Wu-Tang’s Once Upon A Time in Shaolin album has, for the most part, been extremely difficult to listen to, but you can now hear two snippets of the album thanks to the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out, which just published an episode all about the exclusive record.
Once Upon A Time in Shaolin has a long history, which Pablo Torre Finds Out goes into in detail. Disgraced pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli bought the only copy of the album, which cannot be commercially released until 2103, in 2015 at auction. Shkreli had to forfeit the album to the US government, and the government sold it in 2021 to the crypto art collective PleasrDAO, which has allowed it to be played at special exhibitions.
Pablo Torre Finds Out, working with PleasrDAO, hosted a listening party for the album where they played it for Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man, who had never heard it up until that point. The podcast recorded the event and Method Man’s reaction, and you can hear two snippets from the album at 32:30 and 39:02 during the show.
Method Man’s review? “I do not hate this album.”
