Released in 1997, Wu-Tang Clan’s second album Wu-Tang Forever is a hip-hop classic. The same could be said of the E-MU SP-1200 sampler that RZA used to produce the record, and now that exact machine is up for auction.
The Wu-Tang Forever album was praised for its innovative use of sampling, with a diverse range of sounds being chopped up, repitched and mashed together. It becomes an even more impressive achievement when you consider the SP-1200’s limited specs - 12-bit/26.040kHz quality and eight voices of polyphony - but the machine’s gritty sound remains much sought-after in hip-hop circles. Released in 1987, It’s been emulated in several plugins - most recently Inphonik’s RX1200 - and original creator Dave Rossum announced an enhanced reissue in 2021.
Commenting on the sale, RZA said: “This is the first SP-1200 that I ever owned,” with the wonky fader caps indicating that it’s had some pretty heavy use. RZA confirms that it was used in the creation of a slew of classic Wu-Tang records: “There’s DNA in this,” he adds.
With an estimated value of between $50,000 and $80,000, you’ll need pretty deep pockets if you want to own this particular piece of hardware, which RZA has signed in black Sharpie.
The auctioning of the SP-1200 is being handled by Sotheby’s, and forms part of its third annual hip-hop sale. Timed to coincide with the genre’s 50th anniversary, this also includes “art, fashion, sneakers, jewellery, photography, hand-written documents, historic studio equipment, important artifacts, and more, representing key moments from the late 1970s through the present.”
You can register to bid for RZA’s SP-1200 on the Sotheby’s website. That said, the current highest bid of $38,000 doesn’t even meet the reserve price, so we’re guessing you’ll need to go significantly higher than this if you want to be considered a serious player…
