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+title = "Loyalty, patriotism and Dami Ajayi"
+date = "2021-07-28T13:39:18+08:00"
+type = "blog"
+banner = "img/banners/banner-3.jpg"
++++
+
+ ## Loyalty, patriotism and Dami Ajayi
+
+ ![img](https://thenationonlineng.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IMG_20210714_142253_964.jpg)] 
+
+By Olukorede Yishau
+
+Show me where paradise is on earth and I will show you the world’s greatest liar. While we all seemingly concur that paradise is far-flung, no one wants to live anywhere close to hell. If our country cannot be like paradise, let it at least be far from hell, we all scream every day. The things that make citizens feel they owe their countries loyalty and patriotism include access to the basic needs of life such as electricity, good roads, education, security, and a general sense of belonging.
+
+For Nigerians, these things make countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom attractive; here we long for these things, and the more the country ages, the more it looks like we are getting farther from these things that make life worth living.
+
+For many of us, only a country deserves our loyalty as patriotic citizens, but in his second collection of poems ‘A Woman’s Body is a Country’, Dami Ajayi, who is also a psychiatrist, opens our eyes to how a man’s body is loyal to the country that is the female body and is ever paying obeisance. Ajayi does much more in his book. The man tactically vented about challenges that make many of us as Nigerians feel no compulsion to be loyal or patriotic to our nation. On the periphery, the collection looks at other ‘smaller’ issues, but tucked here and there are these necessities Nigerians long for but have not been able to get.
+
+Nigeria has been unable to provide a stable power supply for its people, a situation which has led to the collapse of many a business and has frustrated small and medium scale entrepreneurs. The poet subtly criticises this when he croons about “listening to the orchestra of generators”, which, he adds, “sing a symphony of a failed State”. The government’s failure dirge also resonates in the poem ‘Sunday Afternoons’, in which the poet cries about how “NEPA strikes again and hand fans replace ceiling rotors”.
+
+Insecurity is a challenge the country has been battling. There is no part of the country that is not battling one security challenge or the other. If it is not banditry, it is terrorism; if it is not terrorism, it is armed robbery and separatists’ violence.
+
+The missing Chibok girls have become the symbol of our insecurity. The poem ‘Twenty-two couplets’ laments the missing Chibok girls, but it is in the poem ‘On Chibok’ that the poet really examines the travail of these girls held captive while seeking knowledge. Ajayi also mocks suicide bombers who die hoping “to fuck virgins in heavenly suites”, and wonders why they always shout God is great as though it is a hidden fact. If you are not careful, you may miss the poet’s jab at Lord Lugard for the creation of Nigeria, which the poet sees as an “eternal mistake”. He alludes to the power of hashtags in fanning revolutions wondering “who waters the placards planted under Falomo bridge”— a reference to the Lagos arm of the Bring Back Our Girls movement.
+
+Infrastructure is another area the country has failed. In the poem ‘Poet Harcourt’, Ajayi laments the absence of gardens in the Garden City, which only boast of “roads that shine black with night drizzle”. This subtle jab at the Rivers State capital reminds us about the inability of leaders to protect inherited good things. Greenery helps protect the environment, but here we take pride in getting rid of it to provide space for mansions and malls and other inanities. Unlike Port Harcourt, which receives a mild rebuke, Lagos gets blows from Ajayi for its social failures. He describes it as a city where dreams die in the poem ‘Lagos Bunnies’ and ‘Lagos Bunnies 11’. When dreams die in Lagos, the poet says “we incinerate them” and he says day dreams suffer more because “we impale them, banish them to cisterns”. He also sings about Ikoyi, which “rarely sees beyond finery” and “an occasional power cut”. His jabs at Lagos, of course, include the ubiquitous gridlock that makes commuting within the city a curse.
+
+ADVERTISEMENT
+
+The poet also takes a jab at international humanitarian organisations. Do you remember those UNICEF adverts that give the impression that there are no rich kids in Africa? They do not escape the social commentator in this poet. In ‘Die A Little’, the poet asks if he has met a little girl and answers “perhaps in some UNICEF poster”. He laments the facts that “anaemia is the antithesis of capitalist ads” and “bad air blotches mosquito-kissed skin”. Poverty porn and malnutrition also receive ‘honorary’ mentions.
+
+On page 57, Ajayi, with the line “my madam-at-the-top”, brings back a memory of the spokesman of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) who wobbled and fumbled during a Channels Television interview and trended for his line “my oga at the top”.
+
+Ajayi’s collection is not just about the ‘serious’, the ‘mundane’ such as sex also gets his attention. In the poem ‘Four phases of passion’, Ajayi tells us about voyeurs, sexual tension, and curling toes induced by orgasm. He also remembers to tell us that “only the bearer of fluid tires (olomi lo ma re)”. In the title poem, Ajayi continues the ‘sexual connection’ and tells of how a man gets aroused because “she shakes herself” and how “the loyal swelling of a man’s body” amounts to patriotism since “a woman’s body is a country”.
+
+With ‘A Woman’s Body is a country’, Ajayi delivers a collection that screams, and loudly too, and reimagines perceptions, probes interactions, and makes day-to-day events haunting. The poems sing, hum, breathe, and walk on all fours. Ajayi is a dazzling, convincing, and stirring poet who deserves the attention of all and sundry.
+
+My final take: We are not asking for paradise. All we require of our leaders is the provision of basic amenities and the provision of these things can guarantee our loyalty and patriotism. Let there be light, let there be water, let there be good schools, let there be good roads, let there be security of life and property, and let there be a general sense of belonging. I’m sure those are not too much to ask.
+
+ ## Igboho’s prosecution gives credence to allegations of Fulani agenda, Afenifere tells FG
+
+ ![img](https://sunnewsonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Capture.png)] 
+
+By Chukwudi Nweje and Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
+
+SCORES of supporters and journalists who laid siege to the Cour De’appal De Cotonou, Benin Republic, yesterday, to witness the trial of
+
+Sunday Adeyemo popularly known Sunday Igboho, were disappointed.
+
+His supporters were in court as early as 7:30am anticipating the arrival of the Yoruba youth leader, who has been in detention since Thursday. Though the court session was scheduled for 10am, there was no sign of Igboho.
+
+However, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has alleged that the ongoing trial is a proof that the Federal Government may be pursuing a Fulanisation agenda by going after freedom agitators while ignoring activities of herders who terrorise the country.
+
+It applauded the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji, Ogungunniso 1, for sending a delegation to Cotonou and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, for setting up the Ooni Caucus towards working on various issues pertaining to Yoruba interests, including the travail presently being faced by Igboho.
+
+Olubadan of Ibadan had through his spokesman, Mr Adeola Oloko announced that a delegation would be sent to Cotonou when he hosted the executive council members of Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) led by its President, Prince Yemisi on Sunday.
+
+The Ooni of Ife had also last week set up the Ooni Caucus meant to work on various issues pertaining to Yoruba interests including the travail presently being faced by Igboho.
+
+Acting leader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, in a statement issued on his behalf by the National Publicity Secretary of the organisation, Mr. Jare Ajayi in Ibadan, Oyo State, noted that Igboho is the arrowhead of activists, agitating for a Yoruba nation and putting an end to harm being inflicted on farmers and women in Yorubaland by Fulani herders.
+
+Some kings and Yoruba communities in Benin Republic that mobilised heavily in support of Igboho also got applause from Afenifere for ensuring that an Oduduwa son, Igboho, does not suffer unjustly.
+
+“What is now regarded as Sunday Igboho travail ought not occur at all if there had been good governance in Nigeria and people are not harassed without any just cause. It is so sad that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is concentrating on haunting and harassing those who are seeking relief from the oppressive situation in Nigeria while shying away from tackling the menaces of kidnapping, terrorism and antics bordering on ethnic cleansing.”
+
+On the propriety of Igboho trying to escape abroad, Afenifere maintained that there was nothing strange or wrong, adding that history is replete with conveyors of a new order having to seek refuge outside their immediate country, at least for a time.
+
+“We recall that Moses had to be taken away from the prying eyes of Pharaoh and his agents in Egypt. Prophet Muhammed (s.a.w) too had to leave his hometown, Mecca for Medina in order to escape persecution. Thus, there is nothing wrong in Igboho seeking a respite, first to preserve his life and perhaps to re-strategise.”
+
+Afenifere, however, accused the Federal Government of going after freedom agitators, while neglecting those who are known to be behind terrorism in the country.
+
+“By its conduct, government is giving people reasons to believe the allegation that it is pursuing a Fulanisation agenda. Harassment of freedom agitators and innocent citizens must stop forthwith.”
+
+Afenifere also enjoined other monarchs in Yorubaland and other prominent people to emulate the good examples of Olubadan and Ooni.
+
+•Gani Adams rallies 10 Benin Republic monarchs Meanwhile, Gani Adams, Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, said he has rallied 10 Benin Republic monarchs to facilitate the release the agitator.
+
+In a statement by Kehinde Aderemi, his personal assistant, Adams said the move was taken to ensure justice and fairness in Igboho’s trial.
+
+He said an emergency meeting of the 10 kings would be presided over by Oba Signon Adekilumo, the Alajowun of Ajowun land.
+
+“I think we must stand by him because we are all in the struggle for the liberation of our race and whatever happens to Igboho happens to us. And the journey, though, didn’t begin with him, it will definitely not end with him, because the agitation for self-determination is our legitimate rights for which we are ready to follow with all our strengths.”
+
+He said the 10 monarchs are in the best position to work with the authorities in the Benin Republic to ensure Igboho gets a fair trial.
+
+Breaking News, Nigerians can now work in Nigeria and get paid in US Dollars, click hereto apply today.
+
+ ## APC ward congress: Ojudu protests alleged hijacking of congress forms by Fayemi’s group in Ekiti
+
+ ![img](https://tribuneonlineng.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/apc-234-jam1-e1625594148637.jpg)] 
+
+The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has alleged that the leadership of the party loyal to Governor Kayode Fayemi in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has hijacked the forms for elective positions ahead of next Saturday’s ward congress.
+
+Ojudu, who spoke with newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital on Saturday said this development was aimed at depriving other members of the party who are not loyal to the Fayemi’s ‘Tokan Tokan’ group access to the form and contest for positions in the ward Congress as against the mandate of the National caretaker committee of the party.
+
+The presidential aide disclosed that the forms were seized from the ward Congress committee sent from the national secretariat to the state on Friday and financially induced the committee to return to Abuja without performing their duty of making the forms available to interested party members.
+
+According to him, members of the party in the state had paid money into the dedicated account of the party for the forms, urging the group to allow for democracy to take its course ahead of the congress in the interest of the party.
