Martin Shkreli’s Rare Wu-Tang Clan Album Sells for Over $1 Million on eBay
Earlier this month, Martin Shkreli, who is currently in jail for putting a $5,000 bounty for a lock of Hillary Clinton’s hair, put the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album up for sale on eBay. The rare Wu album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, was initially purchased by Shkreli in 2015 for a whopping $2 million.
Well, the bidding is over, and someone purchased the project for $1,025,100. There’s no word on who bought the album, but this is certainly a monumental purchase for the buyer.
However, reps for the Wu-Tang Clan recently told Bloomberg that Shkreli may have paid $2 million for a fake Wu album. No one in the camp feels that Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is a legit project. The 31-song collection was overseen by the RZA and features production by Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzougarh. Each song features verses from every member of the Wu, which reps now say wasn't authorized.
“It’s not an authorized Wu-Tang Clan album. It never was,” U-God’s manager Domingo Neris told Bloomberg. “We would never have authorized anyone to put together a project and call it a Wu-Tang Clan record without us ever looking at it, hearing it, or being in the same room together."
Method Man’s manager, James Ellis, adds, “When we did the verses, it was for a Cilvaringz album. How it became a Wu-Tang album from there? We have no knowledge of that.”
Bloomberg reached out to Cilvaringz for a comment and he told them that the creative process was “too complex to explain in a soundbite” but that “all participating Wu-Tang artists were paid in advance while RZA and I bore the financial risk of the project.” Meanwhile, Shkreli responded in email with “hahahahahahahahahahahaha.”
We must mention that Shkreli is facing some serious prison time after he was found guilty on three counts of security fraud. So the joke is going to be on him real soon.
As for the RZA, reps for the Wu-Tang Clan leader had no comment on the matter.
Wu-Tang mystery aside, we hope that the buyer will make the songs from this supposed Wu album available so the people can judge for themselves.