Wu-Tang Clan Selling One Copy of Secret Double LP

Comment

6

Wu-Tang Clan

Bob Berg/Getty Images

By RYAN REED

March 26, 2014 2:45 PM ET

The music world is already squirming with anticipation over Wu-Tang Clan's upcoming LP, A Better Tomorrow, but it turns out the New York hip-hop legends have another – let's say, more relic-like – album in the works. In a new interview with Forbes, RZA says the group plans to sell one copy of a previously unannounced, 31-track double LP The Wu – Once Upon a Time in Shoalin.

15 Fun Facts About Wu-Tang Clan's 'Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)'

"We're about to sell an album like nobody else sold it before," the rapper says. "We're about to put out a piece of art like nobody else has done in the history of [modern] music. We're making a single-sale collector's item. This is like somebody having the scepter of an Egyptian king."

But when one creates a piece of art comparable to an Egyptian king's scepter, it's only natural to show it off. Before the Holy Grail LP is sold to one especially loaded rap fan, the album will be toured across the world's museums, galleries and festivals, using headphones to protect the songs from piracy.

While tour dates for this unconventional album haven't been unveiled, the group has shared some intriguing details on the project's website. The double LP – co-produced over six years by RZA and Cilvaringz – will feature "special guest appearances" including Redman, FC Barcelona soccer players and "a unique tapestry of guest performers." It will be presented in a "hand-carved nickel-silver box designed by the British Moroccan artist Yahya."

"The music industry is in crisis. Creativity has become disposable and value has been stripped out," the band wrote. "Mass production and content saturation have devalued both our experience of music and our ability to establish its value. Industrial production and digital reproduction have failed. The intrinsic value of music has been reduced to zero. Contemporary art is worth millions by virtue of its exclusivity. This album is a piece of contemporary art.

"The album encapsulates the Clan’s legendary dark funk and avant garde sound and is produced in the original Wu Tang style of the 90s," the group continued. "This is the first high-profile album never to be commercially released to the public and the first of its kind in the history of music."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.c...z2x6VKvIAG
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/wu-tang-clan-selling-one-copy-of-secret-double-lp-20140326

This is just genius

Can't the person who buys the album copy it to other CDs (or a cassette) or upload it online? You can't do that with a painting. But I guess the group would know who did it though.

This is a very interesting concept. I need more time to see how I feel about it, but it's certainly unique, treating it as a piece of art. Now a days albums don't sell like they used to, so I think more artists are thinking of new ways to get their music out but in this case it will only be one person...

I bet the buyer will be someone who has no interest at all in the music--and won't play it, in which case what's the point of even making the music?

Of course, they could just add a single sound and then sell the "new" version in the normal way. Then the buyer of the "unique" album can still get their special feeling.

EddieC said:

I bet the buyer will be someone who has no interest at all in the music--and won't play it, in which case what's the point of even making the music?

Most of the people who bought John & Yoko albums like Two Virgins and The Wedding Album probably didn't buy them for the music.

MickyDolenz said:

EddieC said:

I bet the buyer will be someone who has no interest at all in the music--and won't play it, in which case what's the point of even making the music?

Most of the people who bought John & Yoko albums like Two Virgins and The Wedding Album probably didn't buy them for the music.

Possibly--but I did play them, at least once.

this is not an authentic album with the rza behind the boards and only featuring the generals, this was created by an affiliate by the name of cilvaringz who spent time with the rza a decade ago etc..it will have verses and contributions from the wu tang and its affiliates which will be a double disc worth of music and dynamic skits etc..

ive heard a snippet and it sounds great..

im super shocked how this has made big headlines..so well done to them for making noise!

here is the snip..
https://soundcloud.com/ci...gzwu/sswrb

and another piece on it..
Recently I had the opportunity to hear Cilvaringz’ new Wu-Tang album that is, as of yet, unfinished and unreleased. I listened through FaceTime on my iPad during a 2hr conversation. We talked about the Clan, touring, working with RZA, RZA’s vault of unreleased Wu tracks & the Wu album Ringz has spent the last 6 years laboring over. At first he said he’d like to play me a couple records…which lead to him playing a huge chunk of his double disc album. So yes Wu fans this album exists, and from what I heard it is incredible.

