Ex-pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli promised the world in October that if Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, he would release Once Upon a Time in Shaolin — a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album — for everyone to hear.
Shkreli bought the album at auction for US$2 million last year, and made good on the promise to the public early Wednesday by playing snippets of the album during a live Periscope video posted to Twitter. (That video has since been deleted.)
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He also posted some video clips to YouTube, which you can see (and listen to) below.
“I’ve got to decide how to put out — there’s about 30, 35 tracks,” he says during one of the clips. “I actually have a contract with the Wu-Tang Clan where I’m not allowed to do this. Obviously, I own the music and I bought it and paid a lot of money for it. In many ways, the contract shouldn’t matter that much. But I am a man of my word; I had to play a little bit of it … but I’ve got to keep my word to them, too.”
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Shkreli didn’t mention anything about the “unheard” Nirvana and Beatles recordings, and didn’t play any of that music he allegedly also has in his music collection.
The former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO was vilified by many in 2014 for raising the price of a medication to treat HIV by 5,000 per cent. He was also charged with securities fraud last year.
The 23rd anniversary of the release of the Wu-Tang Clan’s debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was on this past Wednesday.
— With files from The Associated Press