The saga of Wu-Tang Clan's secret album Once Upon A Time in Shaolin appears to have come to a close. The secret one-of-a-kind album has been sold to a "private American collector" for the price of "millions." Despite its sale, as previously reported, the VERY limited edition album won't be reproduced commercially for another 88 years.
According to Forbes, the sale was completed in May, but it took months to get all of the paperwork completed. The sale was handled by upstart, online only auction house Paddle8. The double-album's backups have been destroyed, leaving the sole copy.
"The Wu-Tang Clan have always been driven by innovation, and this marks another moment in musical history," said Wu-Tang cofounder RZA in the statement via Forbes. "From the beginning, we hoped that this concept would inspire debate and new ways of seeing creativity. Both of those goals have been achieved, and the ideas continue to evolve."
RZA added that a portion of the album's proceeds would go to charity.
Wu-Tang shared snippets of the album during a paid MOMA listening party earlier this year, but that was the only opportunity for fans to get a listen to this museum piece of an album.
An exact amount of the sale has not been shared, but Paddle8 says it is the most expensive single album ever sold, topping Jack White's purchase of a rare acetate recording of Elvis' first song.
The album contains 31 songs, skits and stories and clocks in at 128 minutes.
In addition to the sleek album, the buyer also receives a very special way to listen to this work because you can't pay all of this money to listen to something like this on apple ear buds.
According to Pigeons and Planes, "The hand-carved nickel silver box designed by Yahya, a gold-leafed certificate of authenticity and a leather-bound book containing the album's lyrics and stories behind each song, [and] an addition that had not been previously announced: a pair of customized PMC MB2-XBD speakers worth $55,000, included after consultation with PMC."
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