Let me backtrack a minute… I grew up in Ft Lauderdale, FL in the early 90’s and everywhere we went we drove. Ft Lauderdale & Miami spawned a huge custom car culture. This was the era of lowered cars with 18 inch gold rims, limo tinted windows, big sub-woofers in the trunk and lights under your car. At the very least, you had to have a great speaker system. Even if your car was a piece of shyt, it had to have that bass drop so heavy everyone could hear you coming a mile away. I had a Jeep Cherokee. My friend Chad installed a speaker box in the back with two 20 inch sub-woofers with a stolen Hercules Hifonics amp and a kill switch under the steering wheel for when the cops pulled me over. My car had that knock. Songs like Raekwon’s “Incarcerated Scarfaces” & ODB’s “Brooklyn Zoo” had that low end that had my rear view mirrors vibrating and heads turning. “Who does that @sshole think he is??” People would think when I pulled up next to them at a red light. I didn’t care. Everywhere I went I had a car load of friends & the beats banging. Sometimes rolling out to parties, the club or the beach with a caravan of cars with the systems cranking at obnoxious volume levels. The first place I listened to a newly purchased cd was in my car. This is where I heard some of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time: Cuban Linx, The Infamous, Illmatic, 36 Chambers, Liquid Swords, Dah Shinin’ & Ready To Die (to name a few.) They were all new releases in heavy rotation in my jeep. When I went to college in Rhode Island I still had the jeep, but had to lose the speaker setup. I had to make room for the crates of records & dj equipment I needed to haul to gigs. When I moved to Brooklyn in 2000 I got way too many parking tickets, my jeep was towed, and that was that. I sent it back down to Ft Lauderdale so my little bro could have it (which he totaled in a car accident 6 months later) thus ending its glorious run.

The reason for the jeep back-story was because as I sat there listening to Ringz’ new Wu-Tang album, it took me right back to those days of driving around in Ft Lauderdale. Song after song he played gave that old feeling we have missed from the Clan in the last 10 years or so. The beats, the rhymes, the skits, the interludes… The posse cut single… He did it. He got that time machine working and really captured the spirit & essence of those days we lived so many years ago. Every Clan member is present spitting some of the best verses you have ever heard from them. Also included are some of the best Killa Bees and even ODB! I really just wanted to pop the cd into my old red Jeep, pick up some of my old friends (especially the ones no longer with us) and drive down to Ft Lauderdale beach on a sunny day, with a quart of OE in my lap, the windows down, the AC on full blast and the volume all the way up…

The next time I sit down with RZA I will definitely be speaking with him about this album. Finish it up Ringz, all Wu-Tang fans deserve that “time machine” moment.

- Andrew Kelley (Soul Temple A&R, Producer)

They're expecting a six/seven figure for one album. Man, I want what they're smoking. Maybe, maybe if they offered the publishing of the songs on the album, that might be an incentive - but this is just gonna roll over and die. Too many variables these days of owning it digitally and passing around - so that what - you were stupid enought to pay 6 figures for a hard copy?

Red said:

Maybe, maybe if they offered the publishing of the songs on the album, that might be an incentive - but this is just gonna roll over and die.

What would be the point on having publishing on an album that only has one copy? There's no other sales for royalties. Apparently the group is not going to have the songs in commercials & movies as that would cancel out the uniqueness of the album as a "art piece".

MickyDolenz said:

Red said:

Maybe, maybe if they offered the publishing of the songs on the album, that might be an incentive - but this is just gonna roll over and die.

What would be the point on having publishing on an album that only has one copy? There's no other sales for royalties. Apparently the group is not going to have the songs in commercials & movies as that would cancel out the uniqueness of the album as a "art piece".

If I paid 7 figures for an album of 8 songs, I'd WANT the opportunity to license the beats. That would be my only incentive. And hey, what's the Tang done in sales since 93/97? IF they could make 7 figures from publishing - why not? I guess we'll see.

this is a ploy to get a rec co to pay as much as possible

so how are they suppose to make money from this? and if they dont care about the money just let fans have the music for free.

lowkey said:

so how are they suppose to make money from this? and if they dont care about the money just let fans have the music for free.

When it gets liscened to a certain musuem?

lowkey said:

so how are they suppose to make money from this? and if they dont care about the money just let fans have the music for free.

My instinct tells me, the record is not very good and would not likely be well received if it got a general release.

Grantland just ran this article a few weeks ago. It sounds like they are all in agreement that the magic spirit of the early records is gone and not coming back.

http://grantland.com/feat...ghostface/

LittleBLUECorvette said:

lowkey said:

so how are they suppose to make money from this? and if they dont care about the money just let fans have the music for free.

When it gets liscened to a certain musuem?

people dont even like going to the store to buy cd's anymore, are we suppose to think folks are gonna go to a museum put on headphones and listen to a wu tang album?

lowkey said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

When it gets liscened to a certain musuem?

people dont even like going to the store to buy cd's anymore, are we suppose to think folks are gonna go to a museum put on headphones and listen to a wu tang album?

The only reason people aren't buying cd's anymore is because of pirating. If they keep this album tightly rapped up they very well may make a fortune from this