DMT and a Hellboy outfit — How diewiththemostlikes got on SuperRare: NFT Creator
Mark Wilson — the artist known as diewiththemostlikes — has a truly unique style to his art and a presence that could be described as grotesque, performative, thought-provoking and hilarious all in one packet of rolled-up ground beef.
In a digital art market where supply can be infinite, the Indiana-based artist really stands out from the crowd with his ability to garner attention by often ridiculing the NFT space and eliciting both humor and sadness within his work.
An author of five books, diewiththemostlikes has a passion for not only visual art but also scribing his streams of consciousness. He originally minted his first NFT on March 26, 2021, on Foundation after a random account on X reached out because Wilson had made a joke campaign poster for comedian Eric Andre that went viral.
“This dude reached out and just said, ‘Hey, I have a Foundation invite. Would you want to mint a piece on there?’ I said I don’t know what minting is. I don’t know what Foundation is. I have no clue what any of this shit is,” Diewiththemostlikes explains.
“He said, ‘It could be a good avenue for your digital art,’ so I said, ‘Well, fuck it, man. It’s not like I’m not doing anything with it now. It’s getting two likes on Instagram from fucking porn bots. So, whatever, I’ll mint something, and maybe I can sell something finally as an artist — that would be nice.’”
It was a relatively slow start, but consistency and persistence positioned him well, and he’s often received praise from other well-known artists such as OSF.
Now knocking on the door of digital art stardom, diewiththemostlikes still hasn’t come to grips with the position he finds himself in.
“I still honestly can’t really wrap my head around this shit that’s going on. I just assumed I was gonna die alone doing something I hated. To be part of this kind of movement with all these other really insane artists who are on this crazy trajectory and who are constantly leveling up is really cool. It’s pretty wild,” he says.
Origin of catchy and cumbersome name
How did the name diewiththemostlikes come about? Well, in classic “die” fashion, there’s humor and an underlying meaning.
“I’ve got the most common name to ever exist, Mark Wilson. When I was applying for apartments, people would think it was a scammer name because Mark Wilson is a super common name here in the States. They would do a background check and think I was a fake person.”
“I’m cool with my name… But diewiththemostlikes kind of came in, and it’s funny because it’s actually a really cumbersome name to say. A lot of people during interviews will ask what they even call me. It’s a really long and kind of an unenjoyable name to say, but I suppose that I find comfort in that. Discomfort, if you will, or the inability to kind of determine what I should be called is awesome.”
The name pokes fun at a world where we seek likes on social media for dopamine hits, which Wilson points out is a transactional existence.
“It’s a really interesting distillation of our transactional existence as a whole and kind of how fucking sad and depressing it can be in many ways. But also the beauty of it, obviously, none of us would be here; we wouldn’t be talking here without Twitter. Certainly, my art wouldn’t be doing what it was doing, or I wouldn’t be able to impact anybody without a platform.”
Finding a story in peculiar places
Observing society and its idiosyncrasies is a big inspiration, and his work often carries open or sometimes subliminal messages that make collectors really stop and think.
Of course, always the prankster with a dry sense of humor, diewiththemostlikes is quick to tie a bow around it with some over-the-top window dressing.
“I would say there’s stories in the most peculiar places. There’s a story in every sagging ass of anyone walking around the fucking dregs of this country,” he says. “Within those kinds of nuanced little wrinkles, scabs and wounds is where I thrive and where I love to exist.”
“This lens on life and humanity is often exaggerated… If you look a little deeper on my pieces, they’re definitely documentarian but certainly grotesque at a very surface level.”
Good meat! Sublime satire
The tsunami of crypto X accounts posting “gm” led to a series of meat art.
“Good meat originally arose out of a place of complete ridicule, which is where a lot of my art I feel like comes from. It’s satire; it’s ridicule; it’s hilarity. I was really annoyed with the transactional state of everybody just saying ‘gm,’ with nothing else to say. It was gm with a fucking coffee mug, and that was it. Then you just see gm, gm, gm, gm. It was just like, ‘What the fuck are we all doing here? This is insane, dude,’” says Wilson.
“So, then I kind of came up with good meat as a way to ridicule that, and I was posting art with the pieces originally, and then it kind of transitioned into now. I’m just gonna post meat pictures now because that fits the kind of dull exchange. The dull morning exchange that we all participate in.”
