Martin Shkreli, the infamous “Pharma-Bro” convicted of security fraud in 2017, has responded to a recent lawsuit filed against him over Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. On Tuesday (June 11), the company suing him, PleasrDAO, tweeted about its intention to allow as many Wu-Tang fans as possible to finally hear the nearly-mythical album.
“Our master plan is to release the music to the public in a way that honors the Wu-Tang Clan and gets them paid while circumventing the streaming oligopoly,” the company wrote. “Every action we are taking is in service of that mission.”
The company believes Shkreli made a copy of the one-of-a-kind album and is suing him for the alleged breach. Shkreli quickly fired back, “e#########, they got paid, multiple times.”
Our master plan is to release the music to the public in a way that honors the Wu-Tang Clan and gets them paid while circumventing the streaming oligopoly; every action we are taking is in service of that mission.
— ✨ Pleasr (@PleasrDAO) June 11, 2024
According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop, PleasrDAO—the current owner of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin—accuses Shkreli of violating a forfeiture order and diminishing the project’s value.
“The album was supposed to constitute the sole existing copy of the record, music, data and files and packaging,” PleasrDAO’s lawyers wrote. “It now appears, however, that Shkreli improperly retained copies of the data and files at the time of the forfeiture and has released and/or intends to release them to the public.
“Such actions would cause PleasrDAO to incur significant monetary and irreparable harm, and give rise to numerous claims for relief under the forfeiture order and common law.”
PleasrDAO cited several examples of Shkreli, who bought the album in 2015, admitting to copying the album on social media. Following his 2017 conviction, he was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to forfeit $7.4 million in 2018. The Wu-Tang album was used to to partially satisfy the forfeiture money judgment.
Fans willing to fly to Australia have a chance to hear the album. The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart acquired the album on loan from PleasrDAO for exhibition “Namedropping,” which aims to “explore status, celebrity and notoriety.”
MONA will hold free, ticketed listening sessions from June 15-24, where members of the public can hear a “curated” 30-minute mix of the album, played from a personalized Wu-Tang PlayStation 1 inside MONA’s recording studio, Frying Pan.
Part of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was also available to hear in New York City on June 8—now it’s heading Down Under.