+
+Ojudu said, “The mandate was that they should stay and sell the form for every party member interested. Governors had come to Abuja to demand for the form but the committee managing the party said no. They invited all Chairmen of the state branches and briefed them on the need to allow all members interested in contesting access to the form.
+
+“When the folks from Abuja arrived Ado-Ekiti yesterday(Friday) they went straight to the party Secretariat, negotiated with the chairman, got paid and handed over the form to him and returned immediately to Abuja.
+
+“If the forms were meant for the state chairmen it would have been handed over to them last week when they were invited to Abuja.
+
+Hundreds of members have paid to the account of the party and now they are being denied access to the form by the Tokan Tokan faction of the party in the State.”
+
+He explained that any attempt to endorse consensus arrangement for the congress would be resisted by leaders, adding that the system if used would spell doom for the party ahead of the 2022 governorship election.
+
+However, in his reaction, the publicity secretary of the party, Mr Ade Ajayi denied all the allegations raised by the presidential aide, describing it as, “frivolous and flimsy.”
+
+Ajayi maintained that those raising alarm about the next Saturday’s congress are, “strangers who have no idea of the workings within the party,” assuring members that everyone will be given a level playing ground.
+
+He said that the congress committee set up by the state are working around and meeting stakeholders within the party towards ensuring a free, fair and transparent congress that would usher new leaders at the ward level.
+
+YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
+
+Lagos Is Second Least Liveable City In The World For 2021
+
+Lagos is the second least liveable city in the world for the year 2021. This is according to the most recent annual ranking put together by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)…
+
+FACT CHECK: Did UNICEF Say Blocking Children’s Access To Pornography Constitutes Human Rights’ Infringement?
+
+CLAIM 1: A Twitter user claims UNICEF said any efforts to block children from accessing pornography might infringe their human rights.
+
+VERDICT: MISLEADING!
+
+ ## UNILAG Orders Students To Vacate Campus Over COVID-19 Third Wave
+
+ ![img](https://leadership.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/unilag.jpg)] 
+
+Following the surge in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the emerging third wave of the pandemic among students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), the institution’s management yesterday ordered the students to vacate the campus by 2pm today.
+
+The vice chancellor Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe also summoned an emergency meeting of the school’s Senate on the development.
+
+Some students confirmed to LEADERSHIP that the university authorities had directed them to vacate the campus today and that classes would continue online.
+
+Reports indicate that two students have been confirmed positive to the disease and that the school had stepped up the enforcement of its COVID-19 protocols.
+
+A COVID-19 pandemic update issued by the university also confirmed that the medical centre had recorded an increase in the number of patients with COVID-19 symptoms.
+
+Consequently, the vice chancellor has summoned an emergency meeting of the Senate on the third wave of the disease in the school.
+
+The notice of the meeting which is scheduled to be held at the J. F. Ade Ajayi Auditorium is expected to discuss the need for students to vacate the halls of residence as well as resumption of virtual lectures.
+
+ADVERTISEMENT
+
+The COVID-19 update issued by the university read, “The University of Lagos Medical Centre wishes to inform all members of the university community about what appears to be the start of a potential third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lagos State.
+
+“The executive governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-olu, in his press statement, issued on July 11, 2021, stated that since the beginning of July there has been a steep increase in the number of daily confirmed cases, with the test positivity rate going from 1.1% at the end of June 2021, to its current rate of 6.6% as at the 8th of July 2021. This is with a concurrent increase in the occupancy rate at Lagos State isolation centres.
+
+“The University of Lagos community has also been affected by this potential third wave, with an increase in the number of patients presented to the University of Lagos Medical Centre with flu-like symptoms which are similar to COVID-19.
+
+“The medical centre hereby assures all members of the university community that all necessary actions in line with the federal and Lagos State government guidelines have been taken regarding this potential threat in our community.
+
+“The medical centre will also return to providing emergency only services during this period, in order to protect all members of the community from potential infection within the facility.
+
+“Despite this threat to the return of normalcy, pursuit of education and daily livelihood, it has become imperative once more to judiciously adhere to the following COVID-19 guidelines and protocols in order to curb the spread of this disease.”
+
+Last week, the university held its 51st convocation which was postponed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
+
+ ## Adeyeye, others protest exclusion from Ekiti APC meeting
+
+ ![img](https://thenationonlineng.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/apc-logo-1-1.jpg)] 
+
+By Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado-Ekiti
+
+The crisis affecting the Ekiti State All Progressive Congress (APC) yesterday deepened following the exclusion of former Minister of Works, Senator Dayo Adeyeye and other leaders sympathetic to former Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu from Friday’s stakeholders’ meeting.
+
+The meeting, which was held at popular Osuntokun Hall within the precinct of the Government House, was attended by Governor Kayode Fayemi, his wife, Erelu Bisi, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi, Minister of Trade and Investments Otunba Niyi Adebayo, National Assembly members, State Executive Committee and former political office holders.
+
+ADVERTISEMENT
+
+Parts of the issues discussed include the coming congress, party discipline and unity, continuous voters’ registration exercise and support for the state’s APC-led administration.
+
+However, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Adeyeye and other Tinubu’s loyalists were conspicuously absent.
+
+Ojudu, who has been having a running battle with Fayemi, stated that he was invited to the meeting, but could not attend due to official engagements. Adeyeye said he and other party’s leaders were precluded from the meeting.
+
+Ojudu said: “Yes, I can confirm to you that I was invited. I got a text message inviting me, but I couldn’t make it because I have to be with the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, in Jigawa and Kano states on official assignments.
+
+“I really apologise to our members for this and I seek their understanding.”
+
+Read Also: Delta APC alleges plot to kill leaders
+
+On his part, Adeyeye said some key APC stakeholders were ostracised by the party’s hierarchy from the meeting owing to hidden agenda.
+
+“I was not invited. I don’t know anything about the proposed meeting. I didn’t get invitation from anyone,” Adeyeye said.
+
+However, the ruling APC State Publicity Secretary, Ade Ajayi said statutory members of the party were duly invited for the meeting.
+
+He added that the notice of the meeting was privately sent to each party leader, including Adeyeye, Ojudu and other stakeholders irrespective of the political interest.
+
+“They were all invited. Aside the personal invitation sent to them, we equally went to the media to make announcement in relation to the stakeholders’ meeting. So, they were all invited and they have no excuse for their absence,” he said.
+
+However, communique issued at the end of the meeting and signed by the APC State Caretaker Chairman, Paul Omotoso, yesterday, clarified that those holding elective and appointive positions under the present government won’t be eligible to vie for any party positions in the coming congresses.
+
+The leaders and stakeholders present affirmed that the APC is one big and united family. They added that there is only one unified party structure that accommodates the Interests of all bona fide party members.
+
+They underscored the need for party members to eschew divisive tendencies and work towards ensuring the party is more inclusive and consultative across the board in reaching key decisions that affect all members.
+

webSite/content/news/nba-topshot-ecosystem-startup-momentranks.md

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+title = "NBA TopShot ecosystem startup MomentRanks raises seed funding from Dapper Labs"
+date = "2021-07-28T13:30:57+08:00"
+type = "blog"
+banner = "img/banners/banner-3.jpg"
++++
+
+ ## NBA TopShot ecosystem startup MomentRanks raises seed funding from Dapper Labs
+
+ ![img](https://www.ledgerinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/basketball.2.jpg)] 
+
+MomentRanks , a startup that tracks non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and enables collectors to engage with each other around their digital assets, has raised $1.7 million in a seed round funding. NBA TopShot creator Dapper Labs and Boston Seed Capital led the investment.
+
+One of the biggest criticisms of NBA Top Shot is that there is no use for the NFTs outside of the marketplace. The highlights can be seen for free on YouTube, and engagement around the ownership of NFTs is not necessarily targeted at basketball fans. “It’s an NBA product for NFT fans as opposed to an NFT product for NBA fans,” one user wrote on Reddit .
+
+MomentRanks can change this. The platform launched in February of 2021, right around the time that Top Shot’s popularity skyrocketed. It is dedicated to empowering collectors to start a conversation around the collection and add value to their digital collectibles. It also offers a ranking of accounts, sales data on Top Shot, and recent listings.
+
+In addition, there is the possibility of creating fantasy games based on the Top Shot moments. A new feature on the platform, Play, enables users to line up their moments, compete for prizes, and get ranked among other users on the performance of their highlights. Play is Top Shot’s first fantasy sports game and it takes place daily. Although Dapper Labs does not own MomentRanks, this feature addresses the complaint that there is no use to the NFTs outside of Top Shot’s marketplace.
+
+As of now, the platform is solely dedicated to Top Shot. When a user signs up, it automatically connects the account with Top Shot’s account (likely based on email), and if the user does not have an account with Top Shot, there are instructions to get the account verified.
+
+The funding for MomentRanks will be used to scale the infrastructure and grow the team of data scientists and engineers. Since the startup was created to target Top Shot playesr, it is unclear whether it is looking to onboard other NFT sports initiatives.
+
+One aspect to consider is that, on public blockchains, for a fantasy game to reference an NFT issue by another platform, it is ideal for both platforms to run on the same blockchain. For example, Topp’s MLB digital collectibles runs on the WAX blockchain, which would pose challenges if MomentRanks was to partner with them.
+
+Nevertheless, MomentRanks brings a lot to Top Shot. Besides adding more utility to the NFTs, it is creating an environment that is more focused on the engagement aspect of NFTs as opposed to its transactional value.
+
+“With a product designed to help empower collectors, MomentRanks has quickly become a trusted destination for the NFT community,” said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs. “Hundreds of thousands of people already use MomentRanks’s platform each month, and we’re beyond thrilled to support its leadership team on their rapid growth track.”
+
+ ## Sports NFTs Suffer in the Wake of Falling Crypto Prices
+
+ ![img](https://www.onlinegambling.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Top-Shot-Sales-Data.jpg)] 
+
+The price of Bitcoin fell from a high of more than $63,000 in mid-April to a low of less than $32,000 at various times in June. Ethereum peaked at over $4,100, only to fall to under $1,800 on Saturday. And while cryptocurrency prices have begun to rebound, the damage seems to have been done when it comes to popular sports NFTs.
+
+Both NBA Top Shot and Topps MLB NFTs have suffered through significant price drops, with both products sitting near their lowest points this year.
+
+Topps prices hold in WAX, drop in USD
+
+As I’ve discussed before, the Topps MLB sports NFTs are heavily tied into the WAX cryptocurrency. As goes WAX, so go the MLB’s digital collectibles.
