Hear Mike Shinoda’s Sold Out NFT Mixtape ‘ZIGGURATS’

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda just released a six-minute 45-second long mixtape and the "first ever generative mixtape NFT set sold out in a matter of minutes. The ZIGGURATS set was released as 5,000 unique NFTs, and while it's sold out, you can hear the music below.

Mike Shinoda is one of the many rockstars that's gotten into the NFT game. Last month Slipknot released music on a website (The Chapeltown Rag) exclusively for Slipknot NFTs while Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante released his "Monster Art Series" in August.

The Linkin Park musician released the ZIGGURATS NFT as a collection of 5,000 exclusive NFTs, with each one is designed by the musician himself. They are now ownable collectibles with unique music and cover art and no two NFTs are alike. Shinoda gave away one NFT on his Twitch where he also celebrated that all of the NFTs had sold out in just minutes.

You can filter through the collection of NFTs by drum track, head, melody, number of traits, and more. Every one of the NFTs features a different character with different faces, hair and backgrounds. and here's what Shinoda has to say about his NFT release:

"So I designed this release to be an easy "first NFT." There are multiple blockchains, this release is on Tezos. I chose Tezos because it's a green blockchain, with one of the lowest carbon footprints of any popular chain. We've all bought an app we "own," like Microsoft Word, or a music plugin, or an item in a game. But those items are unlimited in number. The difference here is that the NFT is a limited edition, highlighting the value of authenticity, rarity, and originality."

This isn't the Linkin Park's musician's first time releasing an NFT. In February 2021 he became the very first major label artist to release a single, "Happy Endings" with Iann Dior and Upsahl, as an NFT. Prior to that he sold his first piece of crypto art as an NFT titled "One Hundreth Stream" for $30,000 and dedicated it to the "Michael K Shinoda Endowed Scholarship" based on artistic merit and financial need, according to one of his Tweets.

It seems like NFTs aren't going anywhere anytime soon and we can expect to see a lot more NFTs from musicians, YouTubers, actors, and more. You can see what Mike Shinoda's collection of ZIGGURATS NFTs look and sound like here.

Meanwhile, the four track mixtape, which consists of the songs "Genius Bar," "Richard Bachman," "Cheat Codes" and "CTRL C CTRL V," can be heard in full below.

Mike Shinoda, ZIGGURATS