• djsoren19@yiffit.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    55
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    This is one of those truly great moments where you can hate all sides of this. They’re all kinda shitty skeezy assholes, so whoever loses is a net win for humanity.

  • CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    54
    ·
    5 months ago

    That article was hard to read because of how smug and douchey Shkrelis quotes are.

    Fuck Martin Shkreli. Fuck him in his stupid asshole.

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldOPM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      Wu Tang did NFTs? That’s hilarious and sad

      Edit: would be a lot funnier if there were Wu Tang NFTs

      • moon@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        27
        ·
        5 months ago

        WuTang didn’t make an NFT. They recorded an album that had no public release, and sold the only existing copy to a single buyer like a painting.

        This was kind of a slap in the face to their fans and what music is, but this was long before NFTs were a thing.

        • ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          5 months ago

          Who else is betting the album just isn’t very good?

          Either way it feels like Wu-Tang is on the wrong side of the class war on this one. The fine art comparison is bullshit. At least fine art owned by individuals is often showcased for public viewing because everyone knows that a print, photo, or public exhibition is not the same as owning the original.

          I’m sure Wu-Tang thought they were just exploiting the upper class money laundering system for their own gains, but that just makes them court fools, not revolutionaries.

          • moon@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            5 months ago

            Well they are showcasing it in at least one public exhibition at a gallery this year, so the comparison to fine art is pretty good.

            But I definitely agree that it’s a shitty move of them, especially with their working class roots. They sold the album for what isn’t a great deal of money, $2million, so they either thought it was terrible or they were in a desperate financial situation and needed a quick win. It goes so much against their ethos that fans spread rumours that there was a greater plan where Bill Murray would steal the album back in an elaborate heist and then release it.

            I do think that RZA, the group member who led the sale, truly believed in his own bullshit about this being a piece of art but I can see the other group members just having bills to pay and families to feed. Considering they split the money 9-12 ways (depending on the group’s configuration at the time) and not including engineers and studio time, I don’t know how much each individual member benefited.

            They also tried to buy it back from Shkreli, publicly threatened him when they learned what kind of guy he really was and had to donate a lot of the money from the album’s sales to charity just to try to wash some of the stink off. So this whole stunt seems to have backfired on them.

        • jeffw@lemmy.worldOPM
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          I’m aware of the album lol. It’s been in headlines for years, pretty much any time Shkreli comes back into the spotlight. But actually, the methodology/technology behind NFTs has been around for a while. It predates the album.

      • dhhyfddehhfyy4673@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        PleasrDAO, who purchased it from Shkreli, is some sort of NFT group apparently. And they’re suing because they have plans to make money off limited listening events lol

      • JimSamtanko@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        15
        ·
        5 months ago

        Well… consider the source. It’s Wu Tang. Hilarious and sad is kind of their thing.

    • czech@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      39
      ·
      5 months ago

      The suit was filed by PleasrDAO, a digital art collective that purchased the album from Shkreli in 2021 after Shkreli was ordered to fork it over to cover a $7.4 million forfeiture tied to his 2017 fraud conviction. (Shkreli purchased the album for $2 million; PleasrDAO paid double that.) According to the lawsuit, Shkreli violated the terms of both the original purchase agreement and the forfeiture order by allegedly making and retaining a digital copy of the album, playing it during his live streams, and sending it to others.

    • DashboTreeFrog@discuss.online
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      5 months ago

      IIRC, that was part of the deal buying this and part of what made it so expensive and unique. News article at the time talked at length about the secrecy aspect. Kinda dumb IMO but I understand a super fan wanting to own something like this. The fact that this A hole bought it instead then immediately broke contract…

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    S-tier scumbag, rarely do you find a more pure specimen of assholery.

    If you ever want to feel incredibly angry, watch some interviews with him. He’s the kind of guy who would unironically say he’s generous and kind because his pharma corpo sells a lifesaving drug for $1,750 a dose while the other corpos all sell it for $2,000+ per dose.

    The personification of a Ayn Rand hyper-capitalist, a totally soulless husk. Chatbots from the early 2000’s have more heart than him.

  • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    5 months ago

    Reading the headline with a wuxia background and not knowing that there’s a hiphop group that took the literal same name as the classic martials art clan, I was quite confused.

      • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        5 months ago

        Relevant to what? according to wikipedia they are credited for revitalizing “east coast” hiphop, so not even american, but a section of the US, and I’m not even from that continent. It would surprise me that what they say is relevant to my local history, and there’s tons of music media that criticise the current society, I’m not going to listen to a media type I won’t enjoy.

        Sorry if I came brusque but so did you.

        • doublenut@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          5 months ago

          My guy, you don’t have to go so hard. All I was trying to say is if you listen to their music you’ll find that their whole shtick and major inspiration is kung fu movies. Many of the samples in their songs are from old kung fu movies.

        • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          It’s Wu-Tang. Wu-Tang is for the children. If you don’t know, then don’t worry about it. Bill Murray!

          Hilarious that someone is more willing to read a wiki than just listen to a song. 🤣

          • Dendr0@fedia.io
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            Maybe they’re just aware that the Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nuthin’ to fuck with…

          • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            Well, the first thing that pops up on google is a wikipedia page so… I did listen to the tip two songs in tidal, not to my liking at all.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    5 months ago

    I mean I hate Martin Shkreli and rap, so this is really a win-win scenario. I mean if I had that kind of album that was supposed to be one of a kind, I’d have that bitch uploaded to some Chinese website in about an hour on principle.

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldOPM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      5 months ago

      Idk how anyone hates an entire genre. Just sounds like you haven’t listened to enough. I go just hates all rock music? All jazz music?

      • Default_Defect@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        5 months ago

        I’ve never heard a good country song, and before you link anything, if its good I don’t consider it to be country.