Wu-Tang Clan leader and hip-hop mainstay RZA gave an enlightening interview to Rolling Stone that was published on Friday, with the mogul/producer discussing the fabled $2 million Wu-Tang album and the fate of its owner, Martin Shkreli. According to Rolling Stone, RZA is a stickler for the rules and legalities connected to the sale of the album to Shkreli — even if he’s amused by the “tabloid” nature the album has generated and its current resting place with Jeff Sessions.
Even with that respect for the law, RZA still admits he tried to get the album back from the disgraced pharma bro:
“I’ve actually tried to get it back,” he continues, “but the paperwork and the contract stops me from getting it back. When [Shkreli] put it on eBay, the first thing I did was call my lawyer, and I was like, ‘Yo, let’s go.’ And they said, ‘All right, check with your contract.’ And it’s no, you can’t do it. Ain’t that a bitch?”
Shkreli tried to sell the album for $1 million, about half of what he had initially paid, but his recent incarceration and the impending auction by the DoJ likely put a halt to that. As for Shkreli’s seven-year prison sentence, RZA gives a fantastic answer that is even better when read in his voice:
Look, nobody likes jail. I’ve been locked up a couple of times myself. Don’t like it, don’t advise it or prescribe it to any man, and I do my best to stay out of crime, right? But if he did the crime, and it appears he had agreed that he did the crime, then he has to serve the time for it. That’s part of our system. I would hope that everything was done right, done legally, done proper, and everybody came to a pure decision not motivated by anything but truth and justice. But if it’s falsehood that motivated the people, then sometimes you get the back end.”
And as for the odyssey the Wu-Tang album has been on, RZA seems very satisfied:
“I definitely read every article about it…It’s kind of crazy. The record has become an entity, very different from a lot of albums. It’s like the Mona Lisa. It’s got its own folklore, and that’s what me and [co-producer] Cilvaringz wanted.”
He also talks about how he initially wanted the album to sit on his living room table as part of the “Wu mansion.” Anybody who would come over could see this piece of art sitting in his home, though he admits it would be worse than selling it in the end. RZA also says he hopes the conversation about the album changes the value of music for some people. It’s an interesting sentiment that you can check out in the full interview, even if you disagree.
(Via Rolling Stone)