+
+That once again became abundantly apparent last week, as WAX fell below $0.09 – far off the $0.28 price it held as recently as early May. While many Topps NFTs held their value in WAX, the US dollar values plunged due to the declining value of the cryptocurrency.
+
+Topps MLB NFT Pack Median Prices (via AtomicHub) June 1 June 15 June 29 Premium Packs $663.67 (4,175 WAX) $769.49 (5,450 WAX) $721.14 (6,730 WAX) Standard Packs $62.47 (392.99 WAX) $56.93 (420 WAX) $50.36 (470 WAX)
+
+Overall, however, the Topps MLB market still shows some promising signs for the future. Sealed product prices continue to creep up in terms of WAX, and have even remained somewhat resilient in USD. Series 1 Premium Packs, which hold 45 NFTs and can contain exclusive epic and legendary collectibles, are selling for a median price of $721.14 or 6,730 WAX on Tuesday, according to AtomicHub sales data. That’s off the USD high of $826.29 seen on June 16, but well above the 5,399 WAX sales price that represented at the time.
+
+In other words, Topps MLB NFTs appear to be holding their ground – but can only truly do so if WAX maintains or enhances its value going forward.
+
+Top Shot NFTs continue falling from lofty spring heights
+
+Meanwhile, the NBA Top Shot marketplace continues its slow slide. The MR 100 index developed by MomentRanks.com now stands at an all-time low of 1,927.28. That’s down nearly 55% from a mark of 4,244.9 when the index launched on May 8. That trend persists largely across the board, with most moments and sets down significantly since the dramatic highs seen early this spring.
+
+Does this mean disaster for sports NFTs across the board? Not necessarily. While market data doesn’t go back far enough to be sure, it appears that the value of NBA Top Shot moments is still typically higher than the packs they are pulled from. In other words, investors are still largely ahead of the game: they’re just losing much of the massive profits from what increasingly looks like an unsustainable bubble earlier this year.
+
+It’s important to remember that all of these trends are extremely short-term. NBA Top Shot only publicly launched in October 2020, and Topps sold its Series 1 MLB NFTs on April 20, barely over two months ago. Any prediction of the future of these sports NFTs – or NFTs in general – lands squarely in the realm of pure speculation for the moment, and analyzing the current trends could ultimately prove counterproductive when trying to guess how much these products could be worth in the years or decades to come.
+
+ ## NBA Top Shot Blankets Playoffs with Packs, Moments, Challenges
+
+ ![img](https://www.onlinegambling.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/NBA-Top-Shot-Playoffs.jpg)] 
+
+The NBA playoffs have produced a laundry list of upsets, buzzer-beaters, and memorable moments leading up to the Finals. That’s given NBA Top Shot plenty of material to work with throughout the playoffs, and more than a few opportunities to try out some new ideas as the NFT platform continues to evolve during its open beta phase.
+
+While prices on the platform remain stagnant, NBA Top Shot has used the postseason as an opportunity to try different formats for releasing packs and rewarding collectors.
+
+Top Shot adjusts Collector Score system
+
+I’ve written before about Top Shot’s Collector Score system, in which users earn a score based on the moments they hold along with various bonuses, such as owning complete sets or spending money in the marketplace. The initial implementation of this feature made it easier for veteran investors and collectors to snag rare or legendary packs, but completely shut out newer users unless they were willing to spend big on moments in the marketplace.
+
+For the “And Then There Were Four” drop – a rare pack with moments from the conference finals – NBA Top Shot mixed things up yet again. The platform divided its drop into three tiers of 2,000 packs each.
+
+TODAY'S THE DAYYYYYY 🏀 'And Then There Were Four'
+
+💥 Rare Pack Drop
+
+⏰ 2 pm PDT General Queue Final hours to get in: https://t.co/VkREZRdtKR pic.twitter.com/x43rR51bIh — NBA Top Shot (@nbatopshot) July 14, 2021
+
+Almost all users qualified for the “general” drop, needing only a collector score of 100 to participate. Collectors could also qualify for two priority queues, one for those with a collector score of at least 5,000, and another for those with a score of 10,000 or higher. That gave experienced users the best chance to buy a pack, but allowed almost all users to have some chance of success. NBA Top Shot hasn’t announced whether will use this method again for its coming NBA Finals legendary pack.
+
+Valley Oop features in latest challenge
+
+Speaking of “And Then There Were Four,” the set features just 10 moments. Five were immediately tied to a challenge that rewarded a Kris Middleton moment. Only 328 collectors completed that challenge – hardly surprising, since there are only 750 of each of the rare moments in the set.
+
+NBA Jam En Fuego Mode Activated 😤 This Khris Middleton #ATTW4 Challenge Reward will never be released in packs. But it can be yours if you collect all 5️⃣ required Moments 👀 Complete Challenge: https://t.co/GfY8N4Ag29 pic.twitter.com/siFjhddVZH — NBA Top Shot (@nbatopshot) July 15, 2021
+
+Many collectors could be more interested in the second challenge from the set: the infamous Valley Oop, featuring Deandre Ayton. Users who want to snag one might have to spend $1,000 or more to grab the five moments necessary to get the reward, but it could prove to be one of the most collectible plays from the 2020-21 season.
+
+Remember THIS?! 💥 The #ValleyOop Moment is a Challenge Reward for the #ATTW4 set that will never be released in packs 👀 What's your Deandre Ayton stat line prediction for GM 4? ⬇️ Join General Queue: https://t.co/VkREZQVSmh https://t.co/tBuzmIBr9L pic.twitter.com/Zf1eO1nuGy — NBA Top Shot (@nbatopshot) July 14, 2021
+
+Those looking to spend less money had plenty of opportunities throughout the playoffs. Over the first three rounds, NBA Top Shot offered up 20 common challenges tied to its 2021 postseason collection. In most cases, anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 users collected the moments needed to grab these rewards.
+
+Top Shot has also placed more emphasis on “quests” during the postseason, particularly during the NBA Finals. The platform has announced rules for creating showcases of certain moments for each Finals game: for instance, the top points scorers, or players with the best plus/minus numbers. These quests have awarded playoff packs at random as another way to encourage user engagement.
+
+It’s unclear how investors are valuing all of these new initiatives. The NBA Top Shot marketplace hasn’t boomed during the playoffs, though it’s notable that its previous slide seems to have ended as of late. As of Monday afternoon, the Momentranks.com MR 100 index stands at 1.858.72 – still far off the 4,241.08 it opened at in early May, but virtually unchanged over the past two weeks.
+
+ ## NBA Top Shot: MomentRanks Uses Collections for DFS Game
+
+ ![img](https://www.onlinegambling.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MomentRanks-1.jpg)] 
+
+NBA Top Shot leads the world of sports NFTs in 2021, due in large part to its highly polished product that offers collectors more than just static cards. Now, there’s another use for those moments: playing daily fantasy sports with them.
+
+The MomentRanks.com website has launched a DFS game in which players must use their NBA Top Shot moments to create lineups to compete for prizes.
+
+MomentRanks Play integrates NBA Top Shot collections
+
+MomentRanks is a website offering sales and valuation data for NBA Top Shot. Users can link their Top Shot accounts to MomentRanks to get data on their collections, or to browse recent or all-time sales data and glean market information.
+
+The site recently added a new feature: MomentRanks Play, a DFS game that allows NBA Top Shot users to turn their collection into the basis for their lineups. By linking their Top Shot accounts, players can choose from their moments each day in order to set lineups for head-to-head and large-scale daily tournaments.
+
+🏀 MomentRanks Play is LIVE! 🏀 Play daily fantasy sports with the Top Shot Moments you own. Set your lineups, play against friends, and compete for daily prizes. 🎉 🔓 https://t.co/vbbeA3pkup 🔓 Here's how to Play ⬇️https://t.co/u6jexalgEo pic.twitter.com/BGNX8oKUm2 — MomentRanks (@MomentRanks) May 18, 2021
+
+The game works similarly to other DFS contests, though with simplified scoring and an NBA Top Shot twist. Each player in a user’s lineup earns points via statistics accumulated in real-world games that day, including points, assists, steals, blocks, and rebounds.
+
+The twist comes from “moment boosts.” If a player exceeds their 10-game rolling average in a category associated with the moment in a user’s lineup, they earn bonus points. For instance, if you use a Joel Embiid block moment, and he blocks several shots on the night, you’ll receive a significant boost. That boost is even bigger for rare or legendary moments, meaning competitors with more difficult to acquire (and more expensive) collections have an edge.
+
+The top finishers in daily contests can earn base set packs or moments. MomentRanks has also set up a head-to-head contest for the NBA Playoffs with additional prizes.
+
+Exploring the potential of NFTs
+
+Whether or not MomentRanks Play takes off among NBA Top Shot collectors, the game shows one way in which NFTs can be more than just standard digital collectibles. Soccer platform Sorare works in a similar fashion, with cards of various rarities representing real-world players who earn points for collectors, with rarer versions of each player boosting scores.
+
+Dapper Labs CEO Roham Ghareozlou opined that NFTs should take advantage of the “infinite potential” of the digital world. He made that point when evaluating the Topps MLB NFTs, saying he was “deeply disappointed” and that they were “low quality.”
+
+MomentRanks also offers the MR 100 Index – an attempt to provide an overall evaluation of the NBA Top Shot market by tracking a handpicked collection of 100 moments. As of Tuesday afternoon, the MR100 had fallen approximately 10% over the previous 24 hours, and was down about 36% from the index’s launch on May 8.
+
+ ## What is NBA Top Shot? Dapper Labs’ Caty Tedman explains the NFT platform everyone is talking about
+
+ ![img](http://cdn.sportspromedia.com/images/made/images/uploads/blogs/MicrosoftTeams-image_(10)_600_337.png)] 
+
+During her recent appearance at SportsPro Live, Dapper Labs' head of partnerships answered some of the key questions about the NBA digital collectibles marketplace that has taken the industry by storm.
+
+Nearly two years ago the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its players union (NBPA) embarked on a partnership with Vancouver-based blockchain company Dapper Labs to develop a new digital platform called NBA Top Shot. Fast forward to now and that platform is at the forefront of the evolution of the sports collectibles landscape.
+
+Made available to the public in October following a period of closed beta testing, Top Shot is a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace where fans can buy, sell and trade NBA moments, which are packaged highlight clips that operate like trading cards. In the same way that basketball enthusiasts collect physical items, Top Shot effectively brings that experience into the digital realm, where users are banking on the value of their highlight collections increasing over time.
