Trivia / Wu-Tang Clan

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• Author's Saving Throw: Granted, it's not by much, and it's not firsthand, but the fact that the Justice Department ended up selling the rights to Once Upon a Time in Shaolin to cryptocurrency company PleasrDAO has had some fans hopeful that the album might end up seeing the light of day, especially with PleasrDAO saying that they have plans to make the album more accessible.
• Breakthrough Hit: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).
• Bury Your Art: Enforced as an artistic decision for Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. In response to the low royalties generated by streaming services and a perception that the platform was devaluing the artistic integrity of music, the group made exactly one copy of the album. It was then auctioned off by Paddle8, with a ban placed on any commercial releases of the material — including by the band themselves — until 2103, 88 years after its 2015 release; however, the album's owner was permitted to play the album at listening parties. The album would change hands over the years, and as of 2021 is owned by PleasrDAO, an NFT firm, with only a few tracks leaking online.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Ghostface Killah, Method Man, and Raekwon are not keen with Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, Meth finding the infamous "88 year ban" enforcement a bit too much (even more so when the media changed his words around), Killah saying it's "Not a Wu-Tang Clan album", and Raekwon finding the "88 year ban" in his words, 'bullshit'. Killah was more or less furious when the album was sold to Shkreli and has even said the album belongs to the people.
  • Even RZA has shown regret: While he's happy with the album's controversial release with it being in the books and discussed, even he admitted that giving the album to Shkreli was bad and even stated he wish he had bought it away from him, but cannot due to the contract he and Ringz placed on it.
  • In one interview, Method Man said that the video game Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style "sucked".
  • RZA and GZA's albums before the Clan was formed. GZA, for his part, said he thought his rhymes were good on his first album, but the beats were lacking.
• Executive Meddling: Somewhat in a more darker kind. It seemed none of the members were told about RZA's idea of enforcing the "88 year rule" for Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, Method Man confirming in an interview that he wasn't even told about him, Killah and Raekwon finding the whole treatment of the album very degrading. U-God was incredibly vocal about this and even his managers (along with Wu Associates Killa Sin) have confirmed that the album was never a Wu album, but an album by Cilvaringz.
• Follow the Leader: A major French hip hop band of The '90s, Suprême NTM, was heavily inspired by their Hardcore Hip-Hop style.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, given only one copy was made: the two CDs were packaged in slimline jewel cases inside a nickel box inside a larger black box, together with the liner notes inside a 180-page bound book. The album was originally owned by controversial pharmaceutical hedge fund Martin Shkreli before it was seized by the government following his arrest for securities fraud, then resold to an anonymous buyer to cover his debts.
• Referenced by...: Forever, an orangutan Stand user from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, is named after the Wu-Tang Clan album Wu-Tang Forever. Interestingly, the chapter that Forever was introduced in was released in 1989, whereas Wu-Tang Forever was released in 1997, meaning that writer Hirohiko Araki only named him as such in post.
• Sleeper Hit: 36 Chambers may have emerged during a time when it was possible to drop an ultra-hard album that didn't give a fuck about radio play or white listeners and still expect to go platinum, but the fact of the matter is that they had no real hype outside of "Protect Ya Neck" (which was a minor underground hit, but didn't make massive waves and wasn't attached to a mixtape or anything else that they could easily hustle on sidewalks or out of the trunks of cars). They emerged on the scene as unknowns with one of the hardest, most raw and unapproachable albums of its day that was defined by sparse, barebones production, minimal hooks, and dense, complex rapping from rappers with a wide variety of styles, and while it is conceivable that another act of this sort could have had a minor hit like this given the time period, their explosive ascendancy from underground unknowns to the ensemble of the East Coast and one of the most famous names in hip-hop was a major anomaly.

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