French Montana, recognized as the highest-streaming African-born artist with over 40 billion streams, has set a new precedent in the music and crypto realms by becoming the first mainstream artist to inscribe an entire song into the Bitcoin blockchain. The announcement, made through the Mac & Cheese 5 account on X (formerly Twitter) on March 14, introduces “Bag Curious,” a hidden track from the Mac & Cheese 5 album now permanently inscribed into the world’s most secure decentralized system via Bitcoin’s Proof of Work.
The Mac & Cheese 5 account detailed the process, stating, “An unreleased track by French Montana titled ‘Bag Curious,’ has been inscribed into Bitcoin, marking him as the first mainstream artist to inscribe a complete song into the most robust cloud system, which is fueled by Proof of Work. This development is unchangeable and cannot be censored, making it a historic moment.”
French Montana Writes Bitcoin History
The significance of this event is heightened by the fact that the MP4 file of “Bag Curious” occupied an entire BTC block, a feat underscored by French Montana himself: “Launched the freshest music ordinal out there! Snagged an entire block from Marathon Digital all with that Ordinalsbot sorcery. Our legacy on Bitcoin forever with #brc420 today for anyone to own history!”
NOW LIVE. Music Ordinal. Hidden Song
LINK: https://t.co/QdoDuXOY2x https://t.co/1ssKWvzrp6
— French Montana (@FrencHMonTanA) March 14, 2024
This inscription has been celebrated as the third-largest Ordinal inscription ever, a notable achievement that underscores the innovative use of the Ordinals protocol for purposes beyond financial transactions. The Ordinals account, Ord.io, acknowledged the milestone on X: “BREAKING: French Montana just dropped his newest song Bag Curious by inscribing it into Bitcoin in the third largest Ordinal inscription ever!”
The inscription is numbered 64333690, has a size of 3.956 megabyte, and occupies the entire block #834,618.
Ahead of the release, the enthusiasm and anticipation from the community were palpable, with the Mac & Cheese 5 account revealing, “Incredible, we’ve hit 50,000 comments! It’s clear from the community’s response that the Mac and Cheese 5 #PFPS are going to be a massive success! Bitcoin #Ordinals is the only place French Montana wants to be. Inscribed forever! No need for AWS.”
Moreover, the collaborative effort with Ord.io was highlighted as a pivotal element of the project’s success, transforming the minting process into an innovative and exciting venture. “A massive shoutout to Leonidas of Ord.io and the team at http://Ord.io. Their incredible platform transformed what could have been a mundane mint into something exciting,” the Mac & Cheese 5 account praised, reflecting the artist’s sentiment, “Leon, you make Bitcoin fun @LeonidasNFT.”
The groundbreaking nature of this inscription not only showcases French Montana’s innovative approach to music distribution but also solidifies Ordinals as a viable platform for artists seeking immutable, censorship-resistant methods to share their work. As Bitcoin continues to evolve and intersect with various industries, this historic moment marks a significant step forward in exploring new frontiers of digital content ownership and distribution.
At press time, BTC traded at $71,563.
Featured image from HipHopDX, chart from TradingView.com