There’s only one copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased 2015 album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. The rap group’s seventh studio project is also touted as the world’s most valuable album as Martin Shkreli, the American investor who was convicted of financial crimes, initially purchased it for $2 million in an auction.
In 2017, a bid of $1 million was made for the album after Shkreli attempted to sell it on eBay, Variety reported. But following his conviction of securities fraud, that sale was blocked by U.S. authorities.
The album was ultimately seized by the U.S. government and auctioned off. In 2021, The New York Times reported that PleasrDAO, a digital art and crypto organization, had obtained the album after paying “the equivalent of $4 million in a cryptocurrency tied to the dollar.”
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Recent documents obtained from the Department of Justice by Bloomberg indicate that the U.S. government sold the album to WTC Endeavours Limited for $2,238,482.30. The amount in question was what Shkreli, also known as “Pharma Bro,” owed the U.S. government.
WTC Endeavours Limited was incorporated in May 2020 in Hong Kong, and the company’s main aim was to facilitate the album’s purchase. The company was later dissolved in March 2023, but the Department of Justice emphasized that PleasrDAO and the buyer of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin had no connection whatsoever.
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, PleasrDAO in June 2023 sued Shkreli, alleging that he had copies of the album and was making it available to the public after the company purchased it.
The art collective also alleged that Shkreli boasted about playing the album on YouTube and giving other people copies of the project. A Brooklyn judge ultimately ordered Shkreli to stop streaming or sharing copies of the album.
According to The Associated Press, Judge Pamela K. Chen in August 2024 ordered Shkreli to make available all copies of the album and also provide the names of people he may have given the music to by September 30, 2024. He was additionally ordered to report any revenues he made from the one-of-a-kind album.
Though the copies of the one-off album cannot be made or streamed until 2103, PleasrDAO, after talking to Wu-Tang Clan members, found some kind of a breakthrough. Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was ultimately transformed into a non-fungible token (NFT), and fans now have the opportunity to listen to the album’s sample for five minutes at a cost of an equivalent of $1, per Bloomberg. The release of the album speeds up by 88 seconds per sale.
