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AbJo tells PHLOTE why curating music in web 3.0 is important

Recently, Team PHLOTE welcomed producer, DJ, and Soulection member AbJo to Gather.town to discuss his evolution as an artist and opinions on the future of web 3.0 and music streaming.

AbJo grew up in the city of San Diego throughout the beginning of the beat scene, which is where he first got his start in music at the early age of nine years old.

When asked about his immediate influences he opts to cite names within the classical and jazz genres such as Bach, Beethoven, Quincy Jones, and Robert Glasper. As he says,

“I don’t just make beats, I make music.”

– AbJo of Soulection

His calling card, as he says, is what he can do with sampling. AbJo grew up in the club scene at a very young age with an uncle that worked as a hip hop club promoter – he saw big names such as Busta Rhymes, The Lady of Rage, Slum Village, and Exile, in San Diego, long before they made it big.

He would run through records picking up samples and became comfortable with the artistic practice early in his career.

Before getting into web 3.0, there was a certain formula to AbJo’s music releases – produce content, put it on web 2.0 and Spotify, promote, do shows, and hope the right people would find it and want to use it. He never prioritized streams or album sales to gain revenue.

By entering the crypto world, he found a whole new dynamic to promotion that benefits everyone involved for simply being in the space. He explains,

“If somebody decides they wanna place a bid on something I put up, that could potentially end up funding my way to make them more content.”

– AbJo of Soulection

Web 3.0 gives a whole new outlet for communicating and building relationships with fans. Abjo admits, “I don’t think I’ve ever been super interested in connecting with my audience in any way other than musically.”

Now, with the web 3.0 space, he can mint his content, provide his fans with something of value and sentiment, as they both make money off of it at the same time.

On the topic of streaming, AbJo explains that he has been successfully collaborating with Audius for the past year – one of the only web 3.0 affiliated streaming services that are no longer in beta.

The streaming quality and user interface looked promising, along with the fact that he would be making dividends, and a year later he can see that they were not lying.

Many people, like AbJo, were skeptical at first about decentralization, but soon recognized the freedom it provides.

“We can literally write our own tickets, see that value and share that value with other people.”

– AbJo of Soulection

On the other hand, services such as Spotify are beginning to be seen as more of a utility – it allows people access to music, but many artists are beginning to realize that they can’t expect to make the majority of their income off of it.

AbJo’s main goal with NFTs is to give fans access to unreleased content. He plans to do a Mirror crowdfund for his next project and develop a coin that provides access to a dropbox of unreleased content and sneak previews, as well as inside information such as being the first to know about an upcoming gig.

The Soulection member summarizes this as a strategy of utilizing and incentivizing your biggest fans – a fan can obtain value in the real world and in the digital world through this coin, get their desired use out of it, and then proceed to sell it to the next fan.

Overall, this would provide a direct connection to an artist and their music for a large number of their fans.

Outlandish reasons why Kanye West hasn’t dropped an NFT

Kanye West just released a soulfully christened album, “DONDA,” without an NFT. Should we be concerned or looking out for more, especially since the debut of his DONDA STEM Player?

The album runs one hour and forty-eight minutes long with 27 tracks.  DONDA gives light to younger artists while maintaining a reinvigorated spiritual approach.

Yes, he just dropped his 10th album but when is Ye going to drop an NFT? Here are some things Kanye might be doing instead of dropping an NFT.

Kanye West does not let anyone dictate his freedom of thought

Kanye doesn’t shy away from a rant. We have seen it time and again that he loves to find the longest winded routes to make his points.

Perhaps he’s gearing up for another TMZ free think session to claim that 400 years of slavery were by choice?

People call Kanye crazy. Have you ever thought it might be the industry he is in?

Kanye does not obey the rules laid out by society. We commend his ability to absolutely buck the system and display genius levels of creativity.

While 60 percent of his statements may be nonsensical, he iterates some incredibly profound outlooks that may not ever be uttered if it weren’t for his existence. 

kanye west NFT
Kanye Hepburn (via Globe Photos/Bondly NFT team)

Maybe he’s preparing for another Joe Rogan appearance? We loved his futuristic stance and the free game offered on that podcast.

Maybe we are not as advanced as a civilization as we may think. Kanye brought many concepts to the forefront during that chat – three major takeaways below:

“The longest moments of our lives are memories.”

“What is the Earth worth?”

“We are in the future.”

Kanye can be rather boneheaded too

Perhaps Kanye will endorse Trump once more after the hype surrounding his album dies down. We all know that Kanye is willing to go to extreme measures to promote his product.

As a matter of fact, it seems as if we only start to hear chirps from Kanye when he is trying to sell something.

Oh, I know why he hasn’t dropped an NFT! He’s getting ready to unleash fury on another innocent journalist.

Sway already took enough browbeating from Kanye West for no other reason than mounted frustration about fashion rejection. Who knows? Maybe Adam22 will be Kanye’s next interview victim.

Kanye West makes plans to drop an NFT and God has a whole other plan

Finally, we know why Kanye has not released an NFT. He is taking the time to go off-script and tell the world how to help Hurricane Ida victims. We all know Kanye refuses to adhere to societal standards.


Whether you love him, like him, hate or him, or pay him no mind – Kanye is doing something right. How so? He makes the people have an opinion and speak his name.

“Because we living in the times that make Kanye West go pray.” (Jim Jones)

So while everyone has their own stance on Kanye West he continues to revolutionize hip-hop, fashion, and technology. Look no further than the DONDA STEM Player which allows you to customize a song in real-time. Pretty neat.

Donda Stem Player
Photo Courtesy: DJ MAG

Kulture Hub exists as a mainstay in our global stratosphere. We are quite literally the centrifuge and inner circle that everyone should tap into for all things fashion, culture, music, and technology. 

As long as water replenishes, food nourishes, and shelter provides comfort – Kulture Hub will satiate every newsworthy need you might have, even if it means pushing Kanye West towards dropping an NFT for DONDA.

To the tune of Ginuwine’s “So Anxious”