Wu-Tang Clan’s Nearly-Mythical “Once Upon A Time In Shaolin” Album Saga Continues

The saga of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin has endured many different chapters. The nearly-mythical album was secretly recorded between 2007 and 2013—but only one physical copy exists.

A single two-CD copy was pressed in 2014 and stored in a secured vault at the Royal Mansour Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco, then auctioned through Paddle8 auction house the following. year. A legal agreement with the purchaser stipulated that the album couldn’t be commercially exploited for 88 years (2103), although it can be played at listening parties.

Former Turning Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli—or “Pharma Bro” as he was often referred to in the media—was the winning bidder at $2 million. RZA explained the sale was complete before Shkreli’s controversial price hike of the anti-infective agent Daraprim. After learning Shkreli was behind the purchase, RZA said Cilvaringz and the Wu-Tang Clan donated a “significant portion” of the proceeds to charity, including the Children’s Literacy Society, the Hip-Hop Chess Federation and TTAC, an institution focused on showcasing alternative cures for cancer.

In January 2016, Shkreli promised he’d release the album for free if Donald Trump won the 2016 U.S. presidential election—which he did. After Trump was elected, Shkreli streamed excerpts of the album online. Shkreli then attempted to sell Once Upon a Time in Shaolin on eBay in September 2017, with the winning bid passing $1 million. But Shkreli was incarcerated on unrelated fraud counts before the sale could be finalized. RZA attempted to buy the album back, but he was contractually unable to at the time.

“I’ve actually tried to get it back but the paperwork and the contract stops me from getting it back,” he explained to Rolling Stone. “When [Shkreli] put it on eBay, the first thing I did was call my lawyer, and I was like, ‘Yo, let’s go.’ And they said, ‘All right, check with your contract.’ And it’s no, you can’t do it. Ain’t that a b####?”

Following Shkreli’s securities fraud conviction, a federal court seized Once Upon a Time in Shaolin along with his other assets. In July 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice sold it to non-fungible token collectors PleasrDAO for $4 million to cover his debts.

#Breaking Wu-Tang Clan album secured. https://t.co/ku1enESCRi

— ✨ PleasrDAO (@PleasrDAO) October 20, 2021

But according to Wu-Tang Clan affiliate LA The Darkman, who appears on Once Upon a Time Shaolin not once but three times, the story continues. Speaking to AllHipHop to promote the reissue of his debut album, 1998’s Heist of the Century, LA The Darkman talked about the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang album, his forthcoming Heist of the Century sequel and how it feels to be flying the Wu-Tang flag again.

AllHipHop: How does it feel to be waving the Wu flag again?

LA The Darkman: It feels beautiful. I feel like it’s a new Ferrari. Like Ferraris have already always been dope and the design of a Ferrari has always been dope, but I think I’m designing the new Ferrari. 2024 is amazing. Here we come. The music gives me chills, so I know it’s right. We got some s### that’s giving me chills and it’s from the producers of the Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Are you familiar with the auction album that’s never been heard?

You have no idea how deep I got into that [laughs]. 

I’m featured on that album three times. What I’m doing now with the producers of that album, which is RZA and Cilvaringz, they’re producing a whole Darkman album. I’m gonna bring you Darkman and Shaolin from the same producers and it’s gonna be a movie that you will be able to hear. That’s kind of that’s what I’m what I’m gearing up to do. It’s like a Wu-Tang Killer Beez project. 

What happened to Once Upon a Time in Shaolin? 

They auctioned it and took it from Martin Shkreli, but when they took him to jail, the feds auctioned it off again. A new buyer just purchased it for $5 million. The new buyer is trying to figure out how to let the world hear it. So we’re going through ideas of ways that the world will be able to hear it from the new buyer. 

But $5 million? That’s amazing.

It sold for $3 or $4 million the first time and then $5 million the second time. So it actually sold for more.

 

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A post shared by La The Darkman aka L.A.D (@thelathedarkman)

So you’re on that three times?

Yeah, I’m on it three times. We’re actually working out some logistics for it right now to be heard. And if it can’t be heard, like I said, I’m gearing up another project, which will be a similar project that the world can hear. But the new buyer is trying to figure out ways that he can let the world hear it.

Are you OK with that? 

Of course! I want the world to hear it. If the world hears this music, it will be bone shattering. This music is so banging. It’s some of the bangingest music Wu-Tang has ever done. For real, let me tell you. It was a lot of different opinions, but I’m going to give you the real one: that music is bone shattering. Triumph worthy. It was put together organically. It wasn’t cut and paste. If y’all can’t hear that, wait ’til you hear this music I’m putting together. It’s a movie.

Do you have any plans for a release date? 

Gotta be this year. I’m planning on releasing like three projects this year. One of them is Heist of the Century 2. 

Oh really? So a sequel?

Yeah, that’s in the works also. The Darkman/Wu-Tang project is in the works. I don’t know what we’re going to name it. I don’t have a name, but I’m going through titles. 

What do you think lit the fire under your ass again, for lack of a better phrase?

Oh, damn, that’s a good one. I think I just was having so much fun with that, that I really wasn’t even thinking about LA the Darkman per se. I was just doing Lason Jackson. And people really don’t understand that I was doing more Lason Jackson than LA The Darkman. I was building other people’s careers and now I feel like I could do the same thing I did for others again for myself. It’s one of those things that was just like, “OK, let’s go full circle.” I started this way and I came this way and I built the company and the corporation. I built other artists. I made sure other artists were on and they’re household names. Now, let’s go back and do LA The Darkman again. 

It’s your turn.

I’ve been told a few times that I have the energy of 2Pac. Before I did my album, I was supposed to sign with Interscope. This is another story that’s never been told. Before I went independent, I got Navarre Distribution to distribute my first album. Navarre was a rock label distribution. They had never done Hip-Hop. The only hip-hop they done was me and Nate Dogg’s solo album. Before I got the deal with Navarre, I was supposed to sign with Jimmy Iovine. I met with Jimmy Iovine and Interscope. They offered me $700,000 for the Heist of the Century, but Navarre ended up giving me $1.3 million. 

So you went with Navarre? 

I went with Navarre. But Jimmy Iovine and his lawyer told me the passion that they hear me rap with reminded them of 2Pac. This is what him and the lawyer said to my face. When I did DJ Mugg’s “Devil in a Blue Dress” single with Soul Assassins, Muggs said he’d never seen nobody write a song and record a song this fast since 2Pac. I came in the studio, picked the beat right on the spot, wrote the rap right on the spot, went in the booth, laid it right on the spot. Everybody else took the beat home, needed a week, needed some days, whatever. This is what Muggs said, so I’ve been referred to as fast as 2Pac twice. I’m one of the fastest writers in the Clan. I’ve never said this before neither, but it’s RZA, Raekwon and me. I think me, RZA and Raekwon probably will have to have a duel. 

I don’t know if you know this story, but a couple songs that are on the Wu-Tang Forever album that sold 10 million copies were supposed to be on Heist of the Century. I composed “Cash Still Rules/Scary Hours.” That song and “Winter Wars” was supposed to be on Heist of the Century, but Raekwon and RZA asked me for the song, so I ended up giving it to them.

That just shows you what a family you guys are though. I am anxious to see what you guys do together. 

Oh, it’s going to be insane.