Eminem and Snoop Dogg released a track together Friday, along with a new music video, which features the two of them looking like those notorious Bored Apes non-fungible tokens.
The track, which is unsurprisingly pretty catchy, is called “From The D 2 The LBC,” in a nod to both rapper’s respective home towns; Eminem’s Detroit, and Snoop Dogg’s Long Beach, California.
It’s not surprising that the song features Em drop some machine-gun-like flows, as he’s quite known for his rapid-fire raps, but the normally smooth and steady Snoop took us slightly off guard by largely keeping up with the pace of his collaborator.
It’s not the first time the two have collaborated, but it’s a welcome reunion nonetheless. Something both rappers have in common is they were initially discovered, during slightly different eras in rap history, by prolific rapper and producer Dr. Dre. Plus, the pair appearing in a solo duet together is a first, as the Detroit Free Press noted,
“[Em] and Snoop have appeared on record together before, but Friday’s single is their first head-to-head duet collaboration.”
The article went on to state that the track was produced by Em himself, with some piano work being provided by “his longtime musical partner Luis Resto.”
Em, Snoop, and Dre all appeared together during this year’s Super Bowl Halftime performance, a subject matter touched upon in the song.
“The King and I,” featuring CeeLo Green, was another track Em released earlier this month — as part of the soundtrack to the Elvis movie — which can also be found on the 8 Mile star’s YouTube channel.
Based on the Twitter accounts of both Snoop Dogg and Eminem, it would appear the Bored Ape characters in the music video really are the genuine article and not some kind of parody. For instance, the Bored Ape character who appears in the music video is also currently Em’s profile picture, and Snoop has been making some posts about what appears to be an ice cream brand featuring his Bored Ape, called Dr. Bombay’s Sweet Exploration.
Bored Apes are a type of NFT, a digital collectible that utilizes blockchain technology. NFTs have proven controversial to some, both for being a hotbed for rug pull schemes in some cases, and for their association with cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, which is thought to have negative environmental impacts due to the exorbitant computing power associated with mining the currency.
