Get Me Off This Planet

Grimes Is Making An ‘Intergalactic Children’s Metaverse Book,’ Whatever The Hell That Is

So is it like a board book or...

Grimes at the Met Gala reading a book - not to be confused with the 'intergalactic children's metave...
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Grimes, who shares children X and Y with Tesla billionaire and professional Twitter troll Elon Musk, is writing her first children’s book.

Apologies, it’s not *just* a children’s book — it’s an “intergalactic children’s metaverse book.”

Looks like the musician is stepping up her mommy game. Or her tech game. Or her Silicon bro grift game. Honestly, I have no idea, and I’ve re-read the phrase “intergalactic children’s metaverse book” roughly 50 times.

Over the weekend, the mother of two and self-proclaimed hacker announced the endeavor during a virtual appearance at the Avalanche Summit, a Web3-focused conference in Barcelona. It’s not clear where or when in the space-time continuum Grimes’ children’s book — apologies again, I mean *intergalactic children’s metaverse book* — will appear.

The artist's metaverse book is part of Culture Catalyst, a $100 million initiative by the Avalanche Foundation and NFT platform OP3N.

“I’m very excited to be partnering with OP3N to launch a series of educational art for babies and small children with the goal of creating a profound experience for babies that is also deeply meaningful to adults,” she said during her virtual appearance.

For those who aren’t actively convinced we live in a simulation and need to find ways out of it, Web3 is essentially the idea of a new type of decentralized internet. The platform reportedly has an interface similar to TikTok.

It’s based on blockchain technology and a token-based economics (like NFTs) that ostensibly democratizes wealth but really just recreates the systemic issues of capitalism. (If you really want to get into it, media analyst Dan Olson breaks NFTs down in this two-hour explainer video that went viral.)

I just want to know if this book will get sticky when my kid dunks it in his yogurt.

“I have an almost 2-year-old baby, and his education is super important to me,” she says. “I really want to start making more art and education content for kids, especially for really young kids. I just thought there was so much space for innovation, especially one to three years.”

Does she know about pop-up books?

The singer also reportedly said she wants the project to follow in the footsteps of My Neighbor Totoro, a classic Studio Ghibli film. Again, not sure how this book(?) would follow in those steps, but, sure, Grimes!