“It’s just like here’s a big heaving pile of rotting meat. Enjoy it or don’t enjoy it. It’s all good. But it’s funny because now people will say good meat back, or they’ll have their own good meat-inspired post, and it’s fucking super cool. I love that meat is infecting the space in some capacity.”
Read also
Notable sales to date
Rapid-fire Q&A
Influences
“I don’t have a ton, honestly, and most of that is just because I don’t have any art background. I would actually say, growing up, most of my influence was actually in the books I was reading. People like Irvine Welsh, Haruki Murakami, Michel Houellebecq, and, of course, Hunter S. Thompson. All those kinds of absurdists are where I love to dwell.”
“I should obviously mention Ralph Steadman, who is a fucking incredible illustrator. When I got into this space, somebody said, ‘Your stuff reminds me of Ralph Steadman,’ and I think that’s incredible.”
Read also
Personal style of art
“I think one word I would use is ‘relentless.’ The style itself it’s funny; I never took an art class in high school and was described as adequate. That’s really the extent of my art history. I didn’t study art. It’s more or less I bludgeoned my way into making these things. It’s been like 20,000 hours on the iPad and in my basement making canvases and acrylic.”
“It’s just bludgeoning stuff out that I feel like has to come out or else it’ll rob me from the inside, so ‘relentless’ and ‘unflinching,’ I guess, are the two words that I would use. There’s almost a psychotic pursuit and an urgency to what I want to tell people.”
Which hot NFT artists should we be paying attention to?
Xer0x — “I feel like he’s massively slept on, like horrifically slept on in many ways. That’s a guy who’s obsessed with his craft, and he makes super deep, very personal pieces that are true artistic achievements.”
Alien Queen — “Alien Queen is the shit, but she’s probably not even up-and-coming anymore.”
James Bloom — “He’s a true blockchain artist. The dude is making these super technical and really fucking rad pieces that evolve and change based on interactions.”
Notable collector
“I have to give a massive shout-out to SuperRare Zach. He’s been so nice and cool, and he onboarded me after this crazy absurdist tweet campaign to get on SuperRare. To get accepted to SuperRare, it was essentially a tweet that I sent that said I just submitted my application video.”
“It is me doing DMT and performing How Stella Got Her Groove Back while dressed like Hellboy or something. It was just like an insane tweet, and he just said, ‘This is nuts. You’re on.’ I’d already been putting in work and stuff, but I would say Zach is awesome.”
Favorite NFT in your wallet
“Oh, man, I would have to say Pindar Van Arman made this dope ass quantum portrait of me that’s super special. It’s really goddamn rad. That’s probably my favorite piece that I own. It’s a dope-ass piece, and he was so nice to do it. He didn’t ask; he just made it.”
What do you listen to when creating art?
“I love music. I mean, the absurd part of me would say that I create to Nickelback and Creed and fucking all those other dumb bands. But really, I listen to a shit ton of doom metal and death metal. Bands like Bongripper, Gate Creeper and Withered. Anything that’s just slow, grimy and brutal is the only way that you can kind of describe it.”
Links:
Website: https://onetie-alltie.com/about/
Subscribe
The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a
week.
Panama’s capital city will accept cryptocurrency payments for taxes and municipal fees, including bus tickets and permits, Panama City mayor Mayer Mizrachi announced on April 15, joining a growing list of jurisdictions globally that have voted to accept such payments.
Panama City will begin accepting Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Circle’s USDC (USDC), and Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin for payment once the crypto-to-fiat payment rails are established, Mizrachi posted on the X platform.
Mizrachi said previous administrations attempted to push through similar legislation but failed to overcome stipulations requiring the local government to accept funds denominated in US dollars.
In a translated statement, the Panama City mayor said that the local government partnered with a bank that will immediately convert any digital assets received into US dollars, allowing the municipality to accept crypto without introducing new legislation.
Panama City joins a growing list of global jurisdictions on the municipal and state level accepting cryptocurrency payments for taxes, exploring Bitcoin strategic reserves to protect public treasuries from inflation and passing pro-crypto policies to attract investment.
Related: New York bill proposes legalizing Bitcoin, crypto for state payments
Municipalities and states embrace digital assets
Several municipalities and territories around the globe already accept crypto for tax payments or are exploring various implementations of blockchain technology for government spending.
The US state of Colorado started accepting crypto payments for taxes in September 2022. Much like Panama City said it will do, Colorado immediately converts the crypto to fiat.
In December 2023, the city of Lugano, Switzerland, announced taxes and city fees could be paid in Bitcoin, which was one of the developments that earned it the reputation of being a globally recognized Bitcoin city.
