Wu-Tang Clan’s infamous album ‘Once Upon A Time In Shaolin’ has now been turned into an NFT.
The world’s rarest and most expensive album was their seventh studio effort, for which they released only one physical copy in 2014.
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Recorded in secret between 2006 and 2013, the project became the most valuable album ever made, and reportedly features contributions from all surviving members of Wu-Tang Clan, as well as two guest appearances from Cher. The unique copy was housed in a silver, jewel-encrusted box, alongside leather-bound liner notes and a wax seal of the Wu-Tang Clan logo.
No digital downloads or streams have ever been made available, and after pressing the CD, the Clan stored it in a high-security vault at the Royal Mansour Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco. It later went to auction the following year, however came with the conditions that the purchaser could not commercially exploit the music until the year 2103.
The 88-year restriction was chosen as there were eight original members of Wu-Tang clan, because the numbers of the year 2015 added to eight, and because the number rotated made the symbol for infinity.
The agreement also stipulated that the album could be played at listening parties, and a 13-minute medley was later played to only around 50 art experts, fans and prospective buyers at a one-off event at New York’s MoMa in 2015.
‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ later went to auction, and was bought by disgraced pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli for $2million (£1.56m). The entrepreneur became notorious when he hiked the price of a drug used by cancer and Aids patients by 50-fold overnight.
Shkreli played clips of the album during a livestream in 2017 despite the restrictions, then tried to sell the album on eBay – and received an offer for $1.2million (£940,000), but the sale was never completed. He was then forced to hand over the album following his conviction for securities fraud, when $7.4million (£5.8m) worth of assets were seized by a federal court.
From there, the US Department of Justice sold it to Pleasr for $4million (£3.1m) in 2021, in a bid to cover Shkreli’s debts. The collective said at the time that it would find a way to make it accessible to fans and the rest of the world.
RZA of Wu-Tang Clan performs on stage at The OVO Hydro on June 12, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland (CREDIT: Roberto Ricciuti/Redferns)
Now, the album’s owner, Pleasr is selling partial ownership of the album. The album, as noted in a press release, “has been digitized and encrypted” and made into a non-fungible token (NFT) that can be bought for $1 on www.thealbum.com.
Purchasing an NFT of the album gives buyers access to an album sampler and, as per Pitchfork, increases the record’s release 88 seconds at a time.
In the press statement, ‘Once Upon A Time in Shaolin’ producers RZA and Cilvaringz said: “Mass replication has fundamentally changed the way we view a piece of recorded music, while digital universality and vanishing physicality have broken our emotional bond with a piece of music as an artwork and a deeply personal treasure.”
Matt Matkov, a representative from PleasrDAO, added: “This album sale is more than just about the music; it’s about redefining how we think about ownership of music and fan collaboration in the digital age.”
Meanwhile, the album is set to be played to the public for the first time at an art gallery in Tasmania this month.
The Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart acquired the album on loan from the digital art collective Pleasr (via The Guardian). And it is due to feature in the ‘Namedropping’ exhibition, which will centre on status, celebrity and notoriety.
The upcoming appearance at the Mona gallery will mark the first time it has been loaned to a museum since its original sale. Mona will host exclusive listening parties across 10 days next month, during which the public can experience a curated 30-minute sample of the album. Find out more about the exhibition here.
“Every once in a while, an object on this planet possesses mystical properties that transcend its material circumstances,” Mona Director of Curatorial Affairs, Jarrod Rawlins, said in a new statement (via Far Out). “‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ is more than just an album, so… I knew I had to get it into this exhibition.”
The news around the valuable album comes just months after the hip-hop veterans played residency shows in Las Vegas.
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