On a brownstone stoop in Harlem nestled between New York's Fifth and Madison Avenues, 54 jazz musicians gathered in 1959 for a photo that would inspire homages for decades to come.
Nearly 200 hip hop artists crowded onto the same stoop in 1998 to take a picture. Sixty four years after the original image was taken, dozens of Black NFT artists gathered there to do so again.
Ja Rule had hits with songs such as "Mesmerize" in the early 2000s. He and his business partner set up The Painted House because they realized they were the only black people at NFT events.
The Painted House collaborated with House of Firsts to release its first project. "Black is Beautiful" is a collection of more than 1,000 NFTs depicting the everyday life of Black Americans.
Rice told Insider that it caught his attention. When I saw Davis' art, I was reminded of when my family used to tell me how beautiful my black skin was.
The duo said that others have the same feelings about Davis' art.
Ja Rule said that the art represented him. I don't see a lot of pictures with my black skin on them.
Ja Rule is not the only celebrity who has jumped on the NFT bandwagon, as figures from Mark Cuban to Lindsay Lohan have done so as well.
He says smart rappers like to be ahead of the curve and that's why they're into NFTs.
NBA Top Shot is a marketplace where basketball video clips can be traded.
"I'm a big card collector, and I thought this was the natural progression to trading cards, a digital form of trading cards," he says.
Before The Painted House, Ja Rule and Rice formed an investment group to educate their network about NFTs, cryptocurrencies and the internet.
New artists, fashion and apparel projects will be launched by their latest venture.
They argue that NFT marketplaces have pros and cons like any other industry and that they want to focus on community-building.
New music from Ja Rule and other exclusive content will be given to buyers of art from Black is Beautifu.
In the NFT community, you don't get to do things in other businesses.
They plan to give 25k to historically Black colleges and universities. Ja Rule's live- streaming entertainment marketplace will match that amount.
Ja Rule thinks historically Black colleges and universities will one day be as good as Ivy League schools. If you go to an HBCU, we want people in our community to be proud.
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