Once Upon a Time In Shaolin is a rare piece of hip-hop history. The album was recorded over the course of six years, and features every living member of the Wu-Tang Clan. Crucially, only one copy of the album exists. It was sold for a staggering $2 million in 2015, with the caveat that the album cannot be played in public until 2103. Cool in concept, but the Once Upon a Time In Shaolin story has been marred by issues with legal loop holes and the guy who bought it. The album is now considered a polarizing release by Wu-Tang, instead of a seminal one. Method Man shed light on this transformation during a recent interview with Vanity Fair.
Method Man admitted the album is a sore point for the group. He also revealed that he was never fully onboard with the concept. “I thought it was some circus spectacle,” he explained to the outlet. “I never really spoke to RZA about it. It’s an uncomfortable subject to most of the guys, so we don’t really discuss it too much.” The reason for the discomfort stems from the way in which is was made. According Method Man, the group, besides RZA, was not let in on the rollout plan. As far as they were concerned, they were making a standard Wu-Tang album for release. “The process of the thing being made was never told to us,” he said. “We were never told what it was. We were recording and being paid to do a certain amount of records.”
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Method Man Felt Like He Was Lied To During Recording
The disconnect between the plan, and the recording process, is what has stayed with Method Man. He doesn’t look fondly upon Once Upon a Time In Shaolin as a result. “[Cilvaringz] put them altogether into a compilation of Wu-Tang songs and marketed it as a Wu-Tang album,” he stated. “A single copy of a Wu-Tang album. We all had a problem with it because that’s not how it was described to us.” This isn’t the first time Method Man has spoken out against the single copy rollout. He called out Cilvaringz and RZA during a June interview with XXL. He went as far as to call the 88-year commercial ban against the album “stupid.”
“F*ck that album,” Method Man asserted. “When music can’t be music and y’all turning it into something else, f*ck that. Give it to the people.” The veteran rapper urged RZA to give Once Upon a Time In Shaolin for free, so Wu-Tang fans can enjoy it in their lifetime. RZA did not take the bait. The Wu-Tang leader told Method Man that the commercial ban was necessary to maintain the “integrity” of the album. He wanted to ensure it wasn’t seem as a gimmick. Ironically, it has become just that.
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