Don’t mess with Wu-Tang. Yes, the clan has always had great self-confidence and rightly so. When clean hip-hop with funky grooves and jazzy samples dominated in the early 1990s, the clan burst onto the scene like a bulldozer: with hard beats, crunchy samples, exciting song structures and their own slang, plus a mythological superstructure of martial arts aesthetics, presented by nine rappers with nine independent styles, but all one big, unstoppable whole.
And in fact they are all there that evening – that hasn’t always been the case in recent years – at least everyone who is still alive. Just last week Oliver “Power” Grant died. He was rarely in the spotlight himself, was not one of the clan rappers, but was part of the Wu family’s inner circle. Grant founded the clothing line “Wu Wear” – and was an early pioneer of what has become common practice in hip-hop today: artists establishing their own brand and building a business beyond music. In doing so, he made a decisive contribution to the myth and branding of the Wu-Tang Clan.
The clan remembers Oliver “Power” Grant this evening, as well as many other companions who have died in recent years. Of course also to the clan founding member Ol’ Dirty Bastard. The rapper died in the studio in 2004 shortly before his 36th birthday.
