Salem Ilese & Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova Team Up for 'Crypto ₿Oy' to Raise Money for the Center for Reproductive Rights
Pussy Riot has created original artwork for the drop, which will hit Sound XYZ this Tuesday 5/24 at 5pm EST.
By: Michael Major May. 23, 2022
"Crypto ₿oy" has gone viral across TikTok + Twitter with millions of views since Salem Ilese first posted the original on TikTok last week with an open verse challenge, even featuring stitched videos by July, sad alex and good problem. Now she's partnering with Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova to give both versions the NFT drop the song was destined for on Sound XYZ.
Pussy Riot has created original artwork for the drop, which will hit Sound XYZ this Tuesday 5/24 at 5pm EST with a total supply of 1973 (the year Roe v Wade was ratified), making it the biggest drop in Sound XYZ history. Mint price will be .1 ETH with 100% of proceeds going to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Following the drop of the original, all holders will receive a free airdrop of the remix version featuring July, Sad Alex and Good Problem. All proceeds for both NFTs will go to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The drop follows on the heels of Pussy Riot's UnicornDAO launch and fundraise - which raised $4.5 million to fight gender inequality in the NFT space and art world at large - and Nadya's historic UkraineDAO fundraiser, which raised over $7 million in 5 days for conflict relief in Ukraine last February.
Salem writes:
""Crypto ₿oy" is a wake-up call for all the chart-watchers, candle-counters, and JPEG-flippers that find a way to bring crypto into any conversation, no matter what it's about. We all know them - checking OpenSea like it's instagram, obsessing over prices, holding this, shorting that and being unable to focus on anything except Discord.
As exciting as crypto is, and as likely as it is to revolutionize finance in the coming years, I want to shift our attention to a very urgent issue, which is the possibility of SCOTUS overturning Roe v Wade. This attack on reproductive rights is something we should be talking about as loudly as a crypto boy talks about NFT's. It's imperative that we band together and fight to protect our fundamental rights.
100% of the proceeds of the sale of this NFT will be donated to The Center for Reproductive Rights (https://reproductiverights.org), a legal nonprofit that is able to accept donations in cryptocurrency. Let's say NO to SCOTUS taking away our rights."
Nadya adds:
"Salem hit me up asking if I wanted to create an artwork for Crypto Boy; I'm obsessed with the song, so it was an immediate YES PLEASE. I co-founded UnicornDAO which seeks to subvert crypto bro culture and fund womxn, non-binary and LGBTQ+ digital artists, so Crypto Boy couldn't be more perfect to me."
21-year-old pop artist Salem Ilese has been preparing for this moment her entire life. Born and raised outside San Francisco, the singer/songwriter has been doing music for as long as she can remember. Placed in music lessons from an early age, she attributes her musicality to legendary writer Bonnie Hayes, her first songwriting teacher.
Credited for writing songs for Cher, Bonnie Raitt, David Crosby, Bette Midler and more, Hayes immediately saw then-12-year-old Salem's gift for storytelling; "she took me under her wing. I probably wouldn't be here without her." When Hayes moved to Boston to head Berklee College of Music's songwriting department, Salem knew she had to follow and enrolled. After a couple years of intense learning, Salem made the decision to move to Los Angeles to kickstart the next chapter of her career.
In August 2020, Salem Ilese caught the eye of 10K Projects/Homemade Projects and signed a record deal. Shortly after, her breakout hit "Mad At Disney" gained viral momentum with over 208M Spotify streams and the creation of over 3.2M TikTok videos, all while holding placement on Spotify's Today's Top Hits playlist for over 15 weeks.
From there she went on to release "Coke & Mentos" in November of 2020, premiering the track on Zane Lowe's Apple Music show, followed by the release of her EP (L)onely Child this year. Beyond her own music, Salem also collaborated with Alan Walker, Jamie Miller, Surfaces, and more, while also co-writing songs including TXT's "Anti-Romantic" and Bella Poarch's 2021 hit "Build A Bitch." Cementing rising star status, Salem's EP Unsponsored Content is out now, lead by single "PS5" with TXT and Alan Walker.
Conceptual artist and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova, a founding member of Pussy Riot, a global feminist protest art movement. Today, hundreds of people identify as a part of the Pussy Riot community.
Was sentenced in 2012 to 2 years' imprisonment following an anti-Putin performance. Went through a hunger strike protesting savage prison conditions and ended up being sent to a Siberian penal colony, where she managed to maintain her artistic activity and with her prison punk band she put together to tour around Siberian labor camps. Published a book "Read and riot: Pussy Riot's guide to activism".
Co-founder of independent news service and media outlet, Mediazona. Has spoken before the US Congress, British Parliament, European Parliament, appeared as herself on season 3 of House of Cards, and performed at Banksy's Dismaland exhibition.
Pussy Riot's Punk Prayer was named by The Guardian among the best art pieces of the 21st century ("feminist, explicitly anti-Putin, protesting the banning of gay pride and the Orthodox church's support of the president"), collaborated with Bansky on his Dismaland exhibition, endorsed by Marina Abramovic and Ai Weiwei, created an immersive experience in Saatchi gallery in London. Pussy Riot joined the NFT community in early 2021, recently co-founded UnicornDAO and started UkraineDAO, is a PleasrDAO member, a supporter of a stronger female representation in the NFT space.
Pussy Riot stands for gender fluidity, inclusivity, matriarchy, love, laughter, decentralization, anarchy, and anti-authoritarianism.
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