RIP Wu-Tang Clan Patriarch Popa Wu

The longtime Wu-Tang associate was the older cousin of RZA, and can be heard on many of the group’s projects over the years.
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RIP Wu-Tang Clan Patriarch Popa Wu

The longtime Wu-Tang associate was the older cousin of RZA, and can be heard on many of the group’s projects over the years.

Words: Scott T. Sterling

December 16, 2019

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12

The Los Angeles Issue

With 232 pages and an expanded 12″ by 12″ format, our biggest print issue yet celebrates the people, places, music, and art of our hometown, including cover features on David Lynch, Nipsey Hussle, Syd, and Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records, plus Brian Wilson, Cuco, Ty Segall, Lord Huron, Remi Wolf, The Doors, the art of RISK, Taz, Estevan Oriol, Kii Arens, and Edward Colver, and so much more. 

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It’s a sad day in the Wu-Tang Clan universe. The group’s longtime patriarch and mentor, Popa Wu, died at the age of sixty-three in his Brooklyn home.

Also known as Freedom Allah to his closest friends, he has appeared on many Wu-Tang projects over the years, most famously on the intro of Wu-Tang Forever opening track, “Wu-Revolution.”

The older cousin of Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, Popa Wu has been an integral part of the crew since it first came together, famous for schooling the group on the principles of the Five-Percent Nation. He can be seen in the first episode of Hulu series, Wu-Tang: An American Saga.

News of his death has generated tributes from artists across the hip-hop nation, including DJ Premier, Questlove, and Pete Rock. See some of the acknowledgments below.

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