Method Man finally heard his verses on the infamous, single-copy Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, confronting a decade of secrecy that left him deeply ambivalent about the project’s origins.
The Staten Island rapper sat down in Brooklyn with journalist Pablo Torre for an episode of the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out. Recorded in secret between 2007 and 2013 by producer Cilvaringz and RZA, the 31-track double-CD was housed in a hand-carved silver-nickel box with leather-bound liner notes. The project aimed to bring value back to music after the Internet had taken so much of it away by pressing only a single physical copy. Instead of hitting traditional record stores, the unique artifact followed a chaotic, high-stakes trajectory.
From Pharma Bro to Federal Seizure and Crypto Collective
The album first entered public notoriety in 2015 when pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli purchased the double-disc at an auction for $2 million. Legal stipulations barred commercial exploitation of the music for 88 years. Shkreli later gained broader infamy as “Pharma bro” for drastically inflating the price of the drug Darapin by 5,000 percent, before federal authorities arrested him for securities fraud.
Method Man Finally Hears Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ for the First Time: Here’s How He Reactedhttps://t.co/HSZKPkVyAf
Following Shkreli’s conviction, the U.S. government seized the album as part of a $7.3 million forfeiture judgment. In September 2021, the art collective PleasrDAO acquired the artifact for $4 million. The turbulent journey of the record is detailed further in the documentary The Disciple: A Wu-Tang Fable, which premiered on Friday, Oct. 16.
Method Man had previously spoken out against the album’s secretive distribution strategy in March 2015. Yet, sitting in the Brooklyn listening session, he evaluated the music itself with an open mind.
Yes, to be honest. Yes. You got to accept that. Even though it’s negative, you got to accept that. Because you know what? Look, maybe there was something negative in it anyway.
Weighing the Nostalgia Against the Process
Method Man admitted he still carries a chip on his shoulder regarding the secretive rollout. Yet he conceded that the actual sound of the record surpassed his initial expectations.
I can see why people would like it. I can see why some people would love it,
Method Man said on the podcast. For me, it had a few nostalgic moments on there; I don’t know if that’s good or bad. You could tell that he was emulating RZA’s sound as much as possible, to the point that it got a little mimicky, even the last joint. A bit long sometimes, but that’s what producers do. Like ‘look what I did.’ But all in all, I don’t hate this album.
Method Man specifically highlighted the contributions of his peers, stating that producer Cilvaringz got lucky with a lot of them darts because they are so good,
while adding a critique that fellow group member Raekwon could have skipped the final track. The episode also treated listeners to a snippet of a track featuring a smooth verse from Meth himself: Never tell on your team or take shorts when you’re selling the beans/ Catch a body that’s a felony thing and every dream starts with C.R.E.A.M. that’s on everything.
While the exact duration of Method Man’s listening session remains unclear—with the rapper noting he was not sitting down to listen to two hours of anything
—his verdict on the current custodians of the physical artifact brought a measure of closure to a decade of friction.
It was done under false pretenses. Maybe there would’ve been more of an effort on my part if I knew what it was going to be, and I felt like I was robbed of that,
Method Man said. I believe Cilvaringz did his thing, and I believe now that Shkreli’s out of the picture, this album is in good hands.
