Nfts
Wu-Tang Clan’s “Once Upon A Time In Shaolin” is now an NFT
The famous Wu-Tang Clan album “Once upon a time in Shaolin” is now transformed into an NFT.
The world’s rarest and most expensive album was their seventh studio album, for which they only released a single physical copy in 2014.
Recorded in secret between 2006 and 2013, the project became the most valuable album ever made and reportedly features contributions from every surviving member of the Wu-Tang Clan, as well as two guest appearances from Dear. The single copy was housed in a jewel-encrusted silver box, alongside leather-bound liner notes and a wax seal of the Wu-Tang Clan logo.
No digital downloads or streaming were ever made available, and after pressing the CD, the clan stored it in a high-security safe at the Royal Mansour Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco. It was then put up for auction the following year, but it came with the conditions according to which the buyer could not commercially exploit the music before 2103.
The 88-year restriction was chosen because there were eight original members of the Wu-Tang clan, because the numbers in the year 2015 added to eight, and because the rotating number made the infinity symbol.
The deal also stipulated that the album could be played at listening parties, and a 13-minute medley was then played in front of only about 50 art experts, fans and potential buyers at a unique event at MoMa in New York in 2015.
“Once upon a time in Shaolin” later went to auctionand was bought by disgraced pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli for $2 million (£1.56 million). The entrepreneur became famous when he increased the price of a drug used by cancer and AIDS patients by 50 times overnight.
Shkreli performed samples from the album during a live stream in 2017 despite the restrictions, he then attempted to sell the album on eBay – and received an offer of $1.2 million (£940,000), but the sale was never completed. He was then forced to hand over the album following his conviction for securities fraudwhen a federal court seized assets worth $7.4 million (£5.8 million).
From there, the The US Department of Justice sold it to Pleasr for $4 million (£3.1 million) in 2021, in an attempt to cover Shkreli’s debts. The collective then declared that they 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 stated in a press release, “has been digitized and encrypted” and turned into a non-fungible token (NFT) that can be purchased for $1 on www.lalbum.com.
Purchasing an NFT of the album gives buyers access to an album sampler and, according to Forkincreases disc output by 88 seconds at a time.
In the press release, “Once Upon A Time in Shaolin” producers RZA and Cilvaringz said: “Mass replication has fundamentally changed the way we perceive a piece of recorded music, while digital universality and disappearance of physicality has severed our emotional connection with a piece of recorded music. music as a work of art and a deeply personal treasure.
Matt Matkov, a PleasrDAO representative, added: “This album sale isn’t just about the music; it’s about redefining how we think about music ownership and fan collaboration in the digital age.
In the meantime, the album is set to be presented 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 digital art collective Pleasr (via The Guardian). And it is set to feature in the “Namedropping” exhibition, which will focus on status, fame and notoriety.
The upcoming appearance at the Mona gallery will mark the first time it has been loaned to a museum since its initial sale. Mona will host exclusive listening parties for 10 days next month, during which audiences can experience a 30-minute sample of the album. Learn more about the exhibition here.
“Every once in a while, an object on this planet has mystical properties that transcend its material circumstances,” Jarrod Rawlins, Mona’s director of curatorial affairs, said in a new statement (via Far). “‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ is more than just an album, so…I knew I had to include it in this exhibition.”
The news surrounding the precious album comes just months after hip-hop veterans performed residency shows in Las Vegas.