Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well.

It's time for a bit of an interesting update on the most insane and expensive album, known to man. You guessed it, we're talking about the seventh full-length album from the legendary hip hop outfit, Wu-Tang Klan, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.

If you remember the storied history of this record, it was released about 10 years ago. A single copy was printed, the expectation being that there could be no additional copies or any public dissemination of the album until the year 2103. And like one could predict, complete pandemonium ensued due to the decision to release the album in this fashion.

We've done content on this channel before about what happened to the record immediately after it was sold. It pretty much ended up in the filthy grimy pause of widely hated "Pharma Bro," Martin Shkreli. Then eventually, after his troubles with the law landed him in jail, the record was in the hands of the Department of Justice. Since then, it has been sold off to some Crypto Bros and NFT people that go by the name of PleasrDAO.

Either way, since the album was sold off to them of news and information on this album, it has pretty much been quiet. Things have really been laying dormant until now. Because this NFT group has recently been super active on Twitter posting about the record, and they've released a new manifesto and plan for it. They released a super dramatic and well-edited trailer for the album and this plan over here, which you can see below.

It comes along with the tweet, "The world's most expensive album is available for $1. Enter the chamber and secure a copy - 2103 will come faster than you think."

There have since been many other posts and announcements, but most notably this manifesto here:

pic.twitter.com/TAcMqsDAg3

— ✨ Pleasr (@PleasrDAO) June 13, 2024

There is, in fact, a clock for the album now. As well, there's actually a leaderboard on the website, too, talking about the thousands of people who have put in money for this record.

There are some platforms reporting on this, that a dollar brings down the clock by 88 seconds. In order to completely clear out the clock, the money collected needs to total up to $28 million, which, Pleasr claims on Twitter that the money is going to be split among all the artists involved in the project.

I mean, we have also talked quite a bit about NFTs generally and how they haven't necessarily had the best go of it in the art scene with all sorts of scams and rug pulls and whatnot. Even PleasrDAO, currently on their Twitter page, has put up a few posts about scammers, making rip off Twitter accounts advertising the same thing, trying to collect money off of unsuspecting people who also want to have access to the album.

This whole NFT thing is still to this day not very well regulated, which is why I do want to explicitly say, while I am talking about this and I do find the progression of where this album has landed very interesting. I absolutely, positively don't support this method of trying to unlock the record for everybody. I'm just worried about the various potentially skeevy things that could happen between point A, collecting money for the album, and point B, releasing the album for everyone to hear.

Again, while I do find this interesting, and it is most certainly news, do not take this video as an endorsement or encouragement on my part to tell you, "Hey, go throw a bunch of your money in trying to unlock the Wu-Tang album." And if you do watch this video and then go and decide to do that, I wish you all the luck in the world. And I don't say this to make fun of anybody or attack anybody or piss in anybody's cereal or anything like that. I'm just merely skeptical of anything having to do with this world, especially considering the multiple times and ways in which it has intertwined with music very negatively.

For a minute, I was resting easy and breathing a sigh of relief because more or less trying to rip off music fans using coins, using NFTs, using things like that. It died down and washed out with the tide, and I'm afraid of something like this bringing it back. That seems to be the current possible process by which this record could potentially make it into everyone's hands. I guess we will just have to wait and see if that actually happens.

I want to close up this article talking about the intentions behind this record and the lessons that have been learned in the process of this. Because while, yes, it is very valid for Wu-Tang to be pissed off about the lowering value of music due to piracy, due to the music streaming era, seems it's getting harder and harder and harder than ever to actually make money off of your actual music. And devising a album release that would actually get the artists paid for real. In concept, it's most definitely a commendable effort. I can't really knock the intentions behind what RZA and company were doing on this one. But putting out the record in this way, I feel like has come along with a lot of other much worse lessons.

The cautionary tale behind this album has much less now to do with whether or not artists should get paid and more to do with our culture collectively as a society being so easily purchased and bought up and exploited by the richest and most greedy and most opportunistic around us. Because now, the record is being owned and exploited and used by people that don't even really give a fuck about it, like Martin Shkreli. And while now it's hard to make the same assessments of this new NFT group as we have on Shkreli, still, there is a level of weird exploitation going on here, using the record as an opportunity to draw attention to their brand, to their site.

As a result of that, the conversation ends up being less about getting artists paid, artists who don't have the brand recognition of Wu-Tang clan and don't have the ability to drop one single album with one single copy of it and get a fat payday out of it. Because how does the lesson of what's going on here ripple out into an effect that positively impacts everybody else who's trying to make a buck off their music?

The dichotomy of this whole situation is more one of haves and have-nots. Do you have the fame and clout and cultural recognition that would allow you to drop an album in this fashion and get paid tons of money? Sorry, if not, you're fucked. Do you have the money to be able to buy such an album so you can actually hear it for yourself? Well, if not, you're double fucked.

So again, while in one breath, I can respect the intentions under which this This record was released. And obviously, back in 2013, RZA and company could not foresee this whole NFT thing. That obviously happened pretty far down the road. It's just funny, sad, and unfortunate that things have wound up in the spot that they are. I think for now, I'm going to leave it there.

Anthony Fantano, Wu-Tang Clan, NFTs, Internet, Forever.