2J will continue to build on the inventive U.K. garage sound Smith has been exploring, alongside a mix of grime and house.
“This album came together really naturally. There was never a big plan; it was just me making music that felt right in the moment,” Smith tells Billboard. “Working with P2J, we started experimenting with different sounds, pulling from U.K. garage, grime and house (funky house, Afro house) and it all grew from there.”
She continues: “The music feels uplifting, but the lyrics can be a bit sad at times. They’re about growing up, love, loss, friendships and figuring things out as I go. I trusted my instincts with this one, and I think you can hear that throughout the record.”
Smith kicked off the album’s rollout in May with the self-assuring “What’s Done Is Done,” and it continues on Thursday (July 2) with a second single, “Alive,” which finds the R&B singer joining forces with Afrobeats pioneer WizKid. The duo basks in the love-drunk euphoria of the honeymoon phase of a bubbling relationship and heads to Paris for the visual.
“Making this with P2J and WizKid felt really easy,” Smith adds of the collab. “We wrote and recorded it together in London. I think we captured that feeling when you’re at the beginning of something with someone and everything feels exciting. I’ve always loved WizKid’s music and the way he’s opened so many doors for Afrobeats around the world, so it feels really special and a big honor to have a song with him.”
What Are the Odds serves as Jorja Smith’s third studio album and contains 12 tracks. Outside of WizKid, the only other feature comes from grime artist Devlin.
When the project lands on Aug. 21, Smith will hit the stage later that night at London’s All Points East, as she’ll be co-headlining the Victoria Park show with Tems. 2026 has already been a busy year for J Money, who served as a musical guest on the debut season of Saturday Night Live UK in April.
The 29-year-old also collaborated with Mobb Deep’s Havoc for a remix of her “Blue Lights” classic and lent “Price of It All” to Amazon MGM Studios’ Bait soundtrack.
Find the What Are the Odds cover art and tracklist below.
What Are the Odds tracklist:
