The business history of Wu-Tang Clan's Once Upon A Time in Shaolin is as unusual as the album itself. Disgraced pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli purchased the only physical copy at auction in 2015, but the album cannot be commercially released until 2103. After Shkreli's conviction, the US government seized the album and later sold it in 2021 to PleasrDAO, a crypto art collective known for acquiring high-profile digital and physical assets.
PleasrDAO has since allowed the album to be played at special exhibitions, and a recent episode of the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out featured a listening party held with the collective. At that event, Wu-Tang member Method Man heard the album for the first time and offered a measured review: "I do not hate this album." Two short snippets from the recording were played during the podcast.
For business observers, the album represents a curious asset class: a unique, non-commercializable piece of music whose value depends entirely on scarcity, legal restrictions, and cultural intrigue. Its ownership chain—from a pharma executive to federal authorities to a crypto collective—illustrates how unconventional assets can move through markets, courts, and new digital-native organizations.