Limewire and Soulja Boy. Just typing those two names made my computer shudder with the fear of an impending virus. At the turn of the century, peer-to-peer file sharing programs like Limewire were all the rage. As a teenager, I spent hours downloading countless songs and movies for absolutely free. Well, that's not accounting for the hours I wasted fixing my desktop after it contracted the PC version of an STD. If time really is money, I might have actually broken even on all those downloads.
By the 2010s, Limewire went belly up. The only person that walked away from the wreckage of the Limewire era for the better was Soulja Boy. The rapper used the platform to launch himself into a bonafide Hip hop career off the back of his viral hit Crank That. Now it seems like the two are set to join forces yet again with their roles reversed.
Limewire is attempting to rebrand itself as an NFT platform, and it's using Soulja Boy's social media clout to help spread the word. You can watch the trailer for the new Limewire in the video linked above from Soulja Boy's Instagram page.
Earlier this year, LimeWire announced its plans to relaunch as a music-oriented NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace, allowing users to "explore, collect and trade unique digital collectibles." Last week, Soulja Boy plugged the company's comeback by sharing their latest commercial on social media.
In March 2022, Austrian entrepreneurs and brothers Julian and Paul Zehetmayr acquired LimeWire's naming rights to relaunch the platform as a "mainstream-ready, digital collectibles marketplace for art and entertainment, initially focusing on music."
