The original cryptocurrency gets a mention on the latest record from the original white rapper, in yet another example of mainstream celebrities showing increasing awareness of the crypto community.

Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem has always been a slightly more thoughtful rapper than the average. His records are at times, often funny, often heart-breaking, musing on life – in many instances, his own – and current events. They also feature raps about killing his girlfriend; his range is diverse.

His latest album “Kamikaze” which was announced on Friday (August 31st) via twitter, and without much more in the way of further promotion, features a collaboration between Mathers and Ryan Daniel Montgomery, who goes by his stage name Royce Da 5’9’, in which the latter states:

“Remember everybody used to bite Nickel, now everybody doing bitcoin.”

Inconsequential? No actually – the mention is symbolic of bitcoin’s increasingly recognized place in contemporary culture. It is no longer a fringe pursuit, relegated to programmers and nerds but rather a notion which has made its debut and is now accepted in society. In the past, often poorer people would often test the quality of a coin by biting it; now the modern equivalents of these characters hold bitcoin. Average people talk about bitcoin, average people have bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s recognition by the rich and famous have become more numerous recently. In July Kim Kardashian received her first bitcoin from Matthew Roszak in front of her audience of 100 million+ social media followers, exciting many in the space that such an event held huge symbolic significance for how far the cryptocurrency had come.

In music generally, this is also not the first time bitcoin has garnered attention. R ‘n B star Akon, who collaborated with Eminem on their billboard no. 2 track, “Smack That” back in 2006, has created his own crypto, Akoin, for use in “Akon’s Crypto City”. Further to this, Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, reportedly revealed in January that he had inadvertently come to hold several million dollars in bitcoin, after he became the first rapper to accept it as payment for his record, “Animal Ambiton”. The rapper later however denied owning any when he appeared in court in February. His lawyer stated that Jackson, “has never owned, and does not own, a bitcoin account or any bitcoins.”

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