Method Man Isn’t a Fan of the Rare Wu-Tang Clan Album

Method Man has described the controversy surrounding the rare Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin as a “circus spectacle.”

In a candid interview with Vanity Fair, Method Man voiced his dissatisfaction and discomfort regarding the infamous album. Describing the album’s saga as a “circus spectacle,” he shed light on the complexities and misunderstandings that have plagued the record since its inception.

Once Upon a Time in Shaolin has been embroiled in controversy for years, including being purchased by “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli in 2015 for $2 million. After Shkreli’s legal troubles, the US government seized and later auctioned it to PleasrDAO for $4.75 million in 2021. Recently, PleasrDAO took legal action against Shkreli, alleging he retained copies of the album and played it online, leading to a temporary restraining order against him.

Method Man stated that the album was pieced together by an unnamed financier using a mix of old and new verses without the group’s full consent or knowledge, marketed falsely as a Wu-Tang project. “I thought it was some circus spectacle,” he remarked.

“I never really spoke to RZA about it; it’s an uncomfortable subject to most of the guys, so we don’t really discuss it too much. The process of the thing being made was never told to us. We were never told what it was.

“It was never supposed to be a Wu-Tang album. We were recording and being paid to do a certain amount of records by a guy whose name I don’t want to mention. He took all these verses—some of them were old verses—and put them altogether into a compilation of Wu-Tang songs and marketed it as a Wu-Tang album, and a single copy of a Wu-Tang album. We all had a problem with it because that’s not how it was described to us.”

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