Unboxing Wu-Tang's Secret "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" Album for Method Man — and You

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out, brought to you by AppleCard. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. I believe now that Shkreli's out of the picture, this album is in great hands. Absolutely. Right after this. If you're listening to this, it means that this became a podcast, which is a strange thing, because in real life, I need to paint the picture of Method Man being to my right. Could you please welcome Method Man to the stage? The last time that me and Dan Lebitard, who is to Method Man's right. Y'all can do better than that. That was awesome. Petty applause. Thank you. Petty applause brought to you by a man more popular than me. Thank you. The last time that Dan, Meth, and I podcasted was, I'm checking this, December of 2025. Yeah. And I vowed to attempt something that has been until now impossible. Dan, can you explain the visuals here? What are we seeing for people who are not here? It is a trendy Brooklyn place, about 50 people who are feeling super exclusive because they're the hippie elite. And they get to hear a secret told by Pablo that they will tell their friends about because those are the kinds of secrets that Pablo tells. The thing we're here to listen to, Method, how do you explain it to people who don't know anything about what this is? It was an album born from an idea, a guy named Silverings. He was RZA's protege, and he had this idea where I'm going to try to, do a compilation album, Wu-Tang songs, with Wu-Tang on it. On March 26, 2014, we made an announcement that had resonated throughout the world where we said that there would be a new Wu-Tang Clan album entitled Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, but only one copy would ever exist. And during this announcement, we reclaimed the idea that recorded music should be regarded as a music of the past. And that music should be regarded as a music of the present. And that music should be regarded as a work of art. He sent out different records. We laid down verses separately, so I don't know what anybody else's verse sounds like. And then the circus started. In 2015, something unusual happened in the music world. An album sold for $2 million, but it wasn't released to the public. It never showed up on Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere fans could actually hear it. Just one copy exists, locked away, hidden from the world. The group was named Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, but it wasn't released to the public. The group responsible for this innovative release was Wu-Tang Clan, the Staten Island legends who changed hip-hop forever back in the 90s. Their project, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, would become the most controversial and expensive album in history. Over the years, this one-of-a-kind album has been surrounded by mystery. Did you enjoy the circus? At first, yeah. Because it was more or less like, oh, okay, this could be interesting. Art piece, 88 years, that was a bit far-fetched. I thought that was weird. The idea that this album cannot be commercially sold until the year 2103. Oh, my grandbaby B. Well, it don't matter. Then Martin Shkreli stepped in. The purchase of a, is it Wu-Tang Clan? Is that the name of the album? Name of the group? On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question. You guys are familiar with Martin Shkreli, right? And for some, well, I mean, honestly, from RZA's assessment, he was a very nice guy when they met him. And then he just turned into this supervillain. It felt WWE-ish. But as much as Martin Shkreli, who secretly purchased Once Upon a Time in Shaolin at auction in 2015, may be synonymous with the saga of the most expensive album ever created, he is not the only reason that Method Man has felt so deeply estranged from this album and from his fellow members of the Wu-Tang Clan. Because even before Shkreli ever got involved, Meth had felt like he'd been left in the dark by both his old friend RZA, Wu-Tang's de facto leader and the all-time production genius whose voice you heard before, and RZA's protege, a producer and Wu-Tang affiliate based in Morocco named Tarek, a.k.a. Silverix, who was standing right behind RZA at the time of his death. At that big announcement event. Welcome, everyone. My name is Silver Rings. I want to thank everybody for coming today. I met RZA in 1997. Since then, I've had the privilege of traveling the world with him and not only study the way he produced music, but to learn about the character that drove the music. Silver Rings and RZA were in charge of this secret, increasingly infamous art project. Method Man was not. He'd only ever heard his own contributions to the album, as he said before. And so as questions swirled all around the world about that 88-year commercial moratorium and this weird auction, the circus began to fracture the group, as Meth told HuffPost Live back in 2015. F that album. F it. If that's what they're doing, F it. I'm tired of the gimmicks. And when somebody. It's never us coming with the gimmicks. It's always somebody on the outside. A B-Wu guy or somebody like that coming with some crap that's just so gimmicky. It's like, it makes you scratch your head and say, why Wu-Tang, when it's not Wu-Tang? It's just one individual thinking he knows what's best and just doing weird stuff, man. I just think it's just crazy weird. And yes, I'm discrediting