It’s only been a couple of days since the government shutdown began, and there’s already been significant collateral damage.  Fresh on the heels of a triumphant farewell tour with the rest of The Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah was set to go on tour with his new album this month. Unfortunately, that’s been delayed by the shutdown. This HotNewHipHop.com article has the details:

In support of the new project, Ghostface Killah was set to go on tour starting this month. Unfortunately, however, plans have changed. Last night, he took to Instagram to announce that the tour has been postponed. According to him, the decision was made due to the United States government shutdown.

“Peace family,” the post begins. “I gotta let y’all know — because of this government shutdown, we’re postponing the upcoming Supreme Clientele Sessions. This one hurts me, because I was looking forward to building with y’all face-to-face — sharing the stories, the laughs, the jewels. But I also know everybody’s feeling the weight of what’s going on right now.”

It turns out that Ghostface Killah’s tour may not be the only Wu-Tang Clan adjacent matter that might face shutdown-related delays. As you may recall, an outfit called PleasrDAO acquired the only copy of The Wu-Tang Clan’s “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” from the DOJ a few years ago, and sold NFTs last year in order to raise sufficient funds to release the album to the public.

That Wu-Tang Clan album was originally owned by convicted fraudster Martin Shkreli (which is how it came into the DOJ’s possession), and he was prohibited from copying it. However, he apparently did, and PleasrDAO sued him.  Last month, a federal judge ruled that PleasrDAO could proceed with trade secrets claims against Shkreli, but there’s unlikely to be much action in the lawsuit with the government shut down.

– John Jenkins