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.
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.