Silver Rings, but I'm not discrediting the product. I'm just discrediting him and the way he made his move. You know? I dug it at first, but when they start doing the whole 88-year thing and not explaining it to people, because there are a lot more dumb people than smart people, to a lot of people, it sounded like 88 years, we ain't going to be able to hear this album. How many hip-hop magazines do you think are going to quote you discrediting Silver Rings right now and put that up? They probably will, because that's the only way they're going to get a quote from me in the future now anyway. You're done? Yeah, I'm done. They can. I'm hanging it up. Hip-hop D, I'm not going to name my name, but they know who they are. They know who they are. And don't come ask me for nothing. All of which brings us to this very special evening. More than a decade after that interview, you just heard at a bar named Eavesdrop, where everyone's phones will be taken from us. No tweeting, no streaming, no Instagram, no nothing. Because Method Man, who walked in dressed in a New York Jets jersey and a matching Jets cap, has accepted the most surreal invitation I think I've ever sent a person. And he even agreed to answer questions. And so now, we're going to find out what Method Man really thinks about this insane, frustrating album that he is also odd. But somehow, like the rest of us, has never heard. Until tonight. Long story short, I just thought that this could have been done in a way where it didn't feel like it would compromise the Wu-Tang's integrity or what we built over the years. So I'm going to listen. I'm going to listen to this joint with no bias whatsoever. And give you guys an honest review. So for those not following what Method Man is saying, the album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which is not available for public consumption anywhere, and it's only been played in places like Taiwan and London and Tanzania, and now here at this very exclusive, established eavesdrop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It's nice in here. Method Man has never heard it before. I heard my sh*t though, it's fine. And so what we're going to do is find out with Method Man what it's like when the art and the artists get reunited in a way that is. I like how you put that. Pulitzer Prize winner, y'all. Y'all, let's go! It's fair to say though that they're about to hear one of the great mysteries in music. Ah, let's go. A mystery that takes us not only from the super villain, pharma bro, Martin Shkreli, but to the federal government and to securities law and an art group that we have somehow partnered with. Thanks to Emily. Where's Emily? Emily! Emily! Emily! Emily! Emily! A bunch of characters that we will explain in the rest of this podcast if we get there. But I guess we should, uh, how should we officially inaugurate this? What should we say at the very end of this? Ah, Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothin' to f*ck with. So I suppose we should press play. Thank you. so we are talking all the time in sports and on this show about scarcity and how to decide what a true one of one is worth whether it's the eight million dollar cooper flag rookie card or a fifteen thousand dollar bird automaton or the most expensive team in american sports history the twelve and a half billion dollar los angeles lakers and so before we return you to eavesdrop this bar in brooklyn where method man is about to hear the most expensive album ever sold an album that the public to this day is not allowed to hear i want to explain how in the all of this happened and how i wound up bringing an apparently cursed piece of artwork and its estranged artist together which requires you to meet a very different artist by the name of emily yang people who are listening to this they just heard method man and i shouted you out i shouted out emily and i just think that you're the only person who can explain how this all came to be so thank you for doing this um no thanks for having me i i love how serendipitously this all came together it's ridiculous and an indictment of me as a journalist frankly that it came together in the way that we're going to try and outline here because it starts in december 2025 with the podcast that i did with dan lebitard my friend slash boss at metal art media and his good friend method man now age 55 an enormous genuine sports fan as evidenced by his whole new york jets uniform because meth did not know the answer to a very basic question about once upon a time in shaolin even though he happens to be the most mainstream famous member of wu-tang by far in the first place and that question is who actually owns this secret album now right now i don't know who owns this i think uh a few maybe you can find that out um i know the feds had it for a minute and somebody else came and purchased it and i don't think we're entitled to any of that money as well i was gonna ask have you seen any residual i don't think so and if i have they they you know my bank account pretty tight so you know i'm saying i i don't be noticing sometimes i'm just saying i'm just keeping it a buck well the answer it turns out is not one person like a martin shkreli for instance the album's first owner the current owner is a mysterious digital art collective and this collective's name is pleaser dao and so your reaction emily when you were hearing the conversation that i was having with meth on that episode was what i was like hey i know a thing or two about this dao it