Martin Shkreli – the “Pharma bro” now in jail after putting a bounty on Hillary Clinton’s hair – received more bad news on Friday: the Wu-Tang Clan released a new track that takes a swipe at their most controversial fan.
Shkreli rose to infamy as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals after hiking the price of a lifesaving drug, Daraprim, by 5,000%. His ruthless approach has now inspired the Clan: “Hater / Wouldn’t last a day in my shoes / You know very well / Bet he swell / You can tell he jeal’ / My price hikin’ like the pills Martin Shkreli sell,” the Clan rap on Lesson Learn’d from their forthcoming album Wu-Tang: The Saga Continues, set for release on 13 October.
The rap band and the disgraced pharmaceutical boss have been locked in a war of words ever since Shkreli paid $2m for the sole copy of their album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
After Shkreli bought the album, Clan rapper Ghostface Killah attacked Shkreli for the price hike and called him a “shithead” and “the Michael Jackson nose kid”. Shkreli retaliated by threatening Killah, calling him “an old man who has lost his relevance”.
Clan members have since claimed the album was not an official release, while Shkreli has sold the 31-track double CD, which comes in an ornate, hand-carved box, on eBay for $1m.
Shkreli is currently awaiting sentencing on fraud charges, and has been released on $5m bail. But earlier this month he was jailed after offering a bounty to anyone who grabbed a strand of Clinton’s hair while she was in New York promoting her new memoir.
“On HRC’s book tour, try to grab a hair from her,” he wrote on Facebook, in a now deleted post. “Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained from Hillary Clinton.”
Judge Kiyo Matsumoto said that Shkreli’s Facebook post was “a solicitation to assault in exchange for money that is not protected by the first amendment”.