CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli, is reportedly paying millions of dollars for the Wu-Tang Clan album, One Upon A Time In Shaolin, that was limited to a single pressing.
You may recognize Shkreli as the guy who raised the price of Daraprim, an AIDS and cancer drug from $13.50 to $750 per tablet. He was also noted as a major investor in Collect Records, but was released from doing business with the label after owner Geoff Rickly learned about Shkreli’s deplorable decision to exponentially raise the price of the medicine. It was recently reported that Rickly is now looking for new investors that have a shred of decency.
The Wu-Tang Clan album, which was announced last year, was, as mentioned, limited to the production of one copy, and was being kept hidden in Morocco with an asking price of $5 million. With the purchase of the album (which comes contained inside a hand-carved box), the buyer would receive a leather bound book of parchment paper, and a pair of custom speakers that cost $55,000. The icing on the cake of this ridiculousness happened when Wu-Tang member RZA said that owning the album would be like owning “the sceptor of an Egyptian king.”
Additionally, RZA, in a statement that lacked any transparency of details, said that the group “decided to give a significant portion of the proceeds to charity,” after learning of Shkreli’s business practices.
The winning bidder indeed turned out to be Shkreli, who in a move that is almost as horrible as raising price’s on sick people’s medicine, also hired Fetty Wap to play a Turing Pharmaceuticals holiday party, saying “Typically you would say, ‘as an average fan, I can’t get Fetty Wap to give me a personal concert.’ The reality is, sure you could. You know, at the right price these guys will basically do anything.” However, even he may not have been able to afford it if a second eye was included in the performance.
Shkreli must have really been yearning for the release of this material because he hasn’t listened to it yet, and said he’s “saving it for a rainy day.”
No one is sure who the next group will be to sell an overpriced, super-secret album to a billionaire, but hopefully the next recipient has a bit less of Shkreli’s brie cheese-eating, scumbag aesthetic.
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