was just funny because this was during a time where i was not really using social media and so i was just randomly like clicking on people's stories and then i clicked on yours and it's like you know just randomly one day after like days of not using it and then you guys just happened to be talking about this so i was just like hey i know a thing or two about that and then so i replied to your story just like oh i hate i know what you guys are talking about i consider myself a decent investigative reporter i want to acknowledge that so the fact that i had met you entirely separately from anything related to pleaser dao or wu-tang clan or anything we had met i don't even know how to explain how we met i will call it for the sake of this conversation like an asian-american sort of media retreat event sort of thing which was great um we became friends i would say but i just hadn't i hadn't pieced together the fact that this emmy winning article is going to be a big deal for me i'm not going to lie to you i'm not going to lie to you which you are making innovative digital artwork under under what name for the record here people pleaser was connected at all to pleaser dao despite the fact that it is spelled the same way yeah because we spell pleaser like a very weird or i spelt it that way and then so then the dao spelt it also that way but it's spelt like ppl pleasr i'm people pleaser a digital creator and nft artist life is a journey and i'm a digital creator and i'm a digital creator and i'm a digital artist so life's too short to restrict myself to one specific style and so i just like to experiment all over the place and maybe what makes it scream people pleaser is more of the idea and concept behind it as opposed to the visual style honestly i don't blame you at all like i think it would take like a really really really paranoid investigator to have put the two together but if you were in like crypto or any of like the adjacent like scene then i'm not going to i think you you would have like you know been more familiar with the backstory and stuff i thought i was a pretty paranoid investigator and it turns out i should be more paranoid that i'm surrounded by people that i'm actually trying to get in contact with that i already know and that's what the bummer as i was reading these instagram messages from you i mean i'll quote i'll quote the message that made me like almost throw my phone against the wall and i'm just like pulling it up here and your handle on instagram is pv l p l e a s r p please and you can see your artwork on that account okay here it is it responds to this this clip you go omg wait the crypto group named after me bought slash owns this album i knew it was gonna be embarrassing it's a tough sentence to understand can you explain i mean i guess what a dow is in the context of this story i guess sure um like you know super quick crash course is just a dow dao stands for decentralized autonomous organization and it's kind of like a technology adjacent thing that happened um emerged as a part of like crypto currency um or like blockchain technology because when like a group of people have like a collective like goal or you know like within crypto you're like doing things on chain and what that means is like you know through cryptography by the way if some actual like you know technologist is listening to this and they're like you're wrong that's my disclaimer but no i want to explain to me like i'm five so this is really helpful yeah so basically you know a group of people have the same goal and there's this technology that was created um so that you know you can all sort of like own something together or make decisions together and then you can like sign things together like a board or like a self um and so anybody can form a dow and then you can form it around anything that you want or care about and in 2021 i was auctioning off of this nft art for charity and a group of like crypto bros online decided that they cared about this enough that they would spin up a dow together to purchase it but they still had to like you know auction and bid and then so they all just like you know started sending money to each other like a lot of them had never even met you know that this was just like their collective goal was to acquire this piece in the end there was like a bidding war it was crazy in the end they they won um they paid like over half a million dollars for it 525 000 for a people pleaser uh digital original an nft as it was called during a very strange time known as still i guess the pandemic yes um people were you know very much indoors online so they were looking for things to and ways to spend their money indoors and online so um yeah and then i um woke up you know to this like bidding war and then i guess they like won and then so they then named themselves pleaser dow because that was like their shared goal but then you know the story didn't stop because like they were sort of like the first to do that before that it was just like individually wealthy people owning expensive pieces of art but we all own this together it was a new development in a strange new world that was march of 2021 and i remember it vaguely um because one of the things that stuck out to me about this where i was like this has many familiar dynamics to like what annoys me about the whole crypto movement but your piece of art which went for 525 000 to this dow named after you it went to charity so we ended up basically spinning up like a 501 c3 um and then we