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Wu-Tang Clan & The Rarest Album In The World
RnB/Hip Hop | Friday 28th March 2014 | Michael
The Clan have never shied away from controversy; from their eclectic and unmatched musical styles, to feuds with Biggie Smalls, G-Unit and Slaughterhouse, to the late ODB’s arrests for assault, robbery, and drug possession. The New York hip-hop collective have always taken the headlines, but their most recent announcement will surely steal the show: their new album will drop later this year, but only a single copy will be made.
The 31-track double-album, entitled Once Upon A Time in Shaolin, has been recorded in secret under producer Cilvaringz and has been in progress since the late 2000s. In a recent Forbes interview, RZA stated “We’re about to put out a piece of art like nobody else has done in the history of music. We’re making a single-sale collector’s item. This is like somebody having the scepter of an Egyptian king.” The unique record is to be held within a hand-carved box in a Moroccan vault until it is ready to meet the world. However, this will be no conventional release.
Wu-Tang plan to take the album on a tour through un-confirmed galleries, venues, festivals and museums in a series of high-security exhibitions, carefully orchestrated to ensure there is no recording or duplication. Once the showcase is complete the record will be put up for sale - most likely for millions of dollars - and left to the fate of its owner: keep it, leak it, sell it or destroy it. RZA explained that as music is increasingly “devalued and diminished to almost the point that it has been given away for free,” its treatment as art has been compromised and undermined. Once Upon A Time In Shaolin will aim to redefine music as an art-form and reshape the value of the L.P. in today’s digital markets.
This new venture may or may not revolutionize the future of music, initiating potential new models of privatized commissions, digital boycott and musical exclusivity. Regardless, Wu-Tang Clan’s intentions and the importance of this album will resonate for a long, long time.
Mike Pickering - @mike_pickering
