Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Photo by Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Vulture Festival
Ali Shaheed Muhammad, one of the founding members of the pioneering hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, is speaking out against the sale of an NFT containing the rights to 1.5% of the royalties for their first five albums.
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Muhammad's statement came in response to
Billboard's initial report on the NFT. The token's creator, the music royalties portal Royalty Exchange, wrote in a press release before the sale that the NFT "will enable its owner to collect sound recording royalties from the first five studio albums."
The release went on to claim that the NFT was created in partnership with A Tribe Called Quest, something Muhammad strongly denied in his July 4 statement noticed by Stereogum. "No member of A Tribe Called Quest has entered into any partnership with Royalty Exchange," he wrote. "PERIOD!"