+
+Business Insider reported last month that the platform has registered more than 800,000 users, who are able to interact with each other on Top Shot’s messaging platform Discord. To date, Top Shot has generated north of US$500 million in sales, with the most valuable moment – LeBron James dunking against the Houston Rockets – going for a reported US$387,600. Revenue from transactions is shared between Dapper Labs, which was formed in 2018, the NBA and the NBPA.
+
+Speaking last week during SportsPro Live, Caty Tedman, head of partnerships at Dapper Labs, explained in her own words what she says when people ask her what Top Shot is and how it works.
+
+“NBA Top Shot is a next generation collector experience,” she said. “It’s a way to really take part in the economy of basketball and it’s a way to collect your favourite players, their greatest plays and build community around it. We have almost half a million people in the Discord channel just talking about basketball together every day now, so it’s a basketball community of collectors.
+
+“It brings the hard in your hands experience online, so it makes it more global and it makes it an opportunity to have a much wider audience that you’re playing with, collecting with and buying, selling and trading with. What the blockchain elements bring to it is the ability to truly own those assets in a digital space. In the same way you feel like you can tangibly hold your physical cards, you truly own your Top Shots in a digital space.”
+
+In the same way you feel like you can tangibly hold your physical cards, you truly own your Top Shots in a digital space.
+
+As popular as Top Shot has become, it has not arrived without some confusion. Tedman also took the opportunity to address some of the most common misconceptions people have about the platform and what ownership of a digital collectible actually means.
+
+“The first misconception is that what you own is just a highlight,” she explained. “The thing you own is really so much more than that. It’s highlights that are smashed together with a ton of data. We put so much data on chain having to do with that moment in time, how the team is performing, how the player is performing. So we pull all of that together in a great package and we put that on chain. So it’s really not owning a highlight, it’s owning a collectible.
+
+“The other piece is that you don’t own that highlight that you watch. You don’t have any rights to commercialise it in the way that you can sell it to somebody else in its entirety. So the really big difference is that true ownership piece.”
+
+️ 'As fans, we create connections to sport that relate to us' @dapperlabs head of partnerships Caty Tedman on collecting 'moments' as NFTs #SPLIVE21 #SportsBiz #NBATopShot pic.twitter.com/v4F0dTB3ID — SportsPro (@SportsPro) April 29, 2021
+
+Building the NBA Top Shot platform
+
+Tedman detailed how Dapper Labs went about building the Top Shot platform from a fan perspective. Instead of setting business-oriented goals, Dapper Labs set out to create something that users would love and want to come back to, correctly evaluating that it would deliver success in the long run.
+
+“[NBA Top Shot] combines things that fans love because we tried to build something that fans would love,” she said. “We didn’t have any revenue targets when we launched Top Shot into the closed beta. We wanted to build something that’s really sticky, that people will want to come back to every day and feels endemic to basketball fandom. I think we did that. We started from a fan perspective, so it was hard for fans not to love it. We’re fans and we love it.”
+
+That fan-led process also continued throughout the early stages of the platform.
+
+“We all played it,” said Tedman. “We had the whole team in June on Discord chatting to our beta testers, trying to gather as much feedback as possible, making sure that group was full of fans. At the time it was much easier to find fans who were not crypto-knowledgeable. At this point we’d be hard pressed to do a survey where a large number of people say they have never heard of or had no interest in cryptocurrency – which was on the qualifiers in our early surveys to get into the beta.”
+
+We wanted to build something that’s really sticky, that people will want to come back to every day and feels endemic to basketball fandom.
+
+Ultimately, though, Top Shot is designed to be like a digitally enhanced experience of collecting. The innocence of playground trading in an environment populated by like minded people is something that Tedman says reminds her of the early days of social media.
+
+“It’s fun, opening the packs and seeing what moments you got is really fun," Tedman continued. "Going to the marketplace and seeing what else you can trade is really fun. People have made friends [on the platform].
+
+“It really feels like 2007, 2008 where we were making real-life friends on Twitter, when Twitter was still really young and it crashed all the time. As a product it was still really unstable but it changed the way we were communicating. It feels like that moment now that fans are changing the way they are communicating and changing the relationship they have with sports.”
+
+Pairing NFTs with real-life experiences
+
+Digital collectibles more broadly can come in many forms, whether it be a video highlight or a virtual recreation of a ticket stub from an iconic game. Whatever shape they may take going forward, there appears to be growing interest around opportunities to pair NFTs with physical experiences. The Golden State Warriors, for example, recently announced that some of the items available in their first digital collectibles offering will come with live experiences, such as a custom championship ring presentation at a future game.
+
+Tedman acknowleged that “NFTs as access is a really exciting use study”, but cautioned that there is still some ambiguity around value when tying a digital collectible to something in the physical space.
+
+“It is very confusing the value of those two things separately,” she said. “If you look at projects that say, ‘here’s the total cost’, and you get a physical item and you also get an NFT, it always begs the question is that the cost of the physical item and then the NFT is a thrown in? Is it the cost of the NFT and the physical item is a throw in? I think there’s some confusion at this point in the industry that the physical IRL components bring to the table, but unlocking experiences is a great way to think about it and unlocking the ability to have access.
+
+“One of the things that we look at for Top Shot - and I think people who are starting to join the queues now for pack drops are seeing – is that we want to also reward people for being collectors, and for putting together really interesting collections. We do showcase challenges to reward people who have put together interesting storylines around their collectibles. We may not let you into a pack drop if you haven’t held a moment for a certain amount of time, because it’s a leading indicator of your continued participation in the community.”
+
+The Golden State Warriors recently announced plans to pair NFTs with physical experiences
+
+Maintaining positive engagement
+
+NBA Top Shot also has a thriving digital ecosystem built around Discord. Using the audio forum platform was not a pre-thought strategic move for Dapper Labs, but it has now become synonymous with NBA Top Shot. Tedman acknowledges that Dapper Labs has been fortunate that the community it built during testing has now evolved into acting as moderators in the conversations on the Discord servers.
+
+“I think the reason that our Discord server has been more positive than people expect from a forum is because that beta group or the closed beta group - and some of our early adopters - are moderators for us now and have been stewards of what the fan relationship with Top Shot should be,” she said. “We as a company try to be really transparent and fan-forward, so having them be the arbiters of what the culture is and maintain the positive culture has been really great.
+
+“I often get asked, ‘is Discord where you should market a NFT launch?’, but a little under half of the participants in our Discord server are net new to Discord. So [while] we have a place people can join, it’s not necessarily where they were. In many cases, they’ve not only had to onboard themselves to blockchain technology but to Discord. It’s a place where that live conversation makes a huge difference; it helps find bugs really quickly, get feedback really quickly and they let us know how they feel every time we publish a blog. That stuff is really great and we’re into transparency of it.”
+
+Bringing NFTs to other sports
+
+Tedman pointed out that Dapper Labs first talked to the NBA three years ago. Now that the NFT space appears to be booming she said that the major difference when talking to brands is that they “want to make smart decisions” but also “enter the space very quickly”.
+
+Indeed, given the success of Top Shot one would expect that other leagues are exploring how to launch their own NFT collections in the near future. Tedman, though, said that anyone looking to get into the space should take the time to understand what their fans would want from a digital collectibles offering.
+
+“There’s a triangle of cost, speed and quality, and you can never have all three,” Tedman said. “The conversations we have now are to think about brand reputation and brand execution and what that means to you, and more than anything else, what does that mean to the value of those assets for your consumers?”
+
+I think that there is a world in which both physical trading cards and digital assets can live side by side and can both be valuable.
+
+The popularity of Top Shot no doubt played a significant part in helping Dapper Labs to secure an additional US$305 million in funding at the end of March, which gives the company a reported valuation of US$2.6 billion. At the time, Dapper Labs said it plans to use the fresh injection of capital to expand into other sports, as well as gaming and entertainment.
+
+Early last year, Dapper Labs unveiled plans to develop Top Shot-style digital collectibles for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). In terms of other sports, Tedman also fielded a question about whether NFTs could be coming to soccer, a sport which could pose a few more complications given the number of different rights holders.
+
+“I have quite a spreadsheet which is a matrix of rights ownership [in soccer],” Tedman said. “What I hope we see is a global football market arise, where whether I’m a fan of Juventus, Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain I can go in and I can look at my moments next to other league moments, next to other club moments. I think that there is the possibility to have a framework where all of those things live in a place where you can then cross reference them, and I hope that happens in North America, too.
+
+She added: “For football, especially in Europe, it’s really looking at what rights do you as an individual or a club or a league have, and then how do you create something that fans will love within those rights? Or the opposite, which is what we did with the NBA. [We] said 'we want to do video collectibles now. What do we need to do to do that? How do we get the right rights to do it?'”
+
+�� NOW FINAL: New Top Shot Record ��
+
+
+
+$387,600 is now the largest Top Shot sale. ��
+
+
+
+Moment: #3/59 LeBron James Kobe tribute dunk, From The Top edition
+
+
+
+The Moment was sold on @Heritage_Sport. Congrats to the buyer and seller! ���� pic.twitter.com/3JD1kFaGfT — MomentRanks (@MomentRanks) April 16, 2021
+
+Can digital and physical collectibles coexist?
+
+One would be forgiven for thinking that the emergence of NFTs could spell trouble for the more traditional methods of collecting, but it was only last week that a signed LeBron James rookie card sold for US$5.2 million, breaking the record for the most expensive basketball card ever sold.
+
+NFTs might be the latest acronym on everyone’s lips at the moment, but Tedman is confident that digital and physical collectibles can coexist.
+
+“I think that there is a world in which both physical trading cards and digital assets can live side by side and can both be valuable,” she said. “When you think about collections and collecting there’s all sorts of different kinds of opportunities there.
+
+“I will say that we’ve heard from some of the hardcore trading card collectors that they love the low end of the Top Shot market as well. Someone told me they would never mail one of their low-end basketball cards because it wouldn’t be worth as much as the stamp, so just the ability to prune your collection in a different way has been really excited.
+
+“We have many, many collectors who are physical card collectors as well and I don’t think that they would say they see them as competitive. They’re really complementary.”
+

webSite/content/news/rapper-ai-generator.md

@@ -0,0 +1,171 @@
++++
+title = "How to use the AI rap generator that everyone is using on TikTok rn"
+date = "2021-07-28T13:44:01+08:00"
+type = "blog"
+banner = "img/banners/banner-3.jpg"
++++
+
+ ## How to use the AI rap generator that everyone is using on TikTok rn
+
+ ![img](https://media.thetab.com/blogs.dir/90/files/2021/05/screenshot-2021-05-17-at-153129-1024x537.png)] 
+
+Whether it’s a Kanye cover of Astronaut in The Ocean or Eminem rapping about something he never realistically would, you will have noticed a number of videos on TikTok recently that sound eerily like your favourite rappers, yet very much computer-generated at the same time – and it’s all down to the TikTok AI rap generator. Basically, you can put any text you like into the machine and it will spit it out in a MASSIVE range of voices from Patrick Stewart to Elton John.
