Though it seems like a joke at worst and publicity stunt at best, the Wu-Tang Clan's forthcoming album, The Wu - Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which will be limited to exactly one copy, is a legitimate project. Or so says producer Tarik "Cilvaringz" Azzougarh in a new interview.
Cilvaringz granted Forbes an exclusive look at the album, which took the magazine all the way to Morocco's Royal Mansour hotel, where Once Upon a Time in Shaolin's hand-carved box is being stored.
"Despite everybody thinking that this is some great publicity stunt or marketing ploy, this has been a genuine concept from the get-go," Cilvaringz said. "It happened to get a lot of publicity — great — but it is a genuine concept with a genuine core and a genuine goal."
The goal, he added, is to ask important questions about the value of music in society. "People are responding to it in a very interesting way," he said. "And it's starting one of the things that we wanted it to start: debates. [It's about] intensifying debate and really starting to look at music and the value of music in your life."
He continued: "Look at Beethoven, Bach, Mozart. You hold them in the same high esteem as a Rembrandt and van Gogh. These people, you don't really differentiate between them, you just say they're great masters of the arts of that time. But today [musicians] don't value their own work, they don't value themselves first, and of course the market doesn't value their work."
Further, Cilvaringz added that the album sees the Clan returning to their roots. "It's a conceptual record where you're trying to go back to '93-'97, that glorious time," he said. "To get brothers into that mode again, as if they just came off the street, as if they were still out there trying to make a living and surviving, it's difficult. … You're trying to get them into an aggressive mode and the beats are aggressive, and funny enough, it drew it out of them, the beats actually commanded the way they performed."
While we don't yet know who will buy the album (the most recent offer was for $5 million), Forbes has secured a small sample of the record in a video form. Check it out here.
Before they sell it to its final owner, the Wu-Tang Clan may also take the album on a gallery tour, where fans will be able to listen to the record in a gallery setting for between $30 and $50.
Cilvaringz granted Forbes an exclusive look at the album, which took the magazine all the way to Morocco's Royal Mansour hotel, where Once Upon a Time in Shaolin's hand-carved box is being stored.
"Despite everybody thinking that this is some great publicity stunt or marketing ploy, this has been a genuine concept from the get-go," Cilvaringz said. "It happened to get a lot of publicity — great — but it is a genuine concept with a genuine core and a genuine goal."
The goal, he added, is to ask important questions about the value of music in society. "People are responding to it in a very interesting way," he said. "And it's starting one of the things that we wanted it to start: debates. [It's about] intensifying debate and really starting to look at music and the value of music in your life."
He continued: "Look at Beethoven, Bach, Mozart. You hold them in the same high esteem as a Rembrandt and van Gogh. These people, you don't really differentiate between them, you just say they're great masters of the arts of that time. But today [musicians] don't value their own work, they don't value themselves first, and of course the market doesn't value their work."
Further, Cilvaringz added that the album sees the Clan returning to their roots. "It's a conceptual record where you're trying to go back to '93-'97, that glorious time," he said. "To get brothers into that mode again, as if they just came off the street, as if they were still out there trying to make a living and surviving, it's difficult. … You're trying to get them into an aggressive mode and the beats are aggressive, and funny enough, it drew it out of them, the beats actually commanded the way they performed."
While we don't yet know who will buy the album (the most recent offer was for $5 million), Forbes has secured a small sample of the record in a video form. Check it out here.
Before they sell it to its final owner, the Wu-Tang Clan may also take the album on a gallery tour, where fans will be able to listen to the record in a gallery setting for between $30 and $50.