The sale of the only copy of an album for $2m is a reminder that canny rappers understood the artistic value of the original and the authentic
When Martin Shkreli was convicted of fraud in 2017, the authorities ordered him to give up his assets, which included a Picasso, a share-trading account and the only existing copy of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, a double album by the American hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan. This week an anonymous buyer purchased the record to clear the disgraced pharmaceutical executive’s remaining $2.2m debt to the US government and committed to Wu-Tang Clan’s stipulation that it not be released commercially until 2103.
The sale is a testament to both the artists and their art. The rap group – RZA, GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, U-God, Masta Killa and sometimes Cappadonna – emerged in the 1990s and challenged hip-hop’s aesthetic principles and its business model. With interests in martial arts, philosophy and mystical Islam, their wordplay set them apart. On their 1997 track Triumph, Inspectah Deck raps “I bomb atomically, Socrates’ philosophies and hypotheses / Can’t define how I be dropping these mockeries”.