…Hip-Hop had a superhero.

His mission? To save his first love, Hip-Hop — the genre that raised him from destruction.

Now picture his journey unfolding as a visual-musical experience where song lyrics are brought to life as comic art.

On a quest to save the cultural movement that gave him light in the darkest hours of his youth, GHOST-EMC (a now up-and-coming MC), fights to reclaim his first  love, Hip-Hop, and return her back to her truest form by any means necessary.

Despite being guided by good intentions — the desire to save Hip-Hop, GHOST is a flawed, conflicted character with a dark side and a few bad habits.

Writing a letter to the genre he holds close to his heart, he pens an album, pulling from his musical influences and life experiences, to compose a body of work which he hopes will spark a revival within the culture and return Hip-Hop back to the lyricism, creative concepts, consciousness, detailed storytelling, exciting wordplay and rhyme schemes that she was originally rooted in.

His adventures take place in his own universe called PHANTOM CITY (a reimagined New York City, the birthplace of Hip-Hop). In fact, if you call the Rotten Apple home then in words of Inspectah Deck, you might just catch him:

“…swinging through your town like your neighbourhood Spider-Man.”

As GHOST’s audience, we follow along his exploits in PHANTOM CITY through both the music and comic art.

Throughout Hip-Hop’s history lies a deep connection between the genre and comics, rap lyrics are often riddled with comic book references. Both art forms are rooted in creativity and artistic expression. In fact, your imagination along with a pen(cil) and a notebook are all you need to either write rhymes or create a comic book.  This creates the perfect synergy between these two visual and audio mediums.

Let’s highlight some moments when these two worlds collide:

On Hip-Hop’s first chart-topping single “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang in 1979, we hear Big Hank rap these lyrics:

“By the way, baby, what's your name? "Said, "I go by the name Lois Lane. And you could be my boyfriend, you surely can. Just let me quit my boyfriend called Superman"

It is widely known that the phenomenal DMC of the incredible Run-DMC is empowered and inspired by comic books (just as countless other rappers) which is easily evidenced by DMC’s own comic book imprint, “Daryl Makes Comics.”

Method Man, one of Hip-Hop’s greatest MC’s often refers to himself as Johnny Blaze (Marvel Comics’ Ghost Rider) throughout his songs. The "M.E.T.H.O.D. MAN" has also made moves to combine a love of comics and music within the Web3 arena – creating “MEFaverse” – a graphic novel inside the metaverse.

Beyond the lyrics, some incredible album art in Hip-Hop has also been inspired by comic books over the years (e.g. “Doggy Style” by Snoop Dogg, “ATLiens” by OutKast, and “Liquid Swords” by the RZA).

In 2015, under the guidance of Axel Alonso, Editor in Chief of Marvel at the time, Comic artists recreated famous Hip-Hop album art re-imagined with Marvel characters.

A well constructed verse should play like a movie in your mind. Let’s take the 3rd verse on “One Love” by Nas for example ; a verse so vivid that it was eventually turned into a movie scene in Belly four years later.

…Shorty's laugh was cold blooded as he spoke so foul

Only twelve trying to tell me that he liked my style

Then I rose, wipin' the blunts ash from my clothes

Then froze only to blow the herb smoke through my nose

And told my little man that I'm a go cyprose

There's some jewels in the skull that he could sell if he chose

Words of wisdom from Nas, try to rise up above

Keep a eye out for Jake shorty, wop

One love.

GHOST-EMC’s journey offers a different type of visual experience - one where song lyrics are brought to life through comic book art, enabling you to “visualise the verse.” His music career is at the intersection of Hip-Hop and Comics.

LYRICS = COMIC ART ; A FULL SONG = A COMIC ART COLLECTION.

There are bragging rights to discovering an artist early on in their career-with NFTs you can bring your receipts to the table.

NFTs are digital collectibles powered by blockchain technology that enable fans to become active participants in an artist’s career.

NFTs also enable artists to create unique experiences specifically for collectors, such as VIP access to shows, early access to new music, exclusive merch, and a lot of other cool utilities.

With these you can prove that you were listening to Nas or Kendrick Lamar before they took over the game. And you never know, these receipts could be worth a decent amount of change in the near future, as the career of the artist grows.

The type of NFTs that are available for fans to be part of the GHOST-EMC’s music career are:

COMIC ART:

1 of 1 Comic Art created to bring song lyrics to life, allowing you to own a moment of a song as visual art.

AUDIOVISUAL:

Full songs pressed as numbered editions Digital Vinyl / Audiovisual MP4.

VIDEO:

1 of 1 Animated Video of a song.

Each song on the album, “VOL.1 THE LETTER” will be offered in the form of the NFT experiences listed above albeit, in different quantities. The goal is to allow fans to become collectors through the art form that resonates with them the most. This also opens up the possibility to create unique experiences for fans based on the art form collected, for example:

• What does collecting a Comic Art from each song on the album unlock?

• What does collecting a Digital Vinyl of each song on the album unlock?

• What does collecting a 1 of 1 video of a song unlock?

An NFT is your key into the universe of Hip-Hop’s Superhero — it’s your direct connection to GHOST as an artist.

August 11th 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop.

Where will our Superhero be on his mission to save his first love as she turns 50?

How will GHOST celebrate this incredible milestone of the cultural movement that raised him?

And most importantly, are you going to be part of this exciting adventure?