NTS Radio has responded to criticism around its upcoming collaborative event with NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
After announcing the party—which is scheduled for December 3rd as part of Miami Art Basel—the UK station received considerable backlash, with some subscribers saying they'd cancelled their subscriptions. Some of the comments highlighted alleged racist and far-right references in BAYC's imagery.
In a statement published yesterday, November 23rd, on the private NTS Supporters Discord channel, the station justified the decision by saying the party will directly support both the performing artists and the local community via a significant charity donation. It also referenced "reassurances" from Jewish civil rights organisation the Anti-Defamation League, which previously rejected the idea that BAYC imagery is racist during an interview with Input.
Here's NTS's full statement. "The BAYC collab, like any event we do at NTS, was subject to due diligence. There are lots of projects that we turn down, but based on reassurances from the Anti-Defamation League, we decided to go ahead with booking and promoting this event.
While there are a lot of unknowns in the Web3 space, this event is directly supporting artists we respect. The majority of the event budget is taken up by artist performance fees—in cash, not crypto. And we wouldn't have done this event if it were exclusive; 300 free tickets for the party will be made available to NTS listeners this week.
Doing something for the local community was the driver for this project—apart from putting on a free event with what we think is a great lineup, there will also be a $150,000 donation to Music Access Miami, which is a local youth outreach initiative working in musical education. Again, we wouldn't have done this partnership without giving back to the local community."
Launched in 2021, BAYC is known for its celebrity-endorsed NFTs of cartoon apes, which have sold for millions of dollars. Its parent company, Yuga Labs, is currently embroiled in a legal battle with US conceptual artist Ryder Ripps, who has accused BAYC of pushing coded racist and far-right imagery via its NFTs. Yuga Labs filed a lawsuit accusing Ripps, his business partner and others of minting and selling identical copies of BAYC's apes.
In a blog post published in June, BAYC founders Gargamel, Gordon Goner, No Sass and Emperor Tomato Ketchup refuted Ripps's accusations in detail, calling them "insanely far-fetched."
Read NTS's original post about the Miami party, along with some of the comments. The lineup includes PinkPantheress, Flying Lotus, Moodymann and Yaeji.
Update, November 24th: This article was updated with more context on the allegations against BAYC, including BAYC's founders blog post refuting the allegations.