+
+However, it’s not that easy to understand how to even find the tool. So, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create your very own AI rap voice using the TikTok AI rap generator.
+
+How do I use the TikTok AI rap generator?
+
+So, you’ve become enraged searching “TikTok rapper generator” or “TikTok Eminem voice” and still getting no results? Well, luckily we’ve laid it out as easily as possible:
+
+If you don’t already have one, create a Discord account. It takes seconds and you’ll only need to verify the account through your email address.
+
+Now you can start having fun. Enter whatever text you want into the “Speech to synthesize” box. Then select the voice you want to use from the dropdown menu on the right.
+
+And that’s it – there’s also the option to download the voices for any project you might want. Enjoy!
+
+Related stories recommended by this writer:
+
+• Only a massive TikTok nerd will score full marks in this TikTok lyrics quiz
+
+• Everything we know about Sofia Juarez, the missing child thought to be in this TikTok
+
+• ‘Have you seen the state of her body’: Meet ArrDee, the guy behind TikTok’s viral hit
+
+ ## This AI lets you generate new verses from your favorite rappers
+
+ ![img](https://img-cdn.tnwcdn.com/image/neural?filter_last=1&fit=1280%2C640&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.tnwcdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2021%2F06%2FUntitled-design-8-2.jpg&signature=3c07c00aaac9888020d351fcff816649)] 
+
+Writer at Neural by TNW — Thomas covers AI in all its iterations. Likes Werner Herzog films and Arsenal FC. Writer at Neural by TNW — Thomas covers AI in all its iterations. Likes Werner Herzog films and Arsenal FC.
+
+If you’ve ever dreamed of making songs with Tupac or Jay-Z, an AI tool called Uberduck can take you close to fulfilling your fantasies.
+
+Uberduck is one of a range of tools that lets you choose a celebrity voice and then enter text for them to speak. What sets it apart from the others is it can do a pretty impressive job of replicating a rapper’s flow.
+
+You can synthesize speech into a “calm” or “intense” Tupac verse, for example, or try an Eminem “freestyle” verse or “pre-Eminem Show” flow.
+
+Uberduck’s creator says they started working on the system with the goal of creating an open-ended dialog agent:
+
+I built an interactive audio chatbot over WebRTC that generated text responses with a Transformer model and synthesized them to audio, but I found that speech synthesis was the most exciting part of the project.
+
+The tool blew up on TikTok after a lawsuit forced the app to swap its text-to-speech voice for a different version. Many users were unimpressed by the replacement and made the switch to Uberduck.
+
+[Read: Why entrepreneurship in emerging markets matters]
+
+They’ve gone on to use the tool in a range of creative ways, from adding Biggie verses to their own tracks to making Kanye West rap the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody.
+
+Even Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has tried it out:
+
+If you’d rather have a conversation with your favorite MC — or force them to give you a shout-out — that’s also possible.
+
+The synthesized voices are far from perfect, but with tweaks to the text — adding extra vowels, for instance, to extend a syllable — you can generate some pretty accurate imitations of your favorite rappers. I’m pretty proud of these Tupac bars I created:
+
+To my ears, the voice is more convincing than the Faux-Pac from this classic Dave Chappelle skit:
+
+The tool does, however, have some potential to be used for disinformation and defamation.
+
+Uberduck’s terms attempt to allay these concerns. Users are prohibited from using the outputs for commercial purposes or the production of defamatory material. They must also clearly identify that their creations were generated by AI, and will be banned if they violate the rules. In addition, the tool’s inventor says they’ll remove voices from the site upon request.
+
+Putting words into a replica of someone’s voice without their permission could also be viewed as disrespectful, but these feel more like impersonations than recreations.
+
+HT — mrcomposition09
+
+Greetings Humanoids! Did you know we have a newsletter all about AI? You can subscribe to it right here.
+
+ ## Uberduck uses AI to make MF DOOM, Tupac, Biggie and more sing your lyrics
+
+ ![img](https://www.musictech.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/MF-DOOM-Getty@1400x1050.jpg)] 
+
+A new free AI text-to-speech service, Uberduck, enables you to hear rappers, cartoon characters and celebrities recite your text.
+
+Uberduck lets you choose voices from a range of categories – the Rappers category includes MF DOOM, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, Snoop Dogg, Juice WLRD, Eminem, XXXTENTACION and more. Alternatively, you can browse categories and voices that include Donald Duck, Spongebob Squarepants, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Yoda, and hundreds of other voices that have been modelled by users.
+
+According to Uberduck’s site, the creator started work on the “speech toy” in 2020 with “the goal of creating a friendly, creative, open-ended dialogue agent”. The service has begun cropping up on TikTok videos after the app changed its text-to-speech voice. A voice actor claiming to be the original voice of the text-to-speech service filed a lawsuit after claiming she never agreed to be featured in TikTok.
+
+Advertisement
+
+Users are now flocking to Uberduck as a replacement voice generator for their videos. Naturally, this has resulted in some entertaining ‘covers’. Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda published a video of Notorious B.I.G singing his track Happy Endings.
+
+To use Uberduck, you’ll need to sign into the service using your email or Google account, but the process is straightforward once you’re in. Simply choose your voice and type the desired text into the box below and click ‘Synthesize’. It might take a minute or so depending on the amount of text you input, but you’ll soon be able to listen to and download the isolated AI vocal.
+
+You’ll likely notice some algorithmic glitching in the vocal – the AI doesn’t quite get it perfect. But Uberduck is a glimpse of how eerily close we are to replicating voices of late rappers and celebrities, for better or worse.
+
+Use Uberduck for free at uberduck.ai.
+
+ ## Lyric Generator Online Can Now Make Rap Songs | Here's How to Use It
+
+ ![img](https://1734811051.rsc.cdn77.org/data/images/full/386213/lyric-generator-online-can-now-make-rap-songs-heres-how-to-use-it.png)] 
+
+(Photo : Screenshot From Pexels Official Website) Lyric Generator Online Can Now Make Rap Songs | Here's How to Use It
+
+Lyric generator online through a particular tool called DeepBeat can help users make rap songs in seconds. DeepBeat is a machine learning algorithm that works by mining large amounts of data in order to create rap lyrics.
+
+How to Make Rap Lyrics
+
+For those aspiring rappers out there that might need help when it comes to their pen game, this could be good news. Researchers from Finland have finally been able to make a rap writing AI called DeepBeat which is now available for anyone to use online. DeepBeat reportedly gets rap lyrics from data coming from preexisting rap songs.
+
+As of today, the database gets its lyrics from 641,000 lines and about 12,500 songs which are produced by over a hundred artists in both Finnish and English. The artists include US rap icons Lil Wayne, Sage Francis, and even Jay-Z. Sadly, the lyric generator is not yet available in other languages as of the moment.
+
+How do you make rap rhymes?
+
+DeepBeat was initially only available for certain research purposes and was developed by the Department of Computer Science researchers at the Aalto University and even the University of Helsinki, and even the Helsinki Institute of Information Technology. Eric Malmi, the lead developer and a researcher at the department of computer science over at the Aalto University noted that the aim is to be able to produce lyrics that both rhyme and also fit together quite well.
+
+Malmi noted that they have published DeepBeat online for everyone to try the rap generator or lyric generator in order to create lyrics. The rap generator is said to use a whole new rap verse through a combination of rhymes coming from existing songs, according to the story by Vice.
+
+Read Also: Samsung's Bixby Raps If You Ask, Disses Apple's Siri Too
+
+Free Rap Lyrics
+
+Users can ask the rap generator to give a number of options for them to choose which rhyme would fit them the best. Users can also input their very own rhyme somewhere at the beginning of a verse and make the program generate a verse that would match it. During the project's early stages, the researchers were able to create the rap song with a US rapper and DeepBeat.
+
+Since the lyric generator is already public, Malmi noted that he was excited to see what people would use the rap generator for as well as how the feedback could help improve the algorithm. Malmi noted that when they initially published the paper, people stated it would be fun to write a simple rap song for a birthday party or something else. This is why they wanted to make DeepBeat publicly available.
+
+Although Malmi does not really want to pull the plug on certain user's rap star dreams, he then explains that there will be a few technical hiccups. The rap generator tends to mash certain rhymes together that still don't make sense. So far the rhyme options have not yet been perfected.
+
+Related Article: Epic Rap Battle Of Awesome Characters: Hodor vs Groot
+
+This article is owned by Tech Times
+
+Written by Urian B.
+
+ⓒ 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
+
+ ## Watch AI Eminem diss the patriarchy in new music video
+
+ ![img](https://img-cdn.tnwcdn.com/image/neural?filter_last=1&fit=1280%2C640&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.tnwcdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2021%2F03%2FUntitled-design-2021-03-17T180302.384.png&signature=8f7e81626d8ee903f5a7b1921ff0e269)] 
+
+Writer at Neural by TNW — Thomas covers AI in all its iterations. Likes Werner Herzog films and Arsenal FC. Writer at Neural by TNW — Thomas covers AI in all its iterations. Likes Werner Herzog films and Arsenal FC.
+
+Eminem has an illustrious history of rap battles, but his controversial insults can infuriate sensitive listeners.
+
+In recent weeks, a TikTok campaign called for Em to be “canceled” for glorifying violence against women in his single “Love the Way You Lie.”
+
+Inevitably, Marshall Mathers fired back with a diss track taking aim at his critics. But he could surely find some more deserving adversaries than TikTok teens.
+
+A new AI music video gives the rapper a more progressive target for his ire: the patriarchy.
+
+The track was created by Calamity Ai, the same group who used bots to produce a new song for Hamilton and a previous Eminem diss of Mark Zuckerberg.
+
+The team penned their latest lyrics using ShortlyAI, a text-generator powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.
+
+They prompted the system to spit out a verse based on the following cue:
+
+Eminem’s new song is a diss against the patriarchy. He is taking a stand to males and sticking up for women. Verse #1:
+
+They then sent the lyrics to 30HZ, a self-professed creator of “synthetic parody songs and other poorly written material.” The producer synthesized the audio and converted the words into vocals.
+
+And just in case Slim Shady needed back-up, the team generated a guest verse by another unlikely defender of women’s rights: Kanye West.
