A Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammad Says Royalties NFT Wasn't Authorized

The NFT auction was previously announced as a partnership between the group and Royalty Exchange, but Ali Shaheed Muhammad says that's not true.

July 6, 2021

Ali Shaheed Muhammad says a recently announced royalties NFT does not mark a partnership between A Tribe Called Quest and Royalty Exchange, despite earlier reports wording it as such.

In a message shared to Facebook over the weekend, the ATCQ member took issue with a Billboard report that originally said the iconic hip-hop group had “partnered” with Royalty Exchange for the auctioning of 1.5 percent of the sound recording royalties of five albums. The truth, however, is that the NFT has its origins in a bad deal the group was a part of early in their career.

“Apparently [PPX Enterprises] sold their share of a settlement they made with Jive Records to an individual whom entered into a partnership with Royalty Exchange,” Muhammad said. “Be clear that is the NFT that was created and auctioned.”

Had the members known that this percentage of their art would be used in this capacity, he added, they would have purchased it themselves directly from PPX Enterprises “as it should have never been sold by Jive Records.”

In short, PPX Enterprises—according to Muhammad—included a clause in a negotiation representation agreement stating that they would receive a percentage of royalties from future albums. The group, once they learned of this clause during sessions for their 1991 album The Low End Theory, ultimately received an offer from Jive to—seemingly, at the time—help clear up the issue under the condition that they sign on for a sixth album.

Read Muhammad’s full statement here.

Q-Tip also chimed in:

At the top of this month, a bidder by the name of Stephen F. won the NFT auction with a bid of 40.191 ETH, which is the equivalent of more than $84,000.