Lil Baby‘s Twitter followers may have noticed his avatar has a new look. In recent weeks, the Atlanta rapper changed his profile picture to a cartoon ape with pink fur and a blue cap.
Rappers posting digital artwork on social media is nothing new — just peep Drake’s current Instagram profile photo, which is a drawing of his four-year-old son Adonis in the style of his Nothing Was the Same album cover, courtesy of a talented 19-year-old fan from Zimbabwe known as Hulio.
But in Lil Baby’s case, his Twitter avatar has a more complex (and pricier) story behind it.
In a video posted last week that has over 300,000 likes, TikTok user @Mona_Vinci followed the paper trail behind Baby’s cartoon primate and discovered it’s a non-fungible token (NFT) worth over $150,000. However, there’s evidence to suggest the 4PF rapper may not have purchased it himself, but was instead gifted it.
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According to @Mona_Vinci, Lil Baby’s Twitter avatar is an NFT named Bored Ape #129 that was purchased on the NFT marketplace OpenSea for 37.99 ETH (Ethereum), which equates to approximately $171,794 upon publishing of this article.
@mona_vinci Lil Baby just bought a Bored Ape NFT…or did he? ##nft##nfts##cryptocurrency
Baby’s cartoon primate was created by Bored Ape Yacht Club, a sought-after collection of NFT avatars developed by Yuga Labs that has generated around $1 billion worth of trading volume. Steph Curry, Waka Flocka Flame and Von Miller are among the celebrities who own one, which explains Bored Ape #129’s hefty price tag.
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@Mona_Vinci also discovered that Bored Ape #129 was purchased by an account owned by cryptocurrency payment platform MoonPay, who then transferred it to Lil Baby for free. MoonPay are one of just four accounts the ATL rapper currently follows on Twitter alongside Bored Ape Yacht Club, Philadelphia 76ers owner Michael Rubin and Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum.
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While @Mona_Vinci speculated MoonPay’s Bored Ape gift was in exchange for an upcoming endorsement from Lil Baby (which has yet to happen), it appears it may actually have something to do with Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Ape Fest warehouse party in New York City on Wednesday night (November 4). The event, sponsored by MoonPay, saw performances from Lil Baby, as well as Questlove, Beck and The Strokes.
In addition to performing fan favorites such as “Yes Indeed” and “Every Chance I Get,” the Atlanta rapper announced on stage that he “mutated” his Bored Ape avatar. A quick glance at his Twitter page will reveal his previously disinterested-looking cartoon primate has undergone a terrifying transformation.
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As one Bored Ape affiliate account explained on Twitter, “Bored Ape #129 just dabbed an M2 serum and altered into Mutant Ape #10259.” It’s unclear how much that digital process cost or whether Lil Baby paid for it himself.
