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By Pepe Designer (AKA Rare Designer) |
As mentioned in Chapter 1, Pepe the Frog originated in a comic by Matt Furie, before growing in popularity as an apolitical open source meme for the Internet.
Oscar Wilde once wrote “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness", and this remains clearly evident in the explosion of Pepe the Frog derivatives from Sad Frog, Smug Frog, Angry Pepe and Happy Frog as Types of Pepes through to the more design intensive animated memes of today.
The success of Pepe can be directly linked to the organic network effect of an open source art project. In the early days, memes were primarily produced and distributed by highly active and extremely creative community members looking to ‘out-meme’ each other, further amplifying the network effect of Pepe the Frog. Today, these community members continue making their art, with much more effective distribution methods and greater reach, further accelerating the Pepe network effect.
Pepe the Frog is considered by some as a platform-agnostic art meme, which transcends social and technological network barriers of each decade of the 21st century, from 4chan, MySpace, Gaia Online and Tumblr in the early years, to the more current social platforms like Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Clubhouse and Telegram.
Although originally an apolitical character, from 2015 to 2016, for a brief period, Pepe the Frog was appropriated as a symbol of the alt-right movement, but Matt Furie took the necessary steps to regain control of the Pepe image as an apolitical open source meme for the Web Counter-culture.
Following the genesis of the Rare Pepe Project, in 2017 Pepe Designer (aka Rare Designer) created his first Rare Pepe memes on the BTC blockchain. Pepe Designer was introduced to Pepe the Frog and BTC through a potential client, who offered him $300 in Bitcoin to create 3 illustrations. His client went on to introduce him to the Rare Pepe Wallet project, one of the first platforms to allow for buying and selling art on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Pepe Designer took to Counterculture like a ‘Frog to Water’ as he began a prolific Pepe career, creating Pepe digital trading cards, starting with ONEPUNCHPEPE which opened the door to more opportunities in this new decentralized world of crypto art. With BTC increasing in popularity and value, this period became a pivotal turning point in Rare Designer’s career, culminating in the creation of his most celebrated work on March 14th, 2018 when Pepe Designer released PEPELISA, one of his most notorious pieces in the Pepe space.
In parallel to Pepe Designer's growth as an OG Pepe artist in web3 Counterculture, before they were called NFTs, the cyberpunk communities birthed CryptoPunks. Originally free to acquire for anyone with an ETH wallet, CryptoPunks was launched by studio Larva Labs on 23rd June 2017 as a 10,000 pixel art collection.
Shortly after, building on the success of other projects in the NFT space, Greg Solano, Wylie Aronow, Gordon Goner and Zeshan Ali started Yuga Labs, a Virginia-based company founded in 2021. From there the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) released a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs collection of Bored Ape avatars. Building on the success of Yuga Labs first collection, the team has since launched the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) collections.
Roman philosopher Seneca once said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity". This was definitely the case, when on the 26th of October, 2021, Pepe Designer, a now celebrated OG Pepe artist on the BTC blockchain, minted his first Rare Apepe on the Ethereum blockchain, off the back of a private commission by Bored Ape Owner Jiro, who wanted a Pepe the Frog portrait with the Bored Ape Traits of BAYC-3060.
Rare Designer as he was now know, along with his co-creator kntrvlr (kountervailor), encouraged by the success of this commission proceeded to design, build and launch the Rare Apepe Yacht Club (RAYC), a collection of 10,000 one-of-one Rare Apepes, which in part is an extension of the memetic culture and as a homage to the BAYC collection.
March 5th, 2022, marked the beginning of the RAYC lore. 'The Arrival' was the launch of the first 1,997 Rare Apepes by Rare Labs, a paid mint priced at 0.05 ETH with no whitelist or bonding curve.
After a pause of the initial mint, and while the crypto and NFT spaces were in turmoil, 'The Rebellion' ensued. From July 31st, 2022, token ID 1,998 resumed and the Rare Apepes broke free from the paid mint, turning into a free mint. The rebellion also saw the Rare Apepes break free from the 1:1 ID match with their BAYC counterparts.
In August 2022, 'the Explosion' occurred. No one knew what was about to happen, not even Rare Designer or the Team. The NFT space began to see the project's potential, the passionate and loyal community began to grow organically and these ‘Fros’ as they were affectionately named began producing Rare Apepes memes and derivatives, keeping to the roots of Pepe the Frog, while embracing the Ape like sensibilities. This continued to spark organic growth that enabled the project to navigate towards a direction that was beyond Rare Designers wildest dreams, as the brand aimed to establish itself as one of the leading 'meme' brands in the NFT web3 space.
In October 2022, the Rare Apepe community experienced a Zombie apocalypse as the Zombie Apepe Yacht Club (ZAYC) was launched, providing Rare Apepe holders, who claimed their serum, the ability to Spawn a Zombie Apepe based on the Traits of their Rare Apepe. \
This is only the beginning of the lore, as Rare Designer and the Rare Labs team have officially announced MAPYC collection in 2023, the details of which are unknown, except those holding 1 x RAYC + 1 x ZAYC (matching pairs & minted their zombie spawn) will receive 1 x MAPYC to complete a set of the collections from the same traits. Dubious speculation is rife, but we know Mutants are coming. However, what that may look like is left to our imagination for now as Rare Designer and the team keep their future plans close to their chest.
Watch this pond closely for more to follow…
Rare Apepe Genesis