came up with a new idea and we came up with a new idea and we came up with a new idea and we gave out grants of twenty five thousand dollars to like all these different like asian american related um non-profit organizations i was ready to be annoyed and hate all of this and then i was like wait a minute okay so this whole charitable effort was documented it went towards stop asian hate broadly speaking during that moment during the pandemic but it became this feeder system for like small businesses and groups that then actually got to benefit from this dow yeah which is amazing which is really cool and so like pleaser dow by the way they don't disband after that as i'm like piecing together like what else then do they They pool their money together to buy. It's wild. It's wild. So that was just the first piece that they bought. And then after they bought the Edward Snowden NFT, they accumulated like $5 million at the time within like 24 hours and then won it. And then so that went to his charity, Freedom of the Press. And then we went on to acquire a few other pieces like the Tour Project NFT, which was also a charity piece. And then the original like Doge NFT for like $4 million. And that was also like a charity. So there was this like theme of charity at the time that was going on. Every time they would acquire a new piece, more people would be like, I want to join in. And then after the Doge piece, like the more unique one that they acquired together was the Wu-Tang Clan one-of-one album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Which can be argued to be like, you know, an inspiration for NFTs even. Yes. It all takes us as we go through this trajectory that takes me to other things that I either support or I'm curious about, whether it's Asian American issues or Edward Snowden, who's attorney. We have had literally on this show as a guest, Ben Wisner, who's the deputy legal director of the ACLU. We've had him on the show to talk about like MSG and the surveillance state and all this stuff. Like there's a spoke leading to him that I didn't realize. And it brings us to why we're talking here. It is September of 2021. It is the Wu-Tang Clan album. For people who don't know the premise of how this album is in theory like art, like a one-of-one art piece, how would you explain it? When we say a one-of-one, especially in the world of like NFTs or I think in traditional art, they have these terms as well. It just means it's like a unique piece where only, only one was ever produced. In traditional art, that's easy to understand, right? Like there's only one real Mona Lisa or there's a unique contract where it'll say that this is like a unique piece and it's just this, only this one exists. And then so the Wu-Tang album is inspirational to all of this because obviously as we know today, like music can be copied and shared. And, but this was like an album that they had made where only one copy of it exists. And it was never released commercially online or duplicated or anything. And then, so that's how the lore of the album started. The lore is so extensive. There's a Lord of the Rings dynamic here. And I mean that only partly because the originator, the original artist you could say behind it is a guy named Silver Rings. And Silver Rings, for those who are not initiated into the lore of the Wu-Tang Clan, this is somebody who was effectively a protege to RZA. And Silver Rings, the concept of him is that he went from a fan of Wu-Tang. He was the first, I believe, like European-based satellite member of the Wu-Tang organization, which not unlike a Tao is a group of apparently loosely confederated individuals who come together sometimes under common cause. But in general, Silver Rings represented like the farm system. There's like a farm system dynamic of Wu-Tang. And so Silver Rings comes up with this premise that in the telling of this, and this has been covered elsewhere, so I'll just speed run through some of it. In the telling of it is, he wants to create a Silver Rings album with Wu-Tang Clan members on it. RZA is convinced by Silver Rings, we should actually do what you just described. A one-of-one Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol level fine art piece that gets treated with the reverence that the art world gives. It's one-of-one all-time great artifacts. Yeah, I would say that's accurate. And I just felt, you know, one of the most compelling things was that as long as we can re-identify music as a work of art, you know what I mean? That's what I want. I felt like, you know, I really felt like it was, that it was tooken from what it really could be, you know, devalued even, if you could use that word. And to re-inject value back into it, to re-inject admiration of it as art, that was a big goal for me. And so the whole thing of like what you hear in the news is that here's now going to auction, this album that you cannot hear unless you bid on it. And now it's becoming familiar to all of the auctions that you've described. Ed, do you remember the first time you heard the name Martin Shkreli? I feel like I vaguely heard of it, you know, when all the Pharma Bro stuff was going on. 32-year-old former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli thought the drug Daraprim was underpriced. The medication is used to treat a disease that can be fatal to those with a suppressed immune system, such as cancer and HIV patients. Last year, fewer than, more than 9,000 prescriptions were written for the pills. Shkreli's