Martin Shkreli reveals why he bought the $2 million Wu-Tang Clan album
During the program, Shkreli discussed, among other things, why he threw down $2 million for the newest Wu-Tang album and his ongoing beef with Ghostface Killah.
Shkreli - who was arrested on securities-fraud charges in December after gaining infamy for hiking up the price of a 60-year-old drug - told "The Breakfast Club" that he first got into rap while watching "Chappelle's Show."
Shkreli told "The Breakfast Club":
When they had the Wu-Tang financial skit, that was a classic. Quite frankly, this is actually how a lot of us talk, and act in finance ... Truth is stranger than fiction. We're at hedge funds, we're at the top of the finance business, and we saw that skit and we were like, "This is really cool."
While he's a fan of the band, his reasoning for purchasing Wu-Tang Clan's $2 million album may have had something to do with showing off.
"There's a lot of things rich guys do to show off," says Shkreli. "The press thing is a part of it, but it's also to show your friends, or your last company, like, 'Hey, f--- you, look at me, I got this $2 million album.' Guys do that all the time."
Shkreli also said, seemingly contradicting himself, that "The point is, I wanted to show respect for art."
While he certainly gained a ton of press coverage for buying the album, it hasn't all been positive. Ghostface Killah, a prominent member of the Wu-Tang Clan, publicly criticized the decision by Shkreli's firm, Turing Pharmaceuticals, to raise the price of Daraprim, an AIDS drug, from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pop.
"I don't even know him," Ghostface told Pitchfork. "But I know what he did with the AIDS [drug] like that, that's not right, that's not right."
Shkreli shot back with a video, through TMZ, where he called Ghostface - using his given name, Dennis Coles - an "old man" who was no longer relevant and insinuated that Ghostface was simply trying to "steal the spotlight."
