Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan LP that was hidden away in a secret Moroccan vault and priced at over a million dollars, was sold last month at auction to a "private American collector." Now, that collector has been revealed, and just as many suspected he's a bonafide asshole.
The most ridiculous Wu-Tang Clan album was purchased by Martin Shkreli, a wealthy pharmaceutical businessman who made news earlier this year when his company purchased the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim (which is often used to treat malaria and prolong the lives of HIV-positive patients), only to raise its price from $13.50 per pill to $750. When the media and medical community cried outrage, Shkreli responded with childish taunts and attempted (faked) sympathy pleas, proving that he truly is nothing but a worthless shitbag, down to the bone.
Bloomberg reports that Shkreli purchased the album for $2 million. He now has the option to release the album for the world to hear whenever he chooses, but if he wishes to do so commercially, he'll have to wait 88 years, as per the Wu-Tang Clan's strict copyright arrangement. "Before he closed on the acquisition, Shkreli was permitted to listen to a few more snippets to make sure it was all there," the paper notes. "Shkreli delegated the task to an employee." That's right--dude didn't even listen to it, and now claims that he still hasn't given it a spin.
The entire story is one big "Not Okay, Player" moment in our books, but it's important to keep one thing clear: RZA and the rest of the Wu made the sale back in May, before the Daraprim scandal took place. "The sale of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was agreed upon in May, well before Martin Skhreli’s [sic] business practices came to light," RZA told Bloomberg Businessweek in an email. "We decided to give a significant portion of the proceeds to charity."