company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, bought Daraprim this year and immediately jacked the price up more than 5,000%. If there's a company that was selling an Aston Martin at the price of a bicycle, and we buy that company, and we ask to charge Toyota prices, I don't think that that should be a crime. And purely legally speaking, Martin Shkreli, the guy who would win Once Upon a Time in Shaolin at auction for $2 million, making it the most expensive album in history. Well, Martin Shkreli was right. Raising the price of HIV-AIDS medication 5,500% is not a crime, it turns out. But something else he did was. Farmer Bro could be on the verge of giving up a one-of-a-kind album by Wu-Tang Clan after a judge ordered him to forfeit nearly $7.4 million for allegedly defrauding investors in two hedge funds he ran. Because the order would allow the government to go after his personal property if he does not have the cash, the album, along with other assets, such as a $5 million trading account and a Picasso painting, could be seized. Shkreli will have a chance to appeal. The Department of Justice took it and was in their custody. And that Pleaser Dow had been able to broker like a deal with the Department of Justice to buy it from them. Yes. So the reporting is that Pleaser Dow pays the equivalent of $4 million in crypto tied to the dollar and Pleaser becomes the rightful owner of the album. Yep. And so when was the first time you heard the album? It wasn't like an official event, but a few of the Dow members had the album and then they were in like a studio somewhere in Brooklyn. So it was just a few people and then they were like, come through, we're playing the album. And then so I showed up. I think this was in 2022. This is the part where when Meth told me this, it blew my mind. Although, of course, it happened like this, which is that he had never f***ing heard it. And this speaks now to just like, again, a confederation of artists who are family. They've known each other. The Wu-Tang Clan members have known each other for 25 years dating back to Staten Island. Dating back to New York City when they were all young kids becoming like famous in the 90s, becoming like this iconic group to so many people. And the way the album became controversial caught them by surprise, caught Meth by surprise. He didn't know. The album was recorded in secret with the members not knowing. And as RZA explained it on stage with Silver Rings, the surprise around the album's very controversial premise and the whole mystery about what would end up on it, that was kind of by design. I guess the best way I could describe it now after living through it is like when you do a movie, you go and you do a scene, but you never know until you come to the premiere. They edit you out, they cut you out, and they put more in there. So it's kind of like that revelation. And so Meth ends up being like interviewed by news outlets. And he basically says like, yeah, f**k all of this s**t. F that album. F it. And so the opportunity, I mean, this is where I'll now tell you, like as soon as, as soon as you send me that DM on Instagram, the thing I text Method Man, and I just want to be, here it is. Let me just pull it up. Okay. So you messaged me on Instagram at like 6 p.m. on December 12th. And December 13th at 8.39 a.m., I say, Meth, just needed to say thanks for being so generous with your time coming on the show. I truly love having you and Dan there together. One mission I've already started for 2026. I'm going to contact the weird crypto art group that paid $4 million for Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and find a way to throw a private listening party so the three of us can listen to it. And Method Man replies, with your investigative skills, I'm sure you're going to make that happen. Exclamation point, exclamation point. And we start organizing this project very special evening in Brooklyn that I didn't really believe what happened until I walk in and everybody is actually there. And thanks to Spencer from PleaserDAO for like organizing and setting up the listening party, which is the heart of like, you know, keeping this artwork alive. And definitely for me, like seeing Method Man like actually there was really cool. I mean, he's the star of the show. And so the other feeling I want to communicate to people and help describe is also just like there was this suspense and I was feeling a certain anxiety because there was no safety net. There was no idea that this might ever make air in any regard. Like we said to Method Man, hey, we are going to ask you afterwards to review it. I mean, that was like, the dude does not pull punches. It was all very meta. I think there's something poetic about the actual bar that we were listening to in called eavesdrop. It's like we were I didn't put that together. Right? Like we were all there to eavesdrop on this album. Like Method Man's reaction. Like the best way I can describe it is it was very meta. Like the feeling. It kind of felt like we shouldn't be here right now. Yeah. It kind of felt like this is a bit too personal. