Asake’s GIRAN Cannabis Line Carries His Label Name

Asake put GIRAN pre-rolls into California shops three days after releasing his first independent single under the same name. El Blunto, the Los Angeles blunt maker, stated the partnership on February 20, 2025, and dated the party to Saturday, February 15, at Off The Charts Dispensary in West Hollywood.

The press copy sold a celebrity collab. The calendar sold something tighter: Giran Republic the label and GIRAN the joint arriving in the same 72 hours.

Giran Republic Put the Same Word on a Joint

In Osun slang, giran is a boss, a person who moves differently. Asake, born Ahmed Ololade in Lagos, put that word on the imprint he used to leave Olamide’s YBNL Nation. He had already been floating Giran Republic as a brand since August 2024, when he stripped YBNL from his social pages.

On February 12, 2025, he released “Why Love,” the first single credited to Giran Republic. Three days later he was in West Hollywood for the cannabis launch. Clips from that night show him on the mic, including the new single, in a room that had come to see pre-rolls.

He said the line was a reflection of his lifestyle, his culture, and his roots, and that working with a fellow African made it more meaningful. El Blunto never named that African partner in the statement. The named executive on the cannabis side is Q. Ladraa, founder and CEO of Albert Einstone’s, the Los Angeles parent company.

THE WEEK THE NAME HIT BOTH MARKETS

1. January 29, 2025: Asake posts Giran Energy 5K packs on Instagram, the first public look at the cannabis SKU.
2. February 12, 2025: “Why Love” arrives as the first Giran Republic single, confirming the YBNL split.
3. February 15, 2025: Official GIRAN x El Blunto party at Off The Charts in West Hollywood.
4. February 20, 2025: El Blunto’s statement says product is available across California.

The music company kept the name. Giran Republic later handled his Gamma distribution talks in August 2025 and the May 1, 2026 album M$NEY. The pre-rolls are the one piece of that brand a budtender can scan.

Energy 5K Costs $21.95 for Three Joints

The debut, El Blunto said, was two diamond-infused formats: El Blunto blunts and El Jointito 3-packs, in Energy 5K, Chill Vibe, and Calm Harvest. Flower stays in whole nugs, never ground, then gets a hand infusion of THCa diamonds. Wraps are tobacco-free. Tips are glass.

El Blunto’s hemp shop is more specific than the launch copy. Energy 5K is an indica cross of Purple Punch and Slurricane, listed for tingly, hungry, relaxed effects, with grape and berry on the nose. The 3-pack is three 0.6 g joints, 1.8 g total, each hand-infused with 10% nano THCa diamonds. Chill Vibe is merchandised as a sativa 3-pack at the same price. Calm Harvest appeared in the launch list and does not show on that shop page.

GIRAN FORMATS AND PRICES

The shop page for Energy 5K sells three 0.6-gram joints for $21.95 and quotes a 4 to 7 business day arrival, with free shipping on orders over $100. A Weedmaps menu at the West Hollywood launch shop priced the 2 g Energy 5K blunt at $24, then that item displayed as no longer available.

The Hemp Shop Ships What California Stores Rang Up

The February statement talked about indoor flower, THCa diamonds, and California shelves. The cart on El Blunto’s site talks about hemp. Energy 5K is sold there as full-spectrum THCA-rich hemp flower in an organic hemp wrap, packed in a resealable pouch, not a dispensary jar.

That split is how a Nigerian star’s name gets on a joint a customer in a non-legal U.S. state can try to order, while the same brand also had a licensed California launch. Heating THCa turns it into delta-9 THC. The shop is using the hemp door. The West Hollywood party used the dispensary door.

TWO SHELVES, ONE NAME

• Licensed California: El Blunto said GIRAN was available across the state after the Off The Charts party, which sits inside a chain that lists 30 California shops.
• Hemp mail-order: The same Energy 5K and Chill Vibe SKUs are written up as THCA hemp and offered with multi-day shipping from El Blunto’s shop.
• What moved: The launch dispensary’s public 2 g listing later dropped off the menu, while the hemp 3-pack page kept the $21.95 price.

Nigerian timelines still treat Giran as Asake’s weed and, in fan fights, as a side hustle that explains a lifestyle. That is a better measure of the brand’s afterlife than a single WeHo SKU. The name stuck. The shelf is patchy.

Who Rolls the Blunts in Los Angeles

El Blunto is the factory. Albert Einstone’s LLC, founded in 2017, owns it. Ladraa said Asake’s vision lined up with the company’s craft work and that the drop was meant for fans and cannabis buyers across North America. Press questions route to Noah Gilbert, who has spoken for the brand since its early Los Angeles years.

The method is a cigar shop transplanted onto flower. Hand-broken nugs, never a grinder. An all-natural wrap. A glass filter. A 72-hour cure. Proprietary nano-infusion on the diamond runs. El Blunto was already selling diamond-infused El Blunto pre-rolls in 2021 with Mohave Cannabis Co., so the Asake hardware is a celebrity skin on a format the company already knew how to roll.

