Rap goes the weasel
“Cash rules everything around me” is right.
Martin Shkreli — the pharmaceutical chief executive who sparked outrage for jacking up the price of a lifesaving drug for AIDS and cancer patients by 5,000 percent overnight — was unveiled as the mystery buyer who paid $2 million for the lone copy of an album from iconic rap group WuTang Clan.
The album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” is believed to be the most expensive ever made — and Shkreli doesn’t even have plans to listen to it, he told Bloomberg Businessweek.
“I could be convinced to listen to it earlier if Taylor Swift wants to hear it or something like that,” the 34yearold former hedge fund manager told the magazine, which broke the news.
Shkreli’s company, Turing, bought Daraprim and hiked the price to $750 a pill — from $13.50 — drawing fire from patients, doctors, lawmakers and regulators.
WuTang is the hugely influential rap group whose songs, including “C.R.E.A.M.” (short for “Cash rules everything around me”) and “Protect Ya Neck,” were staples of the New York hiphop scene in the 1990s.
RZA, a founding Wu member, said the album was sold in May “well before Shkreli’s business practices came to light,” and that the group has decided to donate “a significant portion” of the $2 million to an unnamed charity.