The anonymous owners of the one-of-a-kind Wu Tang Clan album have been revealed. Once Upon a Time in Shaolin — formerly owned by disgraced hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive, Martin Shkreli, before being convicted of securities fraud — was seized in 2018 and recently sold by the U.S. government as a part of a $7.4 million forfeiture judgement.
After Shkreli was forced to sell the album, the original buyers were kept hidden from the public, with the sale being handled by NYC based lawyer, Peter Coolidge, who revealed that he has been one of the very few to listen to the project.
It didn’t disappoint at all. It was pretty reminiscent of the ‘90s stuff. The first album was really good. All the first solo albums were good, like, Return to the 36 Chambers, Liquid Swords, Ironman, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, whatever,” he said. “And then they did some albums after that, that were perhaps not their best work. But this is like, up there with the best stuff.
Now, the new owners of the suis generis album have been revealed to be NFT investment collective, PleasrDAO. The group revealed itself as the anonymous entity that purchased the album from the federal government in July for a reported $4 million.
While Shkreli clashed with Wu Tang Clan almost immediately after purchasing the album, the new owners — who specialize in digitized art — may have more consumer-friendly plans in mind. While the album comes with a ton of contractual limitations (It can’t be commercially released until 2103; it can’t be remixed or recorded; and it can’t be played in front of large audiences, streamed, or even broadcast online), PleasrDAO Chief Pleasing Officer, Jamis Johnson, revealed to Rolling Stone plans to “bring the album back to the people.” With plans to curate listening parties throughout the world that will allow the general public a chance to hear the
They bonded together to form a collective more powerful than any individual had on their own. Fuck these middlemen for taking all the money that should be going to the artists perfectly aligns with the ethos of crypto.
Despite the limitations imposed on the album, PleasrDAO believe they have the same interests of the Clan, who began to encourage the album being made available on a wider scale as their dissatisfaction with Shkreli grew.
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