An album secretly recorded by the hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan is slated to be part of an exhibition at Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona). The most expensive record ever sold was designed to be a work of fine art.
Titled Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, it was recorded in Staten Island, New York, and produced in Marrakech between 2006 and 2013. It includes the nine surviving members of the group, and features Cher and Game of Thrones actress Carice van Houten. There is only one CD in existence.
The revolutionary hip-hop band, formed in Staten Island in the early 1990s, is known for their violent and sexually explicit lyrics conveying the trauma of African American experience with levity. Believing that online streaming and piracy has cheapened the value of music, Wu-Tang Clan decided to create an album as a unique commodity.
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Once Upon a Time in Shaolin includes an ornate hand-carved nickel box and a leather-bound manuscript, complete with lyrics and a certificate of authenticity. The piece comes with the legal condition that the 31 included tracks cannot be released by the owner for 88 years.
As part of Mona’s “Namedropping” exhibition, small listening parties will be able to listen to a 30-minute curated sample of the album.
“Every once in a while, an object on this planet possesses mystical properties that transcend its material circumstances,” Mona’s director of curatorial affairs Jarrod Rawlins told the BBC. “‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ is more than just an album, so… I knew I had to get it into this exhibition.”
Until now, only a handful of people had heard some of the songs on the album, including a group of potential buyers and media when the album was up for sale in 2015.
Disgraced drug firm executive Martin Shkreli bought the album for $2 million and streamed snippets on YouTube to celebrate the presidential election of Donald Trump in 2016. In 2018 the album was handed over to US prosecutors after Shkreli was convicted for defrauding investors. Digital art collective Pleasr purchased and still owns the album.
Mona has produced a number of provocative exhibitions, including its “Ladies Lounge,” which has since become the subject of an antidiscrimination case.