They say you should never meet your heroes, but Cilvarings did much more than that. The Dutch-Moroccan rapper and producer was a huge Wu-Tang Clan fan who made his mission to get in close with the hip-hop supergroup. Eventually, he did more than join its inner circle; he became part of one of the most controversial album releases ever. That journey is chronicled in the new documentary, The Disciple: A Wu-Tang Fable.
Directed by Oscar-winning producer Joanna Natasegara in her directorial debut, The Disciple centers on Cilvarings and his years-long association with Wu-Tang Clan. Eventually, he and RZA became creative allies and teamed up on Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. The controversial, specialty album wasn’t released commercially at all. To challenge the diminishing value of music in the digital age, Wu-Tang dropped only one copy of the album, which was bought in auction by the notorious Pharma Bro, Martin Shkreli, for roughly $2M.
What followed was a years-long ownership battle that tested whether exclusivity makes any art form more valuable.
The film debuted earlier this year at Sundance, and is set to premiere on Netflix on October 16th.
