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Pharma Bro Offers Kanye West $10M To Keep New Album Off Shelves

By Coburn Palmer
Published on: 10:03 PST, Feb 12, 2016

If Pharma bro Martin Shkreli gets his way, no one will ever hear Kanye West’s new album The Life of Pablo.

Shkreli, the massively unpopular pharmaceutical CEO who jacked up the price of life-saving HIV drugs, wants to buy Kanye West’s new album The Life of Pablo for $10 million and keep it all to himself.

“Instead of releasing this product for your millions of fans, I ask you to sell this recording solely to me.”

The so-called Pharma bro posted a letter to Kanye on Twitter offering the rapper $10 million not to release the album to the public and instead sell Shkreli the exclusive rights.

“I believe you (and your partners) will find this financial arrangement more attractive than your current course of action.”

Millions of fans have been listening this week as Kanye debuted tracks from his new album on Tidal Thursday night at Madison Square Garden during Fashion Week.

The show quickly went viral as Kanye’s fans filled the internet with comments about the new album, which must have drawn the Pharma bro’s attention.

Shkreli claims he’s been a Kanye fan since he was young.

“I have been a tremendous fan of your music for many years. Specifically, the album ‘The College Dropout’ inspired me to succeed at a young age.”

However, the widely hated Pharma bro’s offer to West may not be serious; it has been designed merely to slow the album’s release.

Shortly after Shkreli posted his $10 million offer letter to West, he tweeted out another message seemingly designed to infuriate the rapper’s fans.

“Kanye and his label are legally required to take my offer letter to their Board of Directors. This should delay the album by a few days.”

The massively unpopular Pharma bro’s $10 million offer to buy West’s new album comes despite owing the federal government more than $4.5 million in unpaid taxes.

The IRS has slapped a lien on Shkreli’s Manhattan property and the government continues to prosecute him on charges he ransacked his own company to pay off investors he was accused of defrauding, according to CNBC.

Shkreli was also hauled before Congress to explain his HIV drug price gouging; he took the fifth and invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination while smirking and rolling his eyes at lawmakers.

This isn’t the first time the notorious Pharma bro has tried deprive music fans of their favorite artists’ work.

Last year the widely hated Pharma bro paid $2 million to become the sole owner of the Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.

Since then, Shkreli has been in a public fight with Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ghostface Killah who made a video blasting the Pharma bro for jacking up the price of life-saving HIV drugs by 5,000 percent, reports CNBC.

“People can’t pay that much man. You a real killer man, you’re a real killer. But you’re a soft killer. Youse a clown.”

Shkreli is also being sued by a Wu-Tang Clan fan artist who says his artwork was used to create the one of a kind album cover. Jason Koza says nine of his comic book-style portraits were used without permission.

Given the Pharma bro’s massive debt, there is some debate about whether he could actually afford to pay Kanye the $10 million.

So far there’s been no comment from West on the Pharma bro’s offer.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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