RZA admitted his regret about selling Wu-Tang Clan‘s controversial, one-and-only compact disc copy of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin to Martin Shkreli in a Hot 97 radio interview on Wednesday.
“It was in the wrong hands in reality,” RZA said. “He made the deal before it was revealed of his character, his personality, and all of the insidious things he would go on to do. That wasn’t the guy I met, but he definitely unfolded into that guy.”
Last week, crypto collective PleasrDAO purchased the CD at a government auction, which had previously been seized from “pharma bro” Shkreli who had purchased it directly from RZA for $2 million in 2015. The pharmaceutical executive, Shkreli, was sentenced to prison on securities fraud and charges three years later.
“Now that PleasrDAO has it, there’s an opportunity that a lot these beautiful ideas of what this art can be and how it could expand itself in the world and in its own life of itself, I think the possibilities are there now,” RZA said.
Rolling Stone released a feature revealing the details of the $4 million purchase by PleasrDAO last week. The crypto collective’s Chief Pleasing Officer, Jamis Johnson, told RS of purchasing the CD: “We want this to be us bringing this back to the people. We want fans to participate in this album at some level.”
