It’s no longer news that Manchester United currently owned by The Glazer Family is up for sale and just about EVERYONE and their dads wants in on this action!

Among the bidders are Sir David Beckham, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, an unnamed group of private Qatari investors, Meta, Amazon, Apple and even ELON MUSK!

It is gonna be a pretty intense battle as Mercedes F1 driver Sir Lewis Hamilton is said to have also thrown his hat in the ring in a joint bid with Sir Ratcliffe for the football team.

The deadline to put in bids is this Friday 17 February 2023 at 10:00 AM UK Time, so make sure to get your bids in.

So you like it RAW huh?

Get your head out of the gutter

RAW….the people that make; you know, those really thin pieces of paper that are used to roll um.. ‘mint‘ leaves?

…Yeah, those guys

It turns out they’ve been in court for a while.

Why you ask?

Republic Brands (they make OCB - a brand of rolling papers) alleged that HBI International (the company that makes RAW rolling papers) were claiming that they were giving money to this so-called "RAW Foundation" - but turns out, this foundation didn't even exist! The court said, "uh-uh, no more of that," and ordered HBI to stop talking about the RAW Foundation and making it seem like they were involved in any way. So, HBI can't keep pretending they're donating to something that isn't real. The court shut that down real quick!

But there’s more…

For years, HBI has been going on about how their papers are made by skilled artisans in the birthplace of rolling papers, Alcoy, Spain. They even claimed that their RAW papers received a special "Spanish Alcoy Paper Blessing" - and some of their products even had an "Alcoy stamp" on them.

But, it turns out, that might not be entirely true. A recent court ruling on January 19, 2023, found that HBI isn't actually making their papers in Alcoy, Spain at all! The court has also now told them they can't say their RAW Organic Hemp booklets or cones are made in Alcoy anymore. And, to add insult to injury, HBI can't even use the word "Alcoy" or the stamp on their packaging anymore either.

To play devil’s advocate here, there is talk on the ‘streets‘ that this entire case is bogus and the ruling was made on a technicality.

From my research, the “Manufactured in Alcoy, Spain”, claim isn’t entirely false, but more misleading. The manufacturing process starts off in the South of France and then it moves to Spain to have the watermarks, gum-lining and packaging done. I feel like something along the lines of “Finished‘ in Spain” would have been more appropriate.

I’d love to know what you think about this though. do drop a comment below and let’s discuss.

In other news, Napster is back for the umpteenth time 🙄

Remember the OG Napster, the OG file-sharing service that was basically every millennial's guilty pleasure? Well, guess what? It's back and it's bringing blockchain and digital collectables with it! That's right, the streaming music version of Napster is stepping into the world of Web3 with its latest acquisition of a startup called Mint Songs.

I do need to jump in here and say they have been around for quite a while. They were bought out by BestBuy in 2011, who then merged it with their Rhapsody service, and later revamped the brand in 2016 where it was reincarnated as a fully licensed streaming service akin to the likes of Spotify and Apple Music.

Last June it announced that it was hopping on the blockchain train and planned to launch a token using the Algorand blockchain. And now, with the acquisition of Mint Songs, Napster is taking things up a notch and planning to offer some seriously cool digital collectables. The idea is to create a community around the artist and their music, so fans can connect with their favourite artists and maybe even score some exclusive and rare content.

Mint Songs' co-founder and CTO, Garrett Hughes, will be joining the Napster team as an advisor, and together, they're planning to revolutionize the music industry. According to Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos, the goal is to make these innovations accessible to everyone.

This is just the first step for the newly created Napster Ventures, which is all about investing in and acquiring the best Web3 music startups. So get ready, because the first iteration of the new Napster platform is expected to drop in Q2 of this year. Stay tuned for some seriously cool music innovations!

They’ve got a whitepaper out which goes into more detail about their plans. You can check that out here

That’s it for today gang. See you in the next one!

- Yemi 💥