Wu-Tang Clan Gets $5 Million Bid for Single-Pressing Album, RZA Claims
Although Wu-Tang Clan are releasing a new album, A Better Tomorrow, this year, they’re getting more attention for another LP of theirs: The Wu – Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, a record only being pressed as a single copy. The album contains 31 Wu wonders that have never seen the light of day. When the group announced the double LP, rapper RZA likened its rareness to the “scepter of an Egyptian king.” Accordingly, he’s now saying that the group has received multi-million dollar offers for it, Billboard reports.
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“Offers came in at $2 million, somebody offered $5 million yesterday,” he told the magazine. “I’ve been getting a lot of emails – some from people I know, some from people I don’t know, and they’re also emailing other members of my organization.”
To date, the $5 million bid has been the highest and the producer called the experience of offering up a relic-like record “real positive” so far. But before the album makes its way to its final home in some deep-pocketed fan’s gilded hip-hop mansion on a hill, it will be on the road. Wu-Tang intend to show off the album, which the group recorded in secret over the past six years, at museums, galleries and festivals. At these stops, proletariats and the bourgeoisie will be able to enjoy the record and its myriad guest appearances by the likes of Redman and the FC Barcelona team, though they’ll have to wear headphones in an effort to stymie bootlegging.
“The main theme is music being accepted and respected as art and being treated as such,” RZA told Billboard. “If something is rare, it’s rare. You cannot get another.”