Cointelegraph senior reporter Rachel Wolfson visited South by Southwest (SXSW) — a 10-day annual know-how, movie and music pageant based mostly in Austin, Texas — to attach with and interview a melting pot of pioneers, luminaries and fanatics from the crypto, blockchain and Web3 industries.
Wolfson spoke to Darryl McDaniels, a founding member of the notorious New York hip-hop trio Run-DMC — recognized additionally by his stage identify, DMC — concerning the group‘s illustrious discography, his views on the capitalism-induced flaws throughout the conventional music business, and his overarching imaginative and prescient in collaboration with blockchain mission The Track That Owns Itself (STOI) to advance decentralized digital possession.
Run-DMC achieved colossal success throughout the 80s and 90s with a number of acclaimed albums and tracks resembling “It’s Like That” and “Stroll This Method,” establishing a legacy as one of the influential hip-hop acts within the historical past of the style.
Previous to the interview, McDaniels freestyled a four-bar verse devoted to Cointelegraph and impressed by the crypto and blockchain house.
“On the microphone I get coin, I’m gonna do massive issues like Bitcoin. This proper right here’s the king-of-rock factor, the good mu’fucking factor on the blockchain.”
Nice interview for @Cointelegraph with Darryl McDaniels from Run DMC at @Algorand throughout #SXSW2022 ✌️ pic.twitter.com/pweAF2uIvs
— Rachel Wolfson (@Rachelwolf00) March 15, 2022
In Wolfson’s dialog with McDaniels, it was evident that his ardour for reestablishing inventive sovereignty and inventive possession throughout the music business is fueled by his imaginative and prescient for the potential affect of blockchain know-how, a mannequin during which decentralized mechanics might grant the chance for enhanced creator autonomy.
McDaniels acknowledged that “Run-DMC was all the time an entity that introduced folks collectively, modified issues and made issues higher,” declaring his aspirations to construct blockchain options that foster this custom.
“What I’m doing with Algorand and The STOI goes to assist us manifest the options which can be wanted to place the facility again within the creator’s fingers, hold the facility within the creations and permit all people to expertise every thing that comes together with that.”
STOI is an progressive mission searching for to make the most of sensible contracts to create tokenomic governance fashions for songs. In response to the imaginative and prescient illustrated in its white paper, the mission’s objective is “empowering inventive entrepreneurs and their followers by leveraging the instruments of Web3.”
STOI’s inaugural nonfungible token (NFT), “God Particle,” sold on the Basis market for 0.5 Ether (ETH) on Nov. 30. On Feb. 14, STOI transitioned from Ethereum to Algorand, citing larger velocity, larger cost-efficiency and decrease environmental affect. The mission has outlined roadmap plans to launch a governance-based decentralized autonomous group (DAO) and extra NFT releases within the close to future.
On Monday, it was introduced that the third version of the STOI mission will tokenize McDaniels’ newest observe, “Million Scars,” which he performed stay on the AlgoRanch pop-up occasion on the SXSW pageant the identical day.

Commenting on the way forward for the music business amid an increase in technological affect, McDaniels revealed that “It’s not nearly shifting out the center man,” earlier than stating that:
“It’s making one thing that’s all-inclusive the place all people’s concerned from creation to its continuation. […] The music owns itself as a result of the music is the factor. The creator is the place the facility begins, and that’s the place the facility ought to keep.”