The city council of Vancouver, Canada, passed a motion to become “Bitcoin-friendly city” in December 2024. As part of that motion, the Vancouver local government will explore integrating BTC into the financial system, including tax payments.
North Carolina lawmaker Neal Jackson introduced legislation titled “The North Carolina Digital Asset Freedom Act” on April 10. If passed, the bill will recognize cryptocurrencies as an official form of payment that can be used to pay taxes.
Magazine: Crypto City: The ultimate guide to Miami
As digital assets gain mainstream adoption, establishing a legal framework for stablecoins is a “good idea,” said US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
In an April 16 panel at the Economic Club of Chicago, Powell commented on the evolution of the cryptocurrency industry, which has delivered a consumer use case that “could have wide appeal” following a difficult “wave of failures and frauds,” he said.
Powell delivers remarks at the Economic Club of Chicago. Source: Bloomberg Television
During crypto’s difficult years, which culminated in 2022 and 2023 with several high-profile business failures, the Fed “worked with Congress to try to get a […] legal framework for stablecoins, which would have been a nice place to start,” said Powell. “We were not successful.”
“I think that the climate is changing and you’re moving into more mainstreaming of that whole sector, so Congress is again looking […] at a legal framework for stablecoins,” he said.
“Depending on what’s in it, that’s a good idea. We need that. There isn’t one now,” said Powell.
This isn’t the first time Powell acknowledged the need for stablecoin legislation. In June 2023, the Fed boss told the House Financial Services Committee that stablecoins were “a form of money” that requires “robust” federal oversight.
Related: Stablecoins are the best way to ensure US dollar dominance — Web3 CEO
Support for stablecoin legislation is growing
The election of US President Donald Trump has ushered in a new era of pro-crypto appointments and policy shifts that could make America a digital asset superpower.
Washington’s formal embrace of cryptocurrency began earlier this year when Trump established the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, with Bo Hines as the executive director.
Hines told a digital asset summit in New York last month that a comprehensive stablecoin bill was a top priority for the current administration. After the Senate Banking Committee passed the GENIUS Act, a final stablecoin bill could arrive at the president’s desk “in the next two months,” said Hines.
Bo Hines (right) speaks of “imminent” stablecoin legislation at the Digital Asset Summit on March 18. Source: Cointelegraph
Stablecoins pegged to the US dollar are by far the most popular tokens used for remittances and cryptocurrency trading.
The combined value of all stablecoins is currently $227 billion, according to RWA.xyz. The dollar-pegged USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT) account for more than 88% of the total market.
Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom
An appellate court has granted a joint request from Ripple Labs and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pause an appeal in a 2020 SEC case against Ripple amid settlement negotiations.
In an April 16 filing in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the court approved a joint SEC-Ripple motion to hold the appeal in abeyance — temporarily pausing the case — for 60 days. As part of the order, the SEC is expected to file a status report by June 15.
The SEC’s case against Ripple and its executives, filed in December 2020, was expected to begin winding down after Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced on March 19 that the commission would be dropping its appeal against the blockchain firm. A federal court found Ripple liable for $125 million in an August ruling, resulting in both the SEC and blockchain firm filing an appeal and cross-appeal, respectively.
However, once US President Donald Trump took office and leadership of the SEC moved from former chair Gary Gensler to acting chair Mark Uyeda, the commission began dropping multiple enforcement cases against crypto firms in a seeming political shift. Ripple pledged $5 million in XRP to Trump’s inauguration fund, and Garlinghouse and chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty attended events supporting the US president.
Related: SEC dropping Ripple case is ‘final exclamation mark’ that XRP is not a security — John Deaton
Despite support for the end of the case coming from both Ripple and the SEC, the August 2024 judgment and appellate cases leave some legal entanglements. Alderoty said in March that Ripple would drop its cross-appeal with the SEC and receive a roughly $75 million refund from the lower court judgment. It’s unclear what else may result from negotiations over a settlement in appellate court.
New leadership at SEC incoming
Acting chair Uyeda is expected to step down following the US Senate confirming Paul Atkins as SEC chair on April 9.
During his confirmation hearings, lawmakers questioned Atkins about his ties to crypto, which could create conflicts of interest in his role regulating the industry. In financial disclosures, Atkins stated he had millions of dollars in assets through stakes in crypto firms, including Securitize, Pontoro and Patomak.
Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway