Why Method Man Says Rare Wu-Tang Clan Album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” Is an 'Uncomfortable Subject' for the Group
In an interview with 'Vanity Fair,' the rapper/actor also discussed the possibility of new music
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Method Man in Toronto in September 2022Method Man says Wu-Tang Clan's album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is an "uncomfortable subject" for the group.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the rapper/actor (born Clifford Smith, Jr.), 53, opened up about how he felt about the group's coveted seventh album being auctioned off in 2015 for $2 million to the entrepreneur Martin Shkreli.
"I don’t know. I thought it was some circus spectacle. I never really spoke to RZA about it; it’s an uncomfortable subject to most of the guys, so we don’t really discuss it too much," the Power Book II: Ghost star told the publication.
Method Man then explained that the hip-hop icons were in the dark about "the process" of the album.
"We were never told what it was," he recalls. "It was never supposed to be a Wu-Tang album. We were recording and being paid to do a certain amount of records by a guy whose name I don’t want to mention."
Method Man continued: "He took all these verses — some of them were old verses — and put them altogether into a compilation of Wu-Tang songs and marketed it as a Wu-Tang album, and a single copy of a Wu-Tang album."
"We all had a problem with it because that’s not how it was described to us," he concluded.
According to the outlet, PleasrDAO, the digital art collective that purchased the LP from the government in 2021, recently sued Shkreli, claiming "he violated the sale agreement by keeping digital copies of the album and sharing the recordings online," (per the AP and Rolling Stone).
Shkreli defended his actions in a series of posts on X (formerly known as Twitter).
For 10 days, beginning on June 15, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin went on public display for the first time at Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Australia.
The project was on view in the Namedropping exhibition, which showcases and examines the work and status of some of the world’s most prolific artists and musicians.
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“Every once in a while, an object on this planet possesses mystical properties that transcend its material circumstances,” said Jarrod Rawlins, director of curatorial affairs at Mona, in a press release. “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.”
Fans had the opportunity to listen to the fabled record at listening parties held in Mona’s Frying Pan Studios, in addition to a curated 30-minute mix from the LP during the limited exhibition run.
Wu-Tang Clan secretly recorded Once Upon a Time in Shaolin over six years and only one physical two-CD copy of it was made and auctioned off in 2015, making it one of the most expensive records ever sold.
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