+
+I’m pretty impressed by Em’s synthetic voice, although the lyrics are hit and miss at best.
+
+He reserves most of his vitriol for producer Rick Rubin, a surprising choice given the litany of musicians accused of sexual abuse.
+
+Still, Em comes across as refreshingly contrite when he discusses “the consequences when I spit poetry,” which he says are worth the risk if he “silences some men.”
+
+Kanye West’s artificial voice is less convincing, and his verse isn’t going to get any lyrical awards. He does offer an apology to Taylor West, but begins it with a typically sexist, “Yeah, bitch.”
+
+The track will hardly shake up the patriarchy, although the lyrics are still sharper than, say, Lil Pump’s.
+
+But could the AI Eminem win a rap battle against its human counterpart? I doubt it, but the showdown could help make Marshall relevant again.
+
+Greetings Humanoids! Did you know we have a newsletter all about AI? You can subscribe to it right here.
+

webSite/content/news/​wellsaid-labs-synthetic-voice.md

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++++
+title = "人と間違えるほど自然な合成音声を高速で作成するツールをWellSaid Labsが開発"
+date = "2021-07-28T13:45:50+08:00"
+type = "blog"
+banner = "img/banners/banner-3.jpg"
++++
+
+ ## 人と間違えるほど自然な合成音声を高速で作成するツールをWellSaid Labsが開発
+
+ ![img](https://jp.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/speech-thought-balloons.png?w=1024)] 
+
+
+
+ ## WellSaid Labs raises $10M to boost its synthetic voice business, fueled by AI
+
+ ![img](https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image003.png)] 
+
+WellSaid Labs will have a lot more to say in the years ahead, thanks to $10 million in new investment that’ll be used to beef up the Seattle startup’s efforts to put a widening chorus of AI-generated synthetic voices to work.
+
+The Series A funding round — led by Fuse, an early-stage venture capital firm that counts Seattle Seahawks star linebacker Bobby Wagner among its partners — follows up on $2 million in seed funding that WellSaid raised in 2019 when it was spun out from Seattle’s Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
+
+One of the investors in that earlier seed round, Voyager Capital, contributed to the newly announced Series A funding. So did Qualcomm Ventures and Good Friends.
+
+WellSaid CEO Matt Hocking said the new funding will go toward growing the text-to-speech startup, which has a dozen employees.
+
+“We need to double down on the research that we’re putting to work, and the research that we’re doing here to continually improve our technology,” Hocking told GeekWire. “On top of that, there’s obviously hires to build out our product offering and serve more customers in more diverse and interesting ways. And then as well as that, we’re definitely focused on our sales team and building that up.”
+
+WellSaid Labs’ platform makes a wide assortment of natural-sounding synthetic voices available via its audio production platform, for use in applications ranging from in-house training materials to quick-hit social media videos.
+
+“We’re not trying to create better voices than humans,” Hocking said. “That’s not what we’re here for. A lot of content goes unvoiced, simply because of the quick turnaround that needs to happen, or it needs to be updated constantly, or it’s just an internal piece of content that doesn’t have a budget associated with it.”
+
+Those are situations in which WellSaid comes in handy. “It opens up opportunities to allow voice to be added to these productions where they wouldn’t usually have that alternative,” Hocking said.
+
+He declined to name customer names, but for what it’s worth, WellSaid’s website lists endorsements from Nokia, the University of California at San Francisco, Blue Sky eLearn and a Canadian food retailer called Sobeys.
+
+WellSaid offers more than a dozen text-to-speech avatars based on human voice patterns, ranging from the revved-up patter of a car salesman to no-nonsense recitations that sound as if they’re coming from a woman researcher. The company claims its software has achieved “human parity” for naturalness in short audio clips.
+
+But wait … there’s more: Customers can create their own “AI Voice Avatars” to spec, capturing the speaking style of a branded voice. Theoretically, WellSaid could bring Jeff Bezos into the studio and create a synthetic voice that makes it sound as if the former Amazon CEO is reading out a welcome message to new employees. (Realistically, if that need ever arose, Amazon would probably have its own voice synthesis team take on the job.)
+
+As time goes on, WellSaid aims to add to its repertoire and increase the fidelity of its synthetic voices. In the future, the company’s voices just might play speaking roles in video games, read scripts on computer-generated news programs, or engage in complex real-time interactions with consumers.
+
+All this raises deeper questions about WellSaid’s technology and its business model. First of all, what’s to stop somebody from synthesizing, say, President Joe Biden’s voice for malign purposes?
+
+“We obviously have a responsibility to ensure that our technology is being used in the right way for the right purposes,” Hocking said. “We create domain-specific voices based on a real voice. We would never go and just build a voice without someone’s consent.”
+
+And when it comes to the business model, how can WellSaid hope to compete with companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft, all of which have their own voice synthesis platforms?
+
+“We’re in competition with them because they do TTS [text-to-speech],” Hocking acknowledged. “But we’ve re-architected and reinvented what TTS is.”
+
+Hocking argued that WellSaid is well-placed to pursue new applications for text-to-speech technology. “We’ve been exposed to some of these other interesting use cases,” he explained. “The stuff that used to be only possible on a movie set five years ago is now possible in a different perspective today.”
+
+And from Hocking’s perspective, Seattle is the right place for pushing further out into the speech synthesis frontier.
+
+“The majority of our team is from Seattle,” he pointed out. “We all met here, and our preference is obviously to have people living in the area — not only because we feel as though there’s great talent here, but as well as that, it’s just a great place to build a business.”
+
+ ## Synthetic Speech Startup WellSaid Labs Raises $10M
+
+ ![img](https://voicebot.ai/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/wellsaid-labs.png)] 
+
+Synthetic Speech Startup WellSaid Labs Raises $10M
+
+Seattle-based synthetic speech technology startup WellSaid Labs has closed a $10 million Series A funding round led by FUSE. WellSaid offers brands and enterprise clients a text-to-speech platform performed by their choice of artificially generated voices and styles, a service in increasing demand as the synthetic voices improve.
+
+WellSaid Says
+
+WellSaid’s collection of voice avatars can read out scripts, performing monologues or multi-voice dialogues in whatever appropriate style, gender, and mood are appropriate. The AI can be taught to pronounce unusual or branded terms correctly, and the audio can be fine-tuned to add or eliminate pauses or even switch out voices. If none of WellSaid’s voices seem quite right, the startup works with the client to design and program a new one, requiring a recording of a few hours of the voice the client wants. Since the company began in 2018 at the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence as a research project, WellSaid has continually refined how human-like its artificial voices sound. WellSaid claimed their new funding round was oversubscribed, with participation from Voyager, Qualcomm Ventures, and GoodFriends.The money will expand the size of the team of about a dozen and fund more research and development for the technology underlying the platform. Most immediately, the startup is planning to upgrade the variety of texts it can service and shorten the time to create the voice.
+
+“We’ve added AI Voice to the toolkit of thousands of content creators and their teams,” WellSaid Labs CEO Matt Hocking said. “Our human-parity AI voice can be produced faster than real-time, and updated on-demand. Opening up new and exciting opportunities to ‘add voice’ where never before perceived possible. AI voice easily ensures every production can be created and updated efficiently at scale.”
+
+Synthetic Value
+
+As synthetic voices improve, companies offering variations on the tech have mushroomed to service advertising, movies, video games, and other verticals. Plenty of startups like Lovo, Resemble AI, and Supertone are raising funding rounds and partnering with celebrities to market synthetic voices, Other examples of the advances in the field include how Replica Studios created a desktop app to speed up integrating synthetic speech into films and video games and the way digital voice interface creator ReadSpeaker is augmenting SoundHound’s Houndify voice AI platform to sound more lifelike. The advances in synthetic speech technology mean even free, limited tools can produce impressive results like this fan-made trailer for Skryim voiced solely by AI.
+
+Follow @voicebotai Follow @erichschwartz
+
+4
+
+ ## AI voice actors sound more human than ever—and they’re ready to hire
+
+ ![img](https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/AIAudioActor-2.jpg?resize=1200,600)] 
+
+The company blog post drips with the enthusiasm of a ’90s US infomercial. WellSaid Labs describes what clients can expect from its “eight new digital voice actors!” Tobin is “energetic and insightful.” Paige is “poised and expressive.” Ava is “polished, self-assured, and professional.”
+
+Each one is based on a real voice actor, whose likeness (with consent) has been preserved using AI. Companies can now license these voices to say whatever they need. They simply feed some text into the voice engine, and out will spool a crisp audio clip of a natural-sounding performance.
+
+WellSaid Labs, a Seattle-based startup that spun out of the research nonprofit Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence, is the latest firm offering AI voices to clients. For now, it specializes in voices for corporate e-learning videos. Other startups make voices for digital assistants, call center operators, and even video-game characters.
+
+Not too long ago, such deepfake voices had something of a lousy reputation for their use in scam calls and internet trickery. But their improving quality has since piqued the interest of a growing number of companies. Recent breakthroughs in deep learning have made it possible to replicate many of the subtleties of human speech. These voices pause and breathe in all the right places. They can change their style or emotion. You can spot the trick if they speak for too long, but in short audio clips, some have become indistinguishable from humans.
+
+AI voices are also cheap, scalable, and easy to work with. Unlike a recording of a human voice actor, synthetic voices can also update their script in real time, opening up new opportunities to personalize advertising.
+
+But the rise of hyperrealistic fake voices isn’t consequence-free. Human voice actors, in particular, have been left to wonder what this means for their livelihoods.
+
+How to fake a voice
+
+Synthetic voices have been around for a while. But the old ones, including the voices of the original Siri and Alexa, simply glued together words and sounds to achieve a clunky, robotic effect. Getting them to sound any more natural was a laborious manual task.
+
+Deep learning changed that. Voice developers no longer needed to dictate the exact pacing, pronunciation, or intonation of the generated speech. Instead, they could feed a few hours of audio into an algorithm and have the algorithm learn those patterns on its own.
+
+“If I’m Pizza Hut, I certainly can’t sound like Domino’s, and I certainly can’t sound like Papa John’s.” Rupal Patel, founder and CEO of VocaliD
+
+Over the years, researchers have used this basic idea to build voice engines that are more and more sophisticated. The one WellSaid Labs constructed, for example, uses two primary deep-learning models. The first predicts, from a passage of text, the broad strokes of what a speaker will sound like—including accent, pitch, and timbre. The second fills in the details, including breaths and the way the voice resonates in its environment.
+
+Making a convincing synthetic voice takes more than just pressing a button, however. Part of what makes a human voice so human is its inconsistency, expressiveness, and ability to deliver the same lines in completely different styles, depending on the context.
