As we’re all excitedly anticipating, the Wu-Tang Clan will release a new album, “A Better Tomorrow,” this summer. But in the meantime, the Clan will release a 31 track album entitled “The Wu – Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” that they’ve been secretly working on for the past six years. The double album will come packaged in a silver and nickel box, hand crafted by a famous British-Moroccan artist. The catch? There will be only ONE copy of the album sold.
Wu-Tang has decided to flip the usual approach to the music industry – aiming for one exorbitantly expensive sale (they’re hoping for millions) instead of mass commercial distribution. In their own words, they’re making an album that is “a piece of contemporary art.” The group had the following to say about their new approach:
“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.”
