A special member of the Wu-Tang Clan family has died. On February 23, Oliver “Power” Grant passed away at 52. Though the cause of his death has not been revealed to the press, members of the iconic hip-hop group have taken to social media to share tributes to Grant.
“Paradise, my Brother, safe Travels!!” Method Man wrote, sharing a picture of him and Grant together. “Bruh, I am not ok.”
“POWER we been everywhere …. Now you everywhere!” Raekwon wrote in his own Instagram post. “The most high is merciful. I love you.”
“‘word life, peace to Power and my whole unit.’ We couldn’t have done it without him. Wu wouldn’t have come to fruition without Power. His passing is a profound loss to us all. My deepest condolences to the fam,” GZA added.
While he did not perform on stage, Grant played a pivotal role in Wu-Tang’s rise to commercial success. The Jamaica-born entrepreneur and producer was raised in Staten Island, New York, home of the Wu-Tang Clan, and was a childhood friend of group leader RZA’s older brother, Divine. As such, he invested in the group in its early days. When it came time for RZA, Ol’Dirty Bastard, and the rest of the crew to release their first album in 1993, Grant was the one who helped the group secure funding and studio time. With his support, the group was able to build a strong business foundation, granting them leverage in their recording contracts, etc. For years, Grant worked as a manager and executive producer for the Wu-Tang Clan.
Grant’s entrepreneurial spirit also led to the creation of Wu Wear, one of the first artist-owned streetwear brands in the mid-1990s. Despite the initial skepticism from some Clan members, Wu Wear garnered tens of millions in annual sales as it was distributed in retail stores across the country and paved the way for artist fashion ventures
“My crew had plenty of skeptics, doubters, and non-believers. It wasn’t anything personal, but I’d say that everyone is an individual and they didn’t really understand what I was doing or what I was initially trying to get across, or where I was coming from,” Grant shared in a 2011 interview with Passion of Weiss. “They just hadn’t seen it. It hadn’t been done before, and it led them to be skeptical. I was laying my own trail. First and foremost, yeah it was going to benefit me, but at the end it would benefit all of us. I knew thought that it was ultimately about showing and proving.”
