Wu-Tang Clan’s Single-Copy Album Worth $2M To Make Its Public Debut
Wu-Tang Clan‘s seventh studio album is arguably Hip Hop’s most fascinating artifact, and it’s lastly set to see the sunshine of day after just lately coming underneath new possession.
Often branded because the “world’s rarest album,” a single copy of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin was pressed again in 2015 and its digital masters completely deleted to emphasise the implications of streaming and piracy in an age of weightless music. A bidding warfare for the LP ensued quickly after, with infamous “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli buying it for $2 million.
Two years later, he was ordered at hand over the report by a federal courtroom after being convicted of securities fraud. In 2021, PleasrDAO purchased the flowery silver-box package deal from the the United States Department of Justice for $4 million in an effort to cowl the businessman’s debt.
Following via on their promise to make the music at hand extra accessible to the world, the non-fungible token collectors have now loaned it to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania for an exhibition titled Namedropping.
The tracklist, which reportedly options each surviving member of the Wu-Tang Clan in addition to Cher, will likely be performed on the venue totally free from June 15–24. Those who safe tickets may have entry to a 30-minute edit of the album that will likely be performed on a custom-made Playstation by the rap veterans contained in the Frying Pan recording studio.
“Every once in a while, an object on this planet possesses mystical properties that transcend its material circumstances,” MONA’s director of curatorial affairs Jarrod Rawlins mentioned concerning the upcoming occasion. “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is more than just an album, so when I was thinking about status, and what a transcendent namedrop could be, I knew I had to get it into this exhibition.”
RZA Says He Regrets Selling Rare Wu-Tang Album ‘Once Upon A Time In Shaolin’ To Martin Shkreli
PleasrDAO added: “Ten years ago, the Wu-Tang Clan had a bold vision to make a single copy album as a work of fine art. To ‘put it in an art gallery … make music become a living piece like a Mona Lisa or a sceptre from Egypt.’ With this single work of art, the Wu-Tang Clan’s intention was to redefine the meaning of music ownership and value in a world of digital streaming and commodification of music.”
Described as “a 400-year-old Renaissance-style approach to music” by RZA, the two-CD set just isn’t allowed for use for any industrial functions till 2013 per a authorized settlement drafted on the time of its unique sale.
Aside from a couple of leaks by Shkreli and a 13-minute medley performed for potential consumers at New York City’s Museum Of Modern Art earlier than the 2015 buy, Once Upon A Time In Shaolin has by no means been open to the general public earlier than.
Its residency on the MONA this summer time will mark the primary time the album has ever been handed over to a museum for the general public’s consumption.
