Regardless of the negative opinions of Martin Shkreli, no one can deny that he has sparked a much-needed discussion about drug pricing and access—and maybe that was his goal?

The founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals has been publicly lambasted for jacking up the price of a life-saving drug—often used to treat AIDS patients and babies—by more than 5,000 percent. But he says in an exclusive interview with HipHopDX that it may all be an elaborate performance:

“To me, what I’m doing right now in the media, raising prices, all this shit, believe what you want, but it’s interesting," he said. "It gets people talking. At the end of the day, that’s what art is.”

The interview was sparked by reactions to recent news that Shkreli is the sole owner of a new Wu-Tang Clan album, Once Upon A Time In Shaolin. The album, for which Shkreli paid $2 million, was marketed as a “pioneering work-of-art, rather than an album.” According to RZA, the de facto leader of Wu-Tang, the deal for Shkreli to buy the album was struck back in May before all of the hubbub about drug pricing. When the news leaked last week that Shkreli was the owner of the coveted album, RZA tried to distance the group from the embattled CEO.

Shkreli was none too pleased: “I felt insulted,” he told HipHopDX. “If I hand you $2 million, fucking show me some respect. At least have the decency to say nothing or ‘no comment.’”

Shkreli, the son of Albanian and Croatian immigrants according to the BBC, went on to imply that RZA’s comments could escalate to a feud. “[There's a ] big fucking check in RZA and Cilvaringz’ pocket now, but if they’re starting to turn up on me… The Albanian community is a very weird community. We’re some of the most tight-knit kind-of kill for each other, die for each other motherfuckers there are. People say it’s one of the craziest ethnicities there is in terms of their loyalty and bloodlines and shit like that. This thing [the Wu-Tang thing] is starting to get pretty tense.”

Shkreli, well known as a big music lover of hip hop in particular, further discussed how he someday wanted to make his own album. “I would never put anything out unless it was just golden. I don’t need to embarrass myself. I’m doing fine in pharma. I don’t need another career, but I love creativity. I write music. I was in a lot of bands in high school and college. I love rap, obviously. I think I could express myself through it,” he said.