In 2015, Martin Shkreli shot to fame after his corporation, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of the Aids drug Daraprim by 5,556 per cent from $13.50 to $750. Vilified by left, right and centre, Shkreli, who quickly became known as “Pharma Bro”, played to the gallery. He was unrepentant in interviews and defended his actions as necessary to educate the public on how drug economics works. Within days, the media had dubbed him “the most hated man in America”.
A few months earlier, the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan announced that they had spent five years recording a new album. The Wu emerged from New York’s Staten Island in 1993 – their second album, Wu-Tang Forever (1997), entered the US album charts at number one. Some of the crew have found individual success: RZA, GZA, Method Man and Ghostface Killah. The 2015 album, however, was not simply another record release. RZA declared that Once Upon a Time in Shaolin would be released as a single copy, encased in a high-security silver box, available to one person only via an auction.
Content from our partners
