Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot
Getty Images for ABARussian punk band/activists Pussy Riot have teamed with several cryptocurrency groups to mint an NFT that will be sold this weekend to raise funds for Ukrainian civilian groups.
UkraineDAO will launch Saturday at noon EST with the release of a 1/1 NFT of the Ukrainian flag, the sale of which will benefit Ukraine’s Come Back Alive, “one of the most effective and transparent Ukrainian charitable and volunteer initiatives.”
“Our goal is to use what we’re good at, web3, to assist Ukrainians as they cope with the Russian invasion of their country,” Pussy Riot tweeted of UkraineDAO. “We’ll be buying an NFT of the Ukrainian flag.”
In a statement, the group’s co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova added, “We purposefully avoided adding our own art to this release, in a way it’s our strong conceptual artistic statement. People can have different aesthetics, but it’s not about what color we prefer, it’s about uniting to save lives. The Ukrainian flag unites us.”
The NFT sale also allows for people to donate any amount of money to participate, with those people receiving a digital souvenir for their contribution.
The Defiant reports that within 12 hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more than $400,000 in Bitcoin was donated to Come Back Alive, as the nation’s banking institutions were rocked by the invasion and the subsequent declaration of martial law.
“Crypto is borderless, permitless and it’s so much easier and faster than fiat,” Tolokonnikova told Bloomberg.
Check out the UkraineDAO site for more information on the NFT sale as well as to donate. UkraineDao was created in partnership with Trippy Labs and PleasrDAO; the latter is also the crypto group that secretly purchased the one-copy-only Wu-Tang Clan album previously owned by Martin Shkreli.
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:
