Once Upon a Time in Shaolin

Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is the seventh studio album by the American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. Only one copy was created, with no ability to download or stream it. Purchased directly from the Wu-Tang Clan in 2015, it became the most expensive work of music ever sold.

The album was recorded in secret over six years. A single two-CD copy was pressed in 2014 and stored in a secured vault at the Royal Mansour Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, then auctioned through auction house Paddle8 in 2015. A legal agreement with the purchaser stipulated that the album cannot be commercially exploited until 2103, although it can be played at listening parties.

The winning bidder was Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who paid a reported $2 million. In March 2018, following Shkreli's conviction for securities fraud, a federal court seized assets belonging to him, including Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. In July 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice sold it to the non-fungible token collectors PleasrDAO for $4 million to cover Shkreli's debts; PleasrDAO said they hoped to make it more widely accessible.

The first public exhibition of the album began in June 2024 at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania. That month, Shkreli livestreamed the album on X, triggering a lawsuit from PleasrDAO. PleasrDAO also began selling partial ownership of the album as an NFT, with each purchase accelerating the release by 88 seconds.

Recording
Wu-Tang Clan began working on Once Upon a Time in Shaolin in the late 2000s with producer Cilvaringz. It took about six years to complete, and was recorded in secret, mostly in Staten Island, New York, and produced in Marrakech, Morocco. It features the entire Wu-Tang Clan, plus the rapper Redman, the Wu-Tang Killa Beez, FC Barcelona soccer players, the actress Carice van Houten and two appearances from Cher.

Release
Inspired by musical patronage during the Renaissance, the Wu-Tang producer Cilvaringz decided to create Once Upon a Time in Shaolin as an art object. Feeling the value of music had been cheapened by streaming and online piracy, he and RZA hoped to return music to the value of fine art. They wrote on their website:

"The music industry is in crisis. The intrinsic value of music has been reduced to zero. Contemporary art is worth millions by virtue of its exclusivity ... By adopting a 400 year old Renaissance-style approach to music, offering it as a commissioned commodity and allowing it to take a similar trajectory from creation to exhibition to sale ... we hope to inspire and intensify urgent debates about the future of music."

Wu-Tang deleted the master files of the album. A single copy, on two CDs, is held in a silver jewel-encrusted box with a wax Wu-Tang Clan seal and leather-bound liner notes. On March 3, 2015, the box was detained at JFK Airport for three hours while border control determined its contents. In March 2015, Wu-Tang Clan exhibited the album to a crowd of about 150 art collectors, dealers and critics in Queens, New York. Attendees were searched for recording devices. About 13 minutes of the album were played to the audience.

Purchase by Martin Shkreli (2015)
Once Upon A Time In Shaolin was auctioned through Paddle8 in 2015, which had previously sold works by artists including Jeff Koons, Julian Schnabel, and Damien Hirst. Legal agreements stipulated that it could not be commercially exploited for 88 years, although it could be released free or played at listening parties. According to RZA, the number eight was symbolic as there were eight original members of the Wu-Tang Clan, the numbers of the year 2015 add up to eight, Paddle8 has eight in its name, and a rotated eight is the symbol for infinity, used on their second album, Wu-Tang Forever. The auction gained significant attention, and an unfounded rumor spread online that the purchase agreement stipulated that members of the Wu-Tang Clan, or the actor Bill Murray, would be allowed one attempt at stealing the record back in a heist.

The winning bid was accepted on May 3, 2015, followed by months of legal diligence. The sale was completed on August 26, 2015, to a private individual for an unspecified amount. On December 9, Bloomberg Businessweek identified the buyer as Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli, who had paid $2 million. It became the most expensive work of music ever sold. RZA said that the sale was agreed before Shkreli's controversial price hike of the anti-infective agent Daraprim. According to RZA, after learning the buyer's identity, Cilvaringz and the Wu-Tang Clan donated a "significant portion" of the proceeds to charity, including the Children's Literacy Society, the Hip Hop Chess Federation, and TTAC, an institution focused on showcasing alternative cures for cancer.

In January 2016, Shkreli told Vice that he had considered destroying the record or "installing it in some remote place so that people have to make a spiritual quest to listen". He promised to release the album free if Donald Trump won the 2016 US presidential election. In November, after Trump was elected, Shkreli streamed excerpts online.

In September 2017, Shkreli attempted to sell Once Upon a Time in Shaolin on the online auction site eBay, with the winning bid passing $1m. He was incarcerated on unrelated fraud counts before the sale could be completed. RZA disapproved of the sale, and said: "I think he could have got more than what he paid. I was actually impressed that within eight days he got up to $1m in bidding ... If it had been left a bit longer, no telling how far it would have gone." RZA hoped to buy it himself, but was contractually unable to.

Purchase by PleasrDAO (2021)
In March 2018, following Shkreli's conviction for securities fraud, a federal court seized assets belonging to him worth $7.36m, including Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. In August 2020, it was announced that Paul Downs Colaizzo was set to direct a film for Netflix based on the story of the album, produced by Plan B Entertainment.

On July 27, 2021, Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced that the US Department of Justice had sold the album in connection with the approximately $7.4 million forfeiture judgment entered against Shkreli at his March 2018 sentencing. In October, the buyer was revealed as PleasrDAO, a group that purchases non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that honor "anti-establishment rebels". PleasrDAO had previously purchased NFTs related to the American whistleblower Edward Snowden and the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. As part of a deal involving multiple parties, including one unidentified party, PleasrDAO purchased the album for $4 million USD.

A PleasrDAO spokesperson, Jamis Johnson, described the purchase as the "ultimate protest against middlemen and rent seekers of musicians and artists", which had been rescued from the hands of Shkreli, "the ultimate internet villain". PleasrDAO hopes to make the album more widely available, but is bound by the restrictions forbidding its release to the general public. Johnson suggested it could be played at listening parties or exhibitions.

Public exhibition and NFTs (2024)
On June 9, 2024, Shkreli livestreamed Once Upon a Time in Shaolin to an audience of approximately five thousand via the social network X. It was the first time it was made available for public listening. PleasrDAO sued Shkreli for playing it without permission, arguing that he had diminished its value. The district judge Pamela Chen issued a temporary restraining order blocking Shkreli from disseminating the album.

The first official exhibition of the album began on June 15, 2024 at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania. Attendees must sign a waiver promising not to record the album, binding until 2103, and are played a 30-minute mix created by Cilvaringz for the exhibition. That month, PleasrDAO began selling partial ownership of the album as an NFT for one US dollar. Each purchase accelerates the release date by 88 seconds and gives the purchaser a five-minute sampler.

Music
Reporting from the exhibition in Queens, Complex described Once Upon a Time in Shaolin as "rich, layered, and sonically bombastic", with a "rugged, hard-hitting sound" reminiscent of early Wu-Tang Clan albums. It begins with "ominous, foreboding" sounds of rain and thunder, before rapper Raekwon begins the first verse. Other sounds include fire sirens, crowd applause, and a marching drum beat. Cher appears twice, as singer and actress, and closes the record with the "belted" words: "Wu-Tang baby, they rock the world".

The Rolling Stone critic Christopher Weingarten wrote that, based on the 13 minutes played in Queens, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin had the potential to become the Wu-Tang Clan's most popular album since 1997. He likened it to the U2 album All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000) and the Metallica album Death Magnetic (2008), and said it "hearkened back to the RZA's glory days" of the mid-1990s. Shkreli played the record during his interview with Vice writer Allie Conti, who said: "From what I heard, it was definitely better than their last album, although I wouldn't say it's worth $2 million necessarily."

The Guardian writer Sian Cain heard the album when it was exhibited in Tasmania in 2024. She wrote that it was "not as thrillingly in your face" as the 1993 debut Enter the Wu-Tang, but was "easily as good" as Wu-Tang Forever (1997), with a more polished sound than both. She concluded: "So as Wu-Tang Clan music goes, it's good. But as a work of art, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is truly great."

Response
Many fans reacted negatively to the news of the single-copy album. The Wu-Tang member Method Man was supportive of the single-copy concept, but spoke out against the 88-year commercial ban, blaming RZA and Cilvaringz. He said: "Fuck that album ... When music can't be music and y'all turning it into something else, fuck that. Give it to the people, if they want to hear the shit, let them have it. Give it away free." RZA replied that the ban was necessary to maintain the integrity of the album as a work of art and to deflect notions of a publicity stunt.

The Guinness Book of Records certified Once Upon a Time in Shaolin as the most valuable album in the world, surpassing records by Elvis Presley and the Beatles. In February 2016, the artist Jason Koza sued RZA, Cilvaringz, Paddle8 and Shkreli in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for the alleged unauthorized use of his artwork on the album. The case was dismissed after Koza was found to have sold prints using the Wu-Tang logo without consent.

PleasrDAO track listing
In April 2024, PleasrDAO published a track listing and partial credits (for the first three tracks of disc one) as part of a promotional video for social media.

Speculative track listings
An official track listing of the album was never revealed, but auction house Paddle8 was given an incomplete list of the working titles of the songs. In 2015, Complex compiled the following track listing, including track durations.

Shaolin School
 * 1) "Entrance (Intro)" – 1:57
 * 2) "Rivals" – 4:12
 * 3) "Staple Town Pt. 1 (Interlude)" – 0:44
 * 4) "Ethiopia" – 7:55
 * 5) "Handkerchief" – 0:49
 * 6) "Staple Town Pt. 2 (Interlude)" – 1:10
 * 7) "The Pillage of '88" – 6:52
 * 8) "Centipedes" – 7:14
 * 9) "The Widow's Tear" – 3:55
 * 10) "Sorrow" – 5:45

Allah School
 * 1) "Sustenance (Intro)" – 0:43
 * 2) "Lions" – 6:08
 * 3) "Since Time Immemorial" – 2:32
 * 4) "The Slaughter Mill" – 6:31
 * 5) "The Brute" – 3:24
 * 6) "Iqra" – 7:23
 * 7) "Flowers" – 5:49
 * 8) "Poisoned Earth" – 4:34
 * 9) "Shaolin" – 6:14
 * 10) "Freedom (Interlude)" – 2:25
 * 11) "The Sword Chamber" – 4:05
 * 12) "Unique" – 2:32
 * 13) "The Bloody Page" – 5:09
 * 14) "The Saga Continues" – 6:58
 * 15) "Salaam (Outro)" – 1:31
 * 16) "Shaolin Soul (Exit)" – 3:41

Personnel
Wu-Tang Clan
 * Cappadonna
 * Ghostface Killah
 * GZA
 * Inspectah Deck
 * Masta Killa
 * Method Man
 * RZA, also co-production
 * Raekwon
 * U-God

Additional personnel
 * Cilvaringz – production
 * Carice van Houten
 * Cher – vocals
 * Killah Priest
 * Killa Sin
 * Streetlife
 * Tekitha
 * LA The Darkman
 * Redman
 * Shyheim
 * Brooklyn Zu
 * Shabazz the Disciple
 * Killarmy
 * Sunz Of Man
 * Blue Raspberry
 * Popa Wu
 * Gravediggaz
 * Vanessa Liftig
 * Ken Lewis – mixing engineer