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Totally. And so this is where I just got to jump in to tell you, to warn you that I feel very lucky, grateful even, to tell you that what you're about to hear is just a part, a small part of this album that as you fully understand, you're not allowed to hear one single second of. And we're going to play this part this part uncensored. So fair warning there as well because I was able to sneak it for you as well as part of another track which you'll hear after the break to give you a sense of what it was actually like in the room that night. Listening alongside Method Man at eavesdrop to the Wu-Tang album he had never heard before. Before he got back on the microphone for us. And it sounded like this. Very good swordplay. You are despicable. Well, what do you expect from a criminal? All I want to do is win. Hey, nigga, pass the motherfucking weed, nigga. C'mon, sir. I just got this shit, man. Yes, sir! Yeah. Wu-Tang killer bees in the building, baby. Red man in the building. Death squad in the building. I ain't next to the rebel. She straight. Y'all already know Silver Ringz was good, man. Come on, y'all. Wrap those golden arms around me. Give me a little of that Wu-Tang, baby. So unpredictable, I like it. I like it, I like it, I like it. I feel like Hulk Hogan when I'm smoking Dine P for me when I'm toasting Keep it ashy like it's no lotion Pro-methazine, I'm smoking If you're listening to this, you've made it to the end of the show, I ain't that sweat for nothing, nigga. what a remarkably cruel thing we've done to you. Because you do not have the experience that we just had. I am sitting next to Dan, who is sitting next to Meth, And Dan, for people who did not get to watch Meth listen to his art, can you describe what this looked like? Yeah, so beautiful. Wu-Tang, one of the most authentic things in the history of music. Like, really a special group. And that music, for the audio audience that is banned from listening to it, felt to me in this room, I don't know, I'm very eager to hear how he feels about it, But it felt like it reached inside my chest cavity and made my face vibrate from the inside, which is what they do when they go and summon their best energies. The man in front of us is in the competition of words in one of the coolest arts over 50 years of the form, one of the best to do it. and you just witnessed, beyond the music, his vulnerability inside of listening to something that was produced for you that he hasn't approved with one of the best tastes in the arts that there have been. So I'm super curious of how all that felt to him because he hasn't given his approval to that art. He didn't know whether it would be good or not. He sat in the middle of this and gave you his vulnerability. I thought from my angle, but I don't wanna spoil whatever the secret is on how he felt about what he just heard. I can see why people will like it. I can see why some people will love it. For me, it had a few nostalgic moments on there. I don't know if that's good or bad. You can tell that he was emulating RZA's sound as much as possible to the point where it got a little mimicry, a little mimic-y, you know what I mean? Like even the last joint, Gravel Pit, right? A bit long sometimes, a bit long sometimes, but that's what producers do. They're like, look what I did, you know? But all in all, I do not hate this album. To be fair, though, your taste is higher than most. I assume you're listening to this with a better ear than anybody in this room. Yeah, because I know my brothers. Well, so I want to ask about that. Because it felt super invasive, bordering on uncomfortable, for me to watch you close your eyes and be really present in a room where no one has their phone, by the way. So what are you sort of thinking and feeling as you listen to people, your teammates? I was trying not to get distracted. A lot of those. Oh, Rings got lucky with a lot of them darts, man, because they are so good. for nothing. My guys sounded really good. Chef could have stayed off the last joint, though. That's not his pace. Not his pace at all. But again, I can see why people will like this album, and I can see why people will love this album. Silver Rings did his numbers with this one. The production is on par with some of the stuff RZA used to do back in the day. But again, he had the blueprint right there in front of him. So, you know. Yeah, I mean, I said it again. I don't hate it. Can y'all hear me back there? I don't hate this. Did you think you might, though, given your emotions, like, did you think you'd be able to sort of neutrally and unbiased listen to it and have your mind open given that you're predisposed to sort of hate it just because of the story that presents it? I have faith in my guys and stuff. I just didn't have a lot of faith in Tariq. I take that back because he did an excellent job. The production he did post, the production he did post, I'm pretty sure them skits run a little long because Chef can be a little long-winded. But I love the spin that he put on it in the beginning. That intro was pretty good. A bit long again. I'm just being honest. It was a bit long again. But contrary to what everyone thinks, I have nothing against this guy, Tariq Azogar. Silver rings. And I'm going to give him his props on this one. Yeah. And you guys, and I'm going to validate, this is a valid piece of art right here. Would you be interested in hearing more of it? Like, is it, how do you feel? I'm not sitting through two hours of anything. I meant in private. I didn't mean here. I meant in private. Yeah, that would have to be something done in private, you know. I would mean as a curiosity only. Yeah. That one with Dec and GZA, man, that really stood out for me, man. And that guy, Method, man, Jesus Christ. So for people who are not watching meth invasively as I was this entire time, and I apologize for focusing like that. There