Snoop Dogg’s Son Awards Blockchain Philanthropy Grant to Simmons Family at Art Basel Miami Beach from $1 Million Fund

Snoop Dogg’s son Cordell Broadus has just launched the $1 million Champ Medici Arts Fund, a charitable venture to support emerging artists using blockchain globally. At Art Basel Miami Beach this season, he will present the first award to the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation on Saturday, December 3.

Rush is the nonprofit cofounded by music mogul Russell Simmons and his brothers visual artist Danny Simmons and Joseph “Rev. Run” Simmons of Run-DMC hip-hop fame.

Seeking artists of color, female artists, and anyone underrepresented, Cordell (Champ Medici in the Metaverse) sees this fund as an opportunity to give back while also advancing the NFT technology that has brought him success.

“It’s just dope to see how I can contribute in my own way now, and try to get the new generation interested as well…” he said, “If you’ve got a message and you tryna create, I’m all for it, no matter what you look like. But I’d like to see more Black artists doing this.”

Later, he went into more detail about limitations.

“We tend to make music, play sports and do other things, so I just want to open our minds and not marginalize ourselves into a small sector where the success rate isn’t as high as other career fields. I think they just need to see other representation, and hopefully I can spark that amongst a few artists to have a triple effect.”

In short, Champ recognizes the power of community and aims to use it to generate broader wealth.

“It’s all about having the culture stamp stuff,” he said simply. “Once the culture gets behind it, it becomes a massively adopted thing afterwards.”

Champ has championed Crypto and Web3 since he discovered the technology in 2018, working as Creative Director for 2021 e-gaming platform Doge Dash. His father, rapper and entertainment entrepreneur Snoop Dogg, is known not just for his early 2000s musical hits, but continued investments and projects. Snoop recently acquired Death Row Records, taking the cue from his son to release 250 songs on the Ethereum blockchain in which buyers had rights to the music. This spurred a new wave of musical creativity and enthusiasm for the technological possibilities, and generated $3.5 million.

Like his son Champ Medici, Snoop calls himself Cosimo Medici in this space, both names drawn from their Bored Ape portraits.

Champ Medici partnered with Gushcloud International, the Singapore-based pioneer in the blockchain space focused on the entertainment industry. Co-founder and CEO Althea Lim confirmed how smart contracts are giving artists a chance to break away from traditionally restrictive record label deals.

Building on energy efficient blockchain platform Tezos, Champ evangelizes the philanthropic project’s potential despite the latest controversies of the crypto and NFT space. He is uniquely well-suited to the seemingly unstable NFT sphere as the son of a celebrity musician and a former UCLA football player in his own right, where he learned from a young age about the ebbs and flows of public opinion.

“Now is when you look at the opportunity—when you look around and see who’s going to build when the noise and the hype is not here,” he said, “With anything in life, once your favorite team is winning, everybody’s gon’ wear that jersey. But once they start losing, nobody’s rockin’ that, you know? The way I see it, I want to be looked at as a pioneer and a staple in this space, so I’m here regardless of the price. I’m here for the innovation.”

A father of two himself, Champ often talks about the family legacy that predates his father’s success, such as his great-grandfather owning 90 acres of land in Georgia as an astute and wealthy real estate investor in the segregated south. From real estate to rap, football to the blockchain, nothing is stopping the family now.

Champ first came to appreciate art when he received the gift of Artis Lane’s The Beginning in 2016, one of 750 lithographs of her good friend and legendary Civil Rights’ activist Rosa Parks. A 2015 Swann Galleries Auction of Maya Angelou’s collection included one of these special prints, which sold then for $700,000.

Ultimately, despite the fast money money so far, he sees this crypto market is a waiting game, and he is patient.

“…Technology is always inclining; it’s never declining. So it’s not at the comfortability that we want it to be right now, but give it a couple years. Five years, 10 years, who knows? But I know the first iPhone didn’t look like iPhone 14.”

Today, Champ continues to partner with Sotheby’s Hip Hop team to recognize new artists and technologies and remain a fixture in the traditional art market. So whatever the next innovation may be, Snoop Dogg’s family will be ready to use it for mobility and success.