Grammy Award winning rapper Eminem, the best-selling music artist of the 2000s, released his tenth studio album “Kamikaze” on August 31. In the album’s ninth track, called “Not Alone”, American rapper Royce Da 5’9′ says, “Remember everybody used to bite Nickel, now everybody doing bitcoin.”
Despite the declining prices of cryptocurrencies this year, it seems mainstream awareness of bitcoin and digital currencies is growing. In fact, various market analysts attribute the near $20,000 all-time high of bitcoin in December of 2017 to (significantly) increased public awareness about the peer-to-peer (P2P) electronic cash system.
Although bitcoin’s (BTC) price is down considerably from its record high, as it’s currently trading at $7,059.23, according to CryptoCompare data, the bull run from last year has led to numerous bitcoin mentions in various film and TV shows.
Numerous Bitcoin Mentions
Bitcoin has been mentioned in various TV shows over the years. In the American animated sitcom series, the “Family Guy”, one of the main characters, Peter Griffin, recommends investing in bitcoin to help his family recover from its financial problems. Also in “Dope”, a comedy-drama that portrays the life of young African-American kids growing up in Inglewood, California, the movie’s main character sells drugs in exchange for bitcoin.
Emmy Award winning American television sitcom, “The Big Bang Theory”, has a few episodes that involve bitcoin as well. The show’s characters try to find a missing laptop which held bitcoin that Caltech physicist Sheldon Cooper had bought several years ago.
Notably, there have been several bitcoin and cryptocurrency mentions on popular film and TV shows that have criticized the new form of digital money. However, the lyrics referring to bitcoin on Eminem’s new album neither suggest that it’s a “get rich quick” scheme nor do they imply that it can be used for illicit activities – both of which have been frequently associated with the flagship cryptocurrency.
The line about bitcoin on the rapper’s album simply appears to suggest that “everybody” is finding out (or becoming familiar with) the cryptocurrency. Moreover, increased awareness of crypto, or more people wanting to know about bitcoin, is evident from the large number of Google searches about the cryptocurrency.
Google Searches For Bitcoin
While online searches for bitcoin have dropped considerably since mid-December of 2017, when cryptocurrency prices skyrocketed, senior policy advisor at the Dutch National Bank, Joost van der Burgt, recently pointed out that there’s a positive correlation between bitcoin’s price and its related Google searches.
As CryptoGlobe reported, the economist found that there had been a near “perfect match” between bitcoin-related Google searches and the cryptocurrency’s price movements. However, the strong positive correlation seems to have weakened since the introduction of bitcoin futures last year.
Commenting on the public awareness of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Burgt remarked,
“If the buzz is everywhere, it doesn't matter exactly what the news is about… nobody wants to miss out and everybody's trying to get a piece of it.”