was a moment when you were mouthing your own words. Yeah, yeah. the vibe was there and so here for the first time are some of those lines that he'd submitted for this album when i was young i used to play in the park these little girls would eat our candy up and play with our hearts much too young to get the panties up we played till it's dark then we would listen for the gunshots cause some shots spring in these parts it ain't a fault just the way we were told never tell on your team or take shorts when you're selling the fiends catch your that's a felony thing and every dream starts with cream that's on everything wish i could talk to my brother that's good hold up i can't talk to my brother he gone our folks don't understand the sort of stuff that we gone i'm saying peace to the god let your knowledge be born hey son why do good die so young feel the pain of the families of freaky tie and puns same game different day in the sun same g different day in the peas i hate the same people hating on me is it my downfall they wait in the seat irs come skate in my v ex-spouse taking my house task force taking my tree jam me up while i'm taking the beat is this the way it's gonna be ♪ That's the way it's gonna be ♪ - This is the sort of thing Of course, you've remembered this entire time. Yeah, yeah. I've been playing, I played them, I play them not too frequently, but I played them, when I first did them, I played them a lot. So it kind of gets etched in your brain. You don't know it all, but you know certain parts. Especially when you kill a lion, like, geez. For real. One of the things, before we let you go here, that I can't help but think is that you've been doing this with Wu-Tang to the extent that this feels like you're kind of like a child star who is now gone through Hollywood, gone through classic Hollywood drama with your own teammates. We've been through a lot. But I can say at the end of the day, we still treat each other with respect and we still call each other brothers. That's the point. I don't know if y'all heard that in the back. We still call each other brothers. The things that happened here would almost predispose you to not like what you're listening to because it was kind of stolen from you. Pretty much. Well, it was done under false pretenses kind of thing, you know? Maybe there would have been more of an effort on my part if I knew what it was going to be, you know what I mean? And I feel like I was robbed of that. So that's why I have this chip on my shoulder. But again, went in with an unbiased opinion. And it's not hard. It's not hard to applaud excellence. And I believe Silver Wings did its thing. And I believe now that Shkreli's out of the picture. This album is in great hands. Absolutely. So you hear it. When you hear it and hear so much long in there, what you're hearing is, oh, if you had given me this album, I would have given you 50. You saw on that joint, I gave him what? Six bars? What was it? Six to eight bars? That's what he got mad at me about. He was like, I didn't get 16, man. Man, f*** you. But you're mad that it's fat, right? You don't like your stuff being fat. No, I don't. I don't. I mean, speaking from an art perspective, the time that it takes to create and the way that you envision s***, you know, you want that to stay pure because that's about the only thing you can control. Outside of that, you can't control anything else, but you can control that. So you don't want someone to take that lightly and do whatever they want to do with it, even though record labels have been doing this s*** to us for years. The payoff is that we can still get a room like this to listen to said art and be respected as artists. That's the best part of it. Word. I'll be putting the word. I'm 55, man. I've done some things. I've never seen someone, I've never seen someone wearing a Jets jersey and Jet cap being so at peace. I like Moozy. But the thing that I found out today is that I think what we did to our audience that could not listen to this was very cruel, but what we just got to enjoy as people who are always on our phones and cannot be present was feel what it's like to be around someone who was so willing and open to let us into something definitionally private where we should not have been. And so if you got to listen to this part, you made it to the end of the episode, I think you did get to enjoy the best part. Yeah, I think so. So thank you. The genuine love. I love that. Respect, Pablo. Appreciate you. We end every episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out by saying, what we found out today. Yeah. We found out that that album ain't as bad as I expected it to be. What do you guys think? What? Nice. This is definitely like, this is fly on the wall shit right here. I love this. Well, what I found out, Dan, is that I am very grateful that you guys became friends. That's my dream. That's my dude right there. I mean, for real. Dan is the genuine article. He's a very emotional guy, but. He wanted you to cry. He's in. The questions he was asking you. You know what? When I was young, we used to play in the park. These little girls, we'd eat our candy up and play. By the time I got to the part of Dirty and. Yeah, there was tears there. I sucked them shits up, though. Yes, sir! Yeah. Yes, sir. I feel like Hulk Hogan when I'm smoking. Dine P for me when I'm toasting. Keep it ashy like it's no lotion. I'm glad I could help. Maybe I'm a junior investigative journalist in training. Enjoy, Pablo. Salute, brother.