+
+Capturing these nuances involves finding the right voice actors to supply the appropriate training data and fine-tune the deep-learning models. WellSaid says the process requires at least an hour or two of audio and a few weeks of labor to develop a realistic-sounding synthetic replica.
+
+AI voices have grown particularly popular among brands looking to maintain a consistent sound in millions of interactions with customers. With the ubiquity of smart speakers today, and the rise of automated customer service agents as well as digital assistants embedded in cars and smart devices, brands may need to produce upwards of a hundred hours of audio a month. But they also no longer want to use the generic voices offered by traditional text-to-speech technology—a trend that accelerated during the pandemic as more and more customers skipped in-store interactions to engage with companies virtually.
+
+“If I’m Pizza Hut, I certainly can’t sound like Domino’s, and I certainly can’t sound like Papa John’s,” says Rupal Patel, a professor at Northeastern University and the founder and CEO of VocaliD, which promises to build custom voices that match a company’s brand identity. “These brands have thought about their colors. They’ve thought about their fonts. Now they’ve got to start thinking about the way their voice sounds as well.”
+
+Whereas companies used to have to hire different voice actors for different markets—the Northeast versus Southern US, or France versus Mexico—some voice AI firms can manipulate the accent or switch the language of a single voice in different ways. This opens up the possibility of adapting ads on streaming platforms depending on who is listening, changing not just the characteristics of the voice but also the words being spoken. A beer ad could tell a listener to stop by a different pub depending on whether it’s playing in New York or Toronto, for example. Resemble.ai, which designs voices for ads and smart assistants, says it’s already working with clients to launch such personalized audio ads on Spotify and Pandora.
+
+The gaming and entertainment industries are also seeing the benefits. Sonantic, a firm that specializes in emotive voices that can laugh and cry or whisper and shout, works with video-game makers and animation studios to supply the voice-overs for their characters. Many of its clients use the synthesized voices only in pre-production and switch to real voice actors for the final production. But Sonantic says a few have started using them throughout the process, perhaps for characters with fewer lines. Resemble.ai and others have also worked with film and TV shows to patch up actors’ performances when words get garbled or mispronounced.
+
+ ## WellSaid Labs Raises $10 M in Series A Round
+
+ ![img](https://www.cioreview.com/image/fevicon/newcio.favicon?v=2)] 
+
+34085
+
+Well Said Labs intends to use the funding to further AI and product development, scale go-to-market operations, and expand the workforce.
+
+FREMONT, CA: Well Said Labs, the artificial intelligence text-to-speech technology company, recently announced a 10 million dollars Series A round led by FUSE, with participation from previous investor Voyager, along with Qualcomm Ventures LLC, and Good Friends. Given the historic year-over-year revenue increase and great client demand, the Series A was oversubscribed with VC interest. Well Said Labs intends to use the funding to further AI and product development, scale go-to-market operations, and expand the workforce.
+
+“We have added AI Voice to the toolkit of thousands of content creators and their teams,” said Matt Hocking, CEO, Well Said Labs. “Our human-parity AI voice can be produced faster than real-time, and updated on-demand. Opening up new and exciting opportunities to ‘add voice’ where never before perceived possible. AI voice easily ensures every production can be created and updated efficiently at scale.”
+
+Well Said Labs empowers content creators and product teams to create engaging voice content for infinite use-cases in streaming services, radio, programmatic advertising, digital marketing, and corporate training content, with a mission to offer businesses and brands the highest quality Text-to-Speech (TTS) service imaginable.
+
+“Plain and simple, Well Said is the future of content creation for voice,” said Cameron Borumand, General Partner at FUSE. “This is why thousands of customers love using the product daily with off-the-charts bottom-up adoption. Matt and Michael have assembled a world-class team and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of the Well Said journey.”
+
+Well Said Labs have redesigned TTS to address the most difficult content development challenges businesses face and provide an easier approach for content creators—big or small—to create all of their desired material in one consistent voice that represents their brand. The Voice Avatar library from Well Said Labs gives anyone access to various read styles and tones that can be utilized in the performances. Brands may also develop their own AI Voice Avatars to their specifications, capturing the likeness, style, and distinctiveness of the voice required to deliver their messages in the most effective way possible.
+
+“Content creators or product experience designers were previously faced with difficult tradeoffs between quality and scalability when using TTS tools or human voiceover. Well Said’s incredible voices, which are accessible through a studio application or a scalable API, removes the need to choose whether you want natural, lifelike speech or infinitely scalable and easily editable voice content. Well Said provides both and delivers it however your team would like to consume it,” said James Newell, Partner at Voyager Capital. “Creative teams have found it to be extremely useful when they need to produce multiple pieces of high-quality content in a consistent voice in hours instead of weeks.”
+
+In the field of AI, creating natural-sounding speech from text is a “grand challenge” that has been a research aim for decades. Well Said Labs has consistently researched and made remarkable advancements in the quality, speed, and reliability of neural text-to-speech systems during the last three years. TTS from Well Said Labs was the first to reach human parity for naturalness across numerous voices on short audio snippets in June 2020.
+
+“Recent developments in TTS technology using generative AI have enabled synthetic voices to sound very human-like, finding exciting new applications for voice including e-learning, advertising and news readers,” said Carlos Kokron, Vice President at Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and Managing Director at Qualcomm Ventures Americas. “Well Said Labs provides an industry leading product that generates highly accurate human-like voices. We look forward to working with Well Said Labs to help fuel the creator economy with human-parity AI voices across mobile and IoT.”
+
+Creating natural-sounding speech from text is considered a “grand challenge” in the field of AI and has been a research goal for decades. Over the last three years, Well Said Labs has consistently researched and developed tremendous breakthroughs in neural text-to-speech systems’ quality, speed, and reliability. In June 2020, Well Said Labs’ TTS became the first to achieve human parity for naturalness on short audio clips across multiple voices.
+
+“WellSaid’s team has applied deep technical expertise to build a platform that enables easy creation and editing of incredibly lifelike audio,” said Dave Gilboa of Good Friends and co-CEO War by Parker. “We see meaningful growth potential in the use of high-quality audio in giving brands the ability to communicate with customers and creators the ability to engage with audiences.”