EL BLUNTO AT A GLANCE

• Parent: Albert Einstone’s LLC in Los Angeles, with El Blunto as a subsidiary.
• Footprint at launch: El Blunto claimed distribution in over 3,000 dispensaries across North America in the February 20, 2025 statement.
• Earlier map: A 2021 Mohave run cited 400-plus California shops; the company announced El Blunto’s first Canadian launch in 2022 with Toronto’s Olli Brands.
• Other line: Stoneade, a 30 ml cannabis drink, sits in the same parent catalog and is not part of GIRAN.

In September 2025 the GIRAN El Blunto packs showed up in the trailer for DDG’s Capaholics series, a cheap way to keep the tube on camera after the party lights came down.

Partnering with a fellow African on something this special makes it even more meaningful. This is for the culture, for the people, and for everyone who truly understands the movement.

Asake, artist, El Blunto launch statement, February 20, 2025

The statement never identified that partner. Ladraa is the executive on the page. The African claim is Asake’s, and it is hanging.

Burna Boy’s BRKFST Got There First

Asake is the second Afrobeats headliner to put his name on U.S. cannabis, not the first. On October 7, 2022, Burna Boy opened BRKFST in South Beach, Miami, with Jokes Up/Ice Kream, during Miami Carnival. The name pulled from “Last Last,” where breakfast is heartbreak and the hook asks for igbo and shayo.

BRKFST launched as more than a pre-roll: flower, tea, snacks, other consumables, and a slogan aimed at people who smoke before the first meal. Asake’s version is narrower. It is a blunt and a mini joint, three strain names, and a California party tied to a label launch. Burna built a morning brand off a smash single. Asake printed the independence word on a tube.

Both men did the work in U.S. cities where a shop can ring it up. Both left the home market out of the customer list on purpose, because that market is a crime scene on paper.

The Ban His Hometown Still Enforces

In Nigeria, cannabis remains illegal in Nigeria for medical and recreational use. The NDLEA Act is the statute. Possession is a charging risk, not a branding opportunity. Asake can sell Energy 5K in West Hollywood and ship a hemp 3-pack inside the United States. He cannot put that SKU on a Lagos menu.

That gap is the product. Afrobeats already sells a global lifestyle from a country that still raids hemp farms. Burna called the ban hypocrisy in 2021 and then sold BRKFST in Miami. Asake wrote himself into California on “Ligali,” from Lungu Boy, then showed up in WeHo with glass-tipped joints. The fans who stream him from home get the joke and not the pack.

On X, that joke has a long tail. Listeners ask which Giran strain he smokes. Rival stans treat the California line as a hidden payroll. A few posts even pretend the packs are unrelated to him. The company statement, the shop URL, and the launch clips all say otherwise.

Asake Sang “Why Love” at the Launch

The party on February 15, 2025 did the branding work a press release cannot. Asake performed. One widely circulated clip is him in the room on “Why Love,” the independent single that was three days old. Another has him riding a Rema record while the floor finally moves. A third catches a shout to Olamide in the same building where the new name was supposed to replace the old one.

Off The Charts is a volume shop, not a velvet-rope lounge brand, and El Blunto picked it anyway. The statement wanted craft and culture. The address was a Santa Monica Boulevard storefront with a lounge in the back and a first-time-customer discount on the menu.

What remains is a word that now covers a label, an album cycle, and a 1.8 g pouch of Purple Punch and Slurricane. Giran Republic owns the masters story. El Blunto owns the rolling table. The tube is where those two facts meet, at a price a California shop can print and a Nigerian cop can still treat as evidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is THCA hemp on the GIRAN shop listing?

El Blunto’s cart describes the Asake 3-packs as full-spectrum THCA-rich hemp flower with nano THCA diamonds, wrapped in organic hemp paper, which lets the company offer shipping instead of a budtender handoff. THCA is the acid form of THC in the raw plant; once the joint is lit, heat converts it to delta-9 THC, so the smoked effect tracks a conventional joint even when the box is labeled hemp.

What else did Burna Boy’s BRKFST sell besides flower?

The Miami launch with Jokes Up/Ice Kream on October 7, 2022, put BRKFST on tea, snacks, and other consumables as well as smokable flower, and used the slogan aimed at morning smokers. Asake’s GIRAN debut stayed inside two pre-roll formats and three strain names, with no tea or edible line in the February 2025 statement.

Who owns El Blunto, and when did the parent company start?

Albert Einstone’s LLC, a privately held Los Angeles firm founded in 2017, owns El Blunto, and Q. Ladraa is listed as founder and CEO. LinkedIn copy for the parent puts headcount in the 11 to 50 range and also lists Stoneade, a 30 ml cannabis drink in eight mood variants, as a sibling brand that is not sold under GIRAN.

What does Nigerian law say about cannabis possession?

Section 11 of the NDLEA Act is the charging hook for possession, and the country’s information portal states that marijuana is illegal for both medicinal and recreational use. Bills to license cultivation have reached the House of Representatives and then stalled, while NDLEA leadership has argued against legalization on abuse and security grounds, so a GIRAN pouch has no lawful retail path in Lagos.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a branded cannabis and hemp product launch and related company statements, and it is for information only. It is not medical advice, legal advice, or a recommendation to buy, possess, or use cannabis, hemp, or THCA products in any jurisdiction. Readers should consult a licensed physician about health questions and a qualified attorney about local cannabis and hemp rules before acting on anything described here. Product names, prices, stock, and legal status are those published by the cited companies and law pages and can change without notice.