Wu-Tang Clan’s one-of-a-kind album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin has a complicated history — and that’s putting it mildly.
After being acquired by infamous “Pharma-bro” Martin Shkreli in 2015 for a cool $2 million, it wound up in the hands of the United States government after Shkreli was convicted on three counts of fraud in August 2017 and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The album was used as part of the retribution Shkreli owed to the people he conned. During the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alixandra Smith said Shkreli told “lies upon lies,” while another prosecutor, Jacquelyn Kasulis, said the trial “has exposed Martin Shkreli for who he really is — a con man who stole millions.”
As Shkreli sits behind bars awaiting his release, Once Upon A Time In Shaolin has found a new home. Three months after it was purchased by an anonymous buyer, Rolling Stone reveals the group behind the $4 million purchase has been identified as PleasrDAO, “a collective of DeFi leaders, early NFT collectors and digital artists who have built a formidable yet benevolent reputation for acquiring culturally significant pieces with a charitable twist,” according to its website.
Stop The Press: Martin Shkreli's $1M Sale Of Rare Wu-Tang Clan LP Is Incomplete
PleasrDAO’s previous purchases include NFTs connected to Edward Snowden and the Russian band Pussy Riot. While the album has always been packaged in an ornate silver box accompanied by a leather-bound booklet, it now has a digital component: an NFT deed of ownership, meaning means the purchaser will be memorialized in the blockchain-verse.
“This beautiful piece of art, this ultimate protest against middlemen and rent seekers of musicians and artists, went south by going into the hands of Martin Shkreli, the ultimate internet villain,” PleasrDAO’s Chief Pleasing Officer Jamis Johnson says. “We want this to be us bringing this back to the people. We want fans to participate in this album at some level.”
Wu-Tang Clan affiliate/A&R Matthew “M-Eighty” Markoff, who originally put an offer in for the album, tells HipHopDX, “Congrats to the new proud owners at PleasrDAO. In my opinion having Once Upon A Time In Shaolin in the hands of anyone other then Martin or the Government gives Wu-Tang and Hip-Hop fans alike across the globe one more renewed hope of one day hearing this mythical work of art.”
Holy shit, 4 million dollars. That’s incredible! But do we get to hear the album or what? dont understand nfts
Screw all that crypto crap, just let people hear the damn music. Its Wu-Tang, not fucking Kayne. Dont no Wu-Tang fans give a shit about no damn NFT shit, thry just wanna enjoy good music. I hope somebody bootlrgged it while it was in Federal custody or the Pharma guy ripped it and hid it somewhere.
Damn you acting like Wu fans are living in the stone age LMAO
this entire storyline is retarded, from beginning to end it keeps getting cornier …
Kind of like your life.
Won’t be long before big M-Shkr is back out and looking for his money
Release it or leak it or why should anyone care about this?
The Rza and/or someone else (forgetting who) needs to give them the go ahead first
Name the last wu album worth buying
The owner of this record is allowed to release slash make profit of it I think in something like a 100 years? Not sure but something like that. Until a certain time period this record is to remain silent. I like it. It makes it special
They can sell it in 100 years, they can drop it for free anytime.
Please mr. Murray, do what needs to be done.