Method Man Finally Hears Wu-Tang's $4 Million Album: 'I Don't Hate It'

Method Man has heard Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for the first time — and, by his standards, that counts as praise. "I don't hate it," he said on the latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out.

For context on the strangest object in hip-hop: the Wu-Tang Clan recorded the album as a single physical copy, conceived by RZA and his protégé Cilvaringz, who handled most of the production. It was originally meant as a museum piece, and the general public wasn't supposed to hear it for 88 years. Then the story swallowed the music.

How did a album end up seized by the government?

In 2015, the one-of-a-kind LP was auctioned for $2 million to Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical executive better known as "pharma bro." The government seized the album among Shkreli's assets in his securities fraud case. In 2021, it sold at auction again — this time for $4 million to PleasrDAO, a digital art collective.

The listening session came about through a chain of coincidence. An artist whose work had kickstarted PleasrDAO listened to Pablo Torre Finds Out, knew about Torre's friendship with Method Man, and offered to broker a session for the rapper — who had never actually heard the record he appears on.

Why did Method Man change his tune?

He was, by most accounts, the Wu member most critical of the project. He considered the one-copy gimmick and the 88-year embargo stunts that only depreciated the music and his own contribution. He was especially harsh on Cilvaringz, whom he regarded as a "B member" of the Clan.

Then came a Brooklyn listening session, and the verdict shifted.

"I could see why people will like this album, and I could see why people will love this album," Method Man said.

He even extended an olive branch to the producer he once dismissed. "The production is on par with some of the stuff that RZA used to do back in the day," he said. "I'm gonna give him his props on this one. And I'm gonna validate, this is a valid piece of art right here."

His closing summary for Torre's show: "We found out that album isn't as bad as I expected it to be." Not quite a rave. From Method Man, though, it reads like a concession speech.

Can the public hear it?

Not in full. The general public still hasn't heard Once Upon a Time in Shaolin in its entirety; the episode shared only two Method Man-centric clips from the LP.

The album also remains embroiled in legal questions over whether Shkreli illegally copied the one-copy-only work. And in a coincidence the source flags with its own raised eyebrow, the documentary The Disciple — which centers on the album — premiered on Netflix the same day the episode dropped.

So the record keeps doing what it has always done best: generating more story than sound, one legal filing and one reluctant endorsement at a time.