Wu-Tang Clan selling ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ as NFT
The Metaverse has been a rising force in merchandise sales, and a slew of MCs have been using the emerging, new digital landscapes. From Snoop Dogg to Dr Dre, a lot of people are selling exclusive products as NFTs. Now, the Wu-Tang Clan have decided to sell their one-dic album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin as an NFT.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are encrypted and precious digital assets like art pieces, exclusive music, or videos that are not accessible to anybody except those who either partially or fully own them.
Once Upon A Time In Shaolin is a single-copy album the Wu-Tang Clan worked on the LP for six years and was pressed onto a single disc, put in an ornate Oriental-inspired box, and immediately stored in a vault at the Royal Mansour Hotel in Marrakech.
The highly sought-after album is currently the centre of a lawsuit after its original owner, Martin Shkreli, allegedly pirated the music, reducing the disc’s value. That said, its new owner, the company PleasrDAO, has “digitized and encrypted” the project.
Purchasing the NFT of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin gives people partial access to the project in the form of an album sampler and brings the album’s public release 88 seconds closer to the present. Currently, the album will be available to the public in October of the year 2103.
Partial ownership of the NFT is $1, and the token can be bought at www.thealbum.com. As a result of Martin Shkreli’s actions, who pirated the material, RZA and Cilvaringz released a press statement reading, “Mass replication has fundamentally changed the way we view a piece of recorded music.”
With additional comments from a PleasrDAO representative, it continued, “This album sale is more than just about the music; it’s about redefining how we think about ownership of music and fan collaboration in the digital age.”