'Valid Piece of Art'
Rapper listens to the infamous, formerly "pharma bro"-owned Once Upon a Time in Shaolin on Pablo Torre Finds Out and shares his thoughts on the LP
Method Man listened to the Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for the first time — and delivered his opinion on the now-infamous, one-copy-only album — on the latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out.
For years, the story behind 2015’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin has overshadowed the music, which fans weren’t supposed to hear for 88 years: The brainchild of RZA and his protege Cilvaringz (who handled most of the production), the album, originally envisioned as a museum piece, was auctioned off for $2 million to “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, who eventually lost ownership of the album when the government seized it among Shkreli’s assets in a securities fraud case.
The government sold it at auction for $4 million to digital art collective PleasrDAO in 2021. The artist whose work kickstarted the PleasrDAO collective was a listener of Pablo Torre Finds Out and, upon being made aware of Torre and Method Man’s friendship, offered to broker a listening session for the rapper, who had never heard the LP.
Method Man was perhaps the Wu member who was most critical of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and considered the one-copy-only and 88-year wait as stunts that only depreciated the music and his own contribution to the album. Method Man was especially harsh toward Cilvaringz, who the rapper considered a “B member” of the Clan.
However, after hearing the album for the first time during a Brooklyn listening session, Method Man changed his tune. “I could see why people will like this album, and I could see why people will love this album,” Method Man said. “I don’t hate it.”
The rapper was also complimentary of Cilvaringz’s contribution, saying that “the production is on par with some of the stuff that RZA used to do back in the day … I’m gonna give him his props on this one. And I’m gonna validate, this is a valid piece of art right here.”
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While the general public has still not heard Once Upon a Time in Shaolin in its entirety, Pablo Torre Finds Out shared two Method Man-centric clips from the LP. As for what Method Man “found out” in the episode, “We found out that album isn’t as bad as I expected it to be.”
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which is still embroiled in legal issues over whether Shkreli illegally copied the one-copy-only album, is also the focus of the documentary The Disciple which (coincidentally?) premiered on Netflix today.