Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album remained a sore subject for the group’s members. Method Man discussed his issues with the project in an interview with Vanity Fair. The legendary rapper admitted he and his fellow Wu-Tang members do their best to avoid the topic.
“I thought it was some circus spectacle,” Method Man said. “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.”
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was spearheaded by Wu-Tang affiliate Cilvaringz. The album garnered significant publicity since only one copy was created. It was auctioned off for $2 million in 2015, making it the world’s most expensive album.
The infamous “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli bought Wu-Tang’s rare album. Terms of the deal prevented the project’s owner from releasing it to the public until October 2103. The U.S. government seized Once Upon a Time In Shaolin after Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud.
PleasrDAO purchased Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for $4 million in 2021. The new owner started selling access to the album as a $1 NFT in June. Fans did not receive the album in full as they were forced to settle for a sampler created by Cilvaringz. PleasrDAO claimed each $1 purchase would shave 88 seconds off the album’s 2103 release date.
Wu-Tang fans might balk at paying anything for the album because the Clan did not knowingly create Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Method Man and other members viewed the project as a glorified compilation concocted by Cilvaringz, not a legitimate Wu-Tang album.
“The process of the thing being made was never told to us,” Method Man explained to Vanity Fair. “We were never told what it was. 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.”
He continued, “[Cilvaringz] 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.”
PleasrDAO filed a lawsuit against Shkreli over Once Upon a Time in Shaolin in June. PleasrDAO accused the album’s former owner of violating a forfeiture order by retaining copies of the music.