+
+Well Said Studio removes the complications that standard text-to-speech technologies present to creatives, making voiceover production, updating, and publishing cost-effective and simple. Well Said Labs’ core AI engine is accessible to product developers via real-time APIs, allowing them to power digital experiences with a dependable and scalable speech infrastructure.
+

webSite/content/news/​who-is-irys.md

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++++
+title = "英語圏向けVTuberグループ「ホロライブEnglish」、『Project: HOPE』所属のVSinger「IRyS（アイリス）」が待望のデビュー！"
+date = "2021-07-28T13:47:14+08:00"
+type = "blog"
+banner = "img/banners/banner-3.jpg"
++++
+
+ ## 英語圏向けVTuberグループ「ホロライブEnglish」、『Project: HOPE』所属のVSinger「IRyS（アイリス）」が待望のデビュー！
+
+ ![img](https://prtimes.jp/i/30268/455/ogp/d30268-455-6efc517f53a400d90b15-0.png)] 
+
+
+
+ ## 「ホロライブEN」に初の追加メンバー「IRyS」の加入が決定
+
+ ![img](https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/list/1336/455/image01.jpg)] 
+
+カバーは、VTuberグループ「ホロライブ English」に新たなメンバーがIRyS（アイリス）さんが加入することを発表し、デビューPVを公開した。デビュー配信は、日本時間7月11日10時を予定しており、先んじてTwitterアカウント（@irys_en）とYouTubeチャンネルを開設している。
+
+【【デビューPV】希望は此処に在りて【ホロライブEnglish VSinger】】
+
+【【Debut PV】Hope is present【hololive English VSinger】】
+
+「ホロライブ English」（略称：ホロライブEN）は、カバーが運営する「ホロライブプロダクション」内の英語圏向けVTuberグループ。2020年9月のグループ発足以来、初期メンバーの5人が所属タレントとして活動を継続しており、2021年5月に所属メンバー全員がYouTubeの登録者数100万人を突破した。最も登録者数の多いGawr Gura（がうるぐら）さんは7月5日付けの発表で登録者数300万人を越え、VTuberとしては最多の登録者数記録を更新している。
+
+1期生以降で「ホロライブEN」への新規メンバー加入は初めて。IRySさんが6人目の所属タレントとなる。国内向けのグループ「ホロライブ」では、加入時期によって1期生、2期生などとタレントをユニット分けしているが、「ホロライブEN」ではN期生の区分けを行なわないことが発表されており、IRySさんは新ジェネレーション「Project: HOPE」に分けられる。VSingerと銘打ってのデビューとなり、音楽活動に注力する方針となるようだ。キャラクターデザインはsupercellのredjuice氏（@shiru）。
+
+IRyS（アイリス） プロフィール紹介 遥か太古、かの楽園に希望をもたらした悪魔と天使のハーフ、「ネフィリム」とも呼ばれている、IRyS。本名を□□アイリス。絶望にまみれた現世は彼女を2回目の目覚めへと誘った（いざなった）。そして彼女は希望を世間に届けたいと再び歌に想いを乗せる。基本はハーフ状態を保っているが、種族としてはまだ幼いため、感情や「他の要素」によってどちらかに傾く可能性がある。それによって容姿も少し変わるらしい。彼女は2回目の目覚めより以前のことはあまり語りたがらない。それは彼女は「希望の化身」ゆえに前向きな姿勢を示しているのか、それともーー。 「人々の助けになるのは未来ではない。未来は自分の手で作るもの。
+
+救いも余計なお世話。救われるなら頑張る気にはならない。
+
+絶望の深淵から見える僅かな光、立ち直れる暖かさ。
+
+ーー希望さえあれば、生きようと、頑張ろうと思える。」
+
+カバーは「ホロライブEN」の新規メンバーを募るオーディションを2020年11月と2021年2月に発表・開催しており、IRySさんの加入を皮切りにさらなる増員も期待される。
+
+ ## 【ホロライブEN】VSinger“IRyS（アイリス）”が待望のデビュー。記念すべき最初の配信は7月11日10時に実施！
+
+ ![img](https://www.famitsu.com/images/000/226/218/z_60e505680bccf.jpg)] 
+
+カバーは、英語圏向けのVTuberグループ“ホロライブEnglish”内に新ジェネレーション“Project: HOPE”を設立し、VSinger“IRyS（アイリス）”が所属メンバーとしてデビューすることを明らかにした。日本語版の特別動画も公開された。
+
+広告
+
+IRyS（アイリス）は、遥か太古、かの楽園に希望をもたらした悪魔と天使のハーフのVtuberだ。記念すべきデビュー配信は、2021年7月11日10時（日本時間）を予定している。
+
+以下、リリースを引用
+
+英語圏向けVTuberグループ「ホロライブEnglish」、『Project: HOPE』所属のVSinger「IRyS（アイリス）」が待望のデビュー！
+
+本日7月7日（水）日本時間の朝10時より活動開始！
+
+カバー株式会社（本社：東京都千代田区、代表取締役社長：谷郷元昭）は、当社が運営する「ホロライブプロダクション」において、英語圏向けのVTuberグループ「ホロライブEnglish」内に新ジェネレーション『Project: HOPE』を設立し、VSinger「IRyS」が所属メンバーとしてデビューすることをお知らせいたします。
+
+英語圏向けのVTuberグループ「ホロライブEnglish」は、本日、新ジェネレーション『Project: HOPE』を設立いたしました。こちらの『Project: HOPE』に、VSinger「IRyS」が所属メンバーとしてデビューすることをお知らせいたします。
+
+デビュー配信は、日本時間の2021年7月11日（日）朝10時を予定しております。この機会にぜひ、本デビュー配信をご覧くださいませ。
+
+【デビューPV】希望は此処に在りて【ホロライブEnglish VSinger】日本語版
+
+【デビューPV】希望は此処に在りて【ホロライブEnglish VSinger】英語版
+
+IRyS（アイリス） プロフィール紹介
+
+遥か太古、かの楽園に希望をもたらした悪魔と天使のハーフ、「ネフィリム」とも呼ばれている、IRyS。
+
+本名を□□アイリス。絶望にまみれた現世は彼女を2回目の目覚めへと誘った（いざなった）。そして彼女は希望を世間に届けたいと再び歌に想いを乗せる。
+
+基本はハーフ状態を保っているが、種族としてはまだ幼いため、感情や「他の要素」によってどちらかに傾く可能性がある。それによって容姿も少し変わるらしい。
+
+彼女は2回目の目覚めより以前のことはあまり語りたがらない。それは彼女は「希望の化身」ゆえに前向きな姿勢を示しているのか、それともーー。
+
+「人々の助けになるのは未来ではない。未来は自分の手で作るもの。
+
+救いも余計なお世話。救われるなら頑張る気にはならない。
+
+絶望の深淵から見える僅かな光、立ち直れる暖かさ。
+
+ーー希望さえあれば、生きようと、頑張ろうと思える。」
+
+YouTube デビュー配信予定日（日本時間）
+
+2021年7月11日（日）10時～
+
+ ## ホロライブEnglishの新人VSinger・IRyS、デビューEP「
+
+ ![img](https://asset.panora.tokyo/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/11120557/image-22.png)] 
+
+11日、ホロライブEnglishのVSinger IRyS（アイリス）のデビュー配信が行われ、IRySのデビューEP「||:Caesura of Despair 」のリリースを発表した。
+
+明日7月12日0時に各音楽配信サイトよりリリースされる。EPにはbuzzG、TAKAHIRO MORIMOTO、Tom-H@ckらが手がけたIRySのオリジナル曲「Caesura of Despair」「diorama」「HERE COMES HOPE」の3曲と、DJ’TEKINA//SOMETHIG a.k.a Yuyoyuppeによる「Caesura of Despair」アレンジの計4作が収録される。
+
+Caesura of Despair Lyrics: buzzG Composer: buzzG Arranger: Coch
+
+diorama Lyrics: TAKAHIRO MORIMOTO Composer: TAKAHIRO MORIMOTO Arranger: TAKAHIRO MORIMOTO
+
+HERE COMES HOPE Lyrics: hotaru Composer: Tom-H@ck Arranger: RINZO
+
+Caesura of Despair (attacca ver.) Lyrics: buzzG Composer: buzzG Arranger: DJ’TEKINA//SOMETHIG a.k.a Yuyoyuppe
+
+
+
+IRySはホロライブEnglishの新グループ「Project: HOPE」のメンバーとして7月7日にTwitterで活動開始。今回はじめてのライブ配信を行った。配信後の現在YouTubeのチャンネル登録数は30万人を越えている。
+
+配信内では以下の「Caesura of Despair」のMVも流された。またEPリリースに合わせてのプレビュー映像のプレミア公開も準備されている。
+
+●関連リンク
+
+・||:Caesura of Despair
+
+・IRyS（YouTube）
+
+・IRyS（Twitter）
+
+ ## 週間VTuberランキング☆7月11日号☆ ホロライブEN・IRySが初登場1位
+
+ ![img](https://asset.panora.tokyo/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/21201919/vtuberranking_saisei.jpg)] 
+
+直近1週間、バーチャルYouTuber業界でどんな動画・生放送が多く再生されたのかがわかる「週間VTuberランキング」。今回は7月5〜11日の集計結果から上位20位をお届けします。
+
+先週のランキングトップを飾ったのは、ホロライブEnglish所属の新人VSinger・IRyS（アイリス）さんのデビュー配信です。初配信にして、同時接続者数は9万人近くにのぼり、集計時点での再生回数は99万2161回を記録。執筆現在、YouTubeのチャンネル登録者数はデビュー配信翌日で40.6万人を超えています。
+
+本日0時からは、デビューEP「||:Caesura of Despair 」のリリースを開始し、表題曲でもあるオリジナル曲「Caesura of Despair」のアニメーションMVを公開しました（関連記事）。
+
+以前、ホロライブでは初配信で同時接続者数とチャンネル登録者数のW10万を記録した5期生・雪花ラミィさんや、デビュー配信日にて全員がYouTubeチャンネル登録者数10万人を記録したホロライブインドネシア2期生の3人など、デビュー前から注目を集めるタレントはいました。しかし、デビュー配信日にて登録者数30万人超え、翌日には40万人を突破というスピードは異次元レベルといえるでしょう。
+
+先日、VTuber史上初めてYouTubeチャンネル登録者数300万人を突破したGawr Guraさんをはじめ、新しく加入したIRySさん以外の5名は全員が100万登録以上を記録しているホロライブEnglish。その注目度の高さがうかがえる出来事です。
+
+
+
+20位：【MineCraft】プレイ（本気モード）【にじさんじ/イブラヒム】
+
+イブラヒム
+
+再生数：403372 投稿日：2021/7/11
+
+
+
+19位：【モンストスタジアム】モンスト × にじさんじ ベストコンビグランプリ！【にじさんじ】
+
+にじさんじ公式
+
+再生数：409413 投稿日：2021/7/11
+
+
+
+18位：#1【FF9】生まれてはじめてのファイナルファンタジー9【ホロライブ/戌神ころね】
+
+戌神ころね
+
+再生数：439057 投稿日：2021/7/10
+
+
+
+17位：最終回【ドラゴンクエスト11S】ラスボス討伐！全力パワーで世界を守る！！【白銀ノエル/ホロライブ】※ネタバレあり
+
+白銀ノエル
+
+再生数：451326 投稿日：2021/7/11
+
+
+
+16位：7・7
+
+潤羽るしあ
+
+再生数：462883 投稿日：2021/7/7
+
+
+
+15位：SPARKS – Takanashi Kiara (Official Music Video)
+
+Takanashi Kiara(たかなしきあら)
+
+再生数：504485 投稿日：2021/7/7
+
+
+
+14位：【#ましろ3D】ぼくはここにいるよ【にじさんじ/ましろ】
+
+ましろ
+
+再生数：539352 投稿日：2021/7/10
+
+
+
+13位：[NIGHT DELIVERY] shark in the box
+
+Gawr Gura(がうるぐら サメちゃん)
+
+再生数：545642 投稿日：2021/7/6
+
+
+
+12位：【100万人記念に】みこちがやってきたぞっ – アカリがやってきたぞっ / Covered by さくらみこ【歌ってみた】
+
+さくらみこ
+
+再生数：552815 投稿日：2021/7/5
+
+
+
+11位：【アニメ】これが地上波で流れたってマジ？【地上波CM記念】
+
+ホロライブ公式
+
+再生数：553019 投稿日：2021/7/11
+
+
+
+10位：【漢の企画】第一回にじさんじローションカーリング選手権 1st ROUND
+
+舞元啓介
+
+再生数：612046 投稿日：2021/7/9
+
+
+
+9位：【Minecraft】闇市店主、激激激レア青ウーパーチャレンジ！！【天音かなた/ホロライブ】
+
+天音かなた(あまねかなた)
+
+再生数：670089 投稿日：2021/7/8
+
+
+
+8位：【 Apex 】プラチナに行く【 ランク 】
+
+葛葉
+
+再生数：680742 投稿日：2021/7/5
+
+
+
+7位：【#なのらとぺこら】語尾キャラ同士のアソビ大全十番勝負ぺこ！【ホロライブ/兎田ぺこら】
+
+兎田ぺこら
+
+再生数：686902 投稿日：2021/7/7
+
+
+
+6位：チューリングラブ踊ってみた！【叶/星川サラ/にじさんじ】#かなえぼし
+
+星川サラ
+
+再生数：690860 投稿日：2021/7/5
+
+
+
+5位：【Debut PV】Hope is present【hololive English VSinger】
+
+Hololive English
+
+再生数：729999 投稿日：2021/7/7
+
+
+
+4位：【BANされてた】帰宅して1分で即配信【ホロライブ/宝鐘マリン】
+
+宝鐘マリン(ほうしょうマリン)
+
+再生数：735711 投稿日：2021/7/8
+
+
+
+3位：【#大空警察】第2回大空警察しゅばあああああああああああああ/OOZORA POLICE【逮捕しゅば！！！】
+
+大空スバル
+
+再生数：754042 投稿日：2021/7/9
+
+
+
+2位：【復活】やっと喋れる歌える！！！！お待たせしました！！！！！
+
+百鬼あやめ
+
+再生数：793126 投稿日：2021/7/6
+
+
+
+1位：【DEBUT STREAM】Hope has descended! #irysdebutstream
+
+IRyS
+
+再生数：992161 投稿日：2021/7/11
+
+＊ユーザーローカル「バーチャルYouTuberランキング」に登録されているVTuberさんが投稿した、あるいは関連性の高い動画を独自に選出、再生数が多いものから20位をピックアップしております。
+
+＊多くのVTuberさんを紹介したいため、1チャンネルにつき1動画のランクインとしております。
+
+＊YouTubeの埋め込み不許可、また長時間で埋め込み表示できない動画については、リンクを貼っています。
+
+
+
+●関連リンク
+
+・バーチャルYouTuberランキング
+