RZA has announced plans to release just one copy of of the Wu-Tang Clan's next album.
RZA has announced plans to release just one copy of of the Wu-Tang Clan's next album.
Wu-Tang Clan have announced their brand new double album, The Wu - Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, will be a limited edition of just one copy.
The album will be sold in an engraved silver-and-nickel box created over three months by British-Moroccan artist Yahya. It is expected to comewith a multi-million dollar price tag, reports Forbes.
"We're about to sell an album like nobody else sold it before," said RZA. "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 sceptre of an Egyptian king."
For fans who can't afford to buy the album, the band also plan to take it on tour - visiting galleries, museums and festivals, where they will charge between US$30-$50 (NZ$35-55) for the chance to look at, and listen to it, behind heavy security to prevent the album leaking.
The one-of-a-kind launch will be in addition to the group's 20th anniversary album, A Better Tomorrow, which is due to be released later this year.
Once the surprise 31-track, 128-minute album has toured the world, it will be put up for sale. Forbes speculates a record label could buy the album and release it.
"I know it sounds crazy," said the album's main producer Tarik "Cilvaringz" Azzougarh. "It might totally flop, and we might be completely ridiculed. But the essence and core of our ideas is to inspire creation and originality and debate, and save the music album from dying."
