The untold story of the world's most controversial album—a surreal tale of secret recordings, baffled customs agents, the world's most hallowed art institutions, and a villain of comic book proportions.

In 2007, the innovative young Wu-Tang producer, Cilvaringz, took an incendiary idea to his mentor the RZA. Cilvaringz felt that the impact of digitization threatened the sustainability of the record industry and independent artists, while also shifting the perception of music from treasured works of art to disposable consumer products. They needed to fight back. Together they conceived a work of art so radical that it would unleash a torrent of global debate. They would create a sole copy of an album in physical form, encase it in gleaming silver, and sell it through an auction house for millions as a piece of contemporary art.

The execution of this plan raised a number of complex questions: Would selling an album for millions be the ultimate betrayal of…

Cyrus Bozorgmehr