When Outliers last checked in on Martin Shkreli in February, the embattled former pharmaceutical executive was engaged in a hip-hop feud with rapper Ghostface Killah, a founding member of legendary act Wu-Tang Clan. Their beef was over a one-of-a-kind album by the group that Shkreli paid $2 million for in 2015. The rapper wanted Shkreli to release the album.
Well, now with the election of Donald Trump as president, he's getting his wish—or part of it.
Trump's victory has prompted Shkreli to publicly debut some songs off the album.
Shkreli promised last month to release “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” if the Republican took the White House. He made good on the plan on the day after the election by playing snippets of the album during a live Periscope video posted on Twitter. The video has since been deleted.
According to the New York Times, Shkreli praised the GOP nominee's win as “fantastic.”
“I've got to decide how to put out—there's about 30, 35 tracks,” he said in the video. “I actually have a contract with the Wu-Tang Clan where I'm not allowed to do this. Obviously, I own the music and I bought it, and I paid a lot of money for it. In many ways, the contract shouldn't matter that much. But I am a man of my word; I had to play a little bit of it.”
Shkreli won an auction for the sole copy of the album last year.
The former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO was vilified by many in 2014 for raising the price of a medication to treat HIV by 5,000%. He was also charged with securities fraud last year.
In a congressional hearing Feb. 4, called to investigate soaring drug prices, Shkreli smirked and took the Fifth Amendment but did manage to tweet: “Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent our people in government.”
Given his celebration of the election, Outliers assumes he'll be happier with the incoming administration.
