By Jim Shea
The world has lost the rapper known as Ol’ Dirty Bastard, ODB, Dirt McGirt and several other known aliases. In the real world, he was known as Russell Jones and always remained true to his roots. Some will remember him as the “black sheep” member of the ever notorious Wu-Tang Clan, some will remember him as the rapper with the trademark “gibberish” style of rapping, and there are those who will remember him with his occasional brushes with the law. No matter how you remember ODB, one thing stands is that Ol’ Dirty Bastard will be one of the better known figures in the hip-hop world.
This Brooklyn native first broke out onto the scene when he and his cousins GZA (Gary Grice) and RZA (Robert Diggs) founded the Wu-Tang Clan. With their love for rap music and kung-fu movies, the trio established an underground hip-hop sound with their debut release, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), which slowly, but surely gained recognition all over the place.
It was quite obvious that the Wu-Tang Clan-consisting of a stronghold of rappers such as Method Man, Redman, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, U-God, Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa-became a dominant force in the hip-hop world once their best selling album, Wu-Tang Forever. Even if the Wu-Tang Clan wasn’t assembled at the time, just about each member of Wu-Tang-including Ol’ Dirty Bastard-has had a successful solo career. While solo, Ol’ Dirty Bastard broke the charts with his songs “Got Your Money” and “Shimmy Shimmy Ya.”
However, Ol’ Dirty Bastard wasn’t quite an upstanding citizen while outside the studio. Throughout most of his musical career, he’s been met with a good deal of legal troubles including being convicted for second-degree murder (which he was cleared for), shoplifting, failing to pay for child support, and other charges. Not to mention, he’s been shot two times in his life, but survived both shootings. In 1998, ODB “sabotaged” the Grammy Awards when he interrupted Shawn Colvin’s acceptance speech and rambled on about Wu-Tang Clan losing to Puff Daddy for Best Hip-Hop album of the year. Following the Grammy Awards fiasco, ODB went on to proclaim that his new name was “Big Baby Jesus.”
While he was leading a comfortable solo career from 1998 to 2001, Ol’ Dirty Bastard continued to have trouble with law. More recently, ODB was slapped with drug charges including leaving his mandatory drug rehab in 2001 and was sentenced to two years in prison. He was finally released in 2003 and signed with Roc-A-Fella Records. He was in the process of releasing his LP, Dirt McGirt, and also planning to reunite with his fellow Wu-Tang Clan mates on the ongoing Wu-Tang tour. Unfortunately, that never happened as Russell Jones passed away last Saturday in Manhattan.
Russell Jones is survived by his mother, Cherry Jones, his wife, Icelene Jones and his eight children. While friends and family are mourning the loss of ODB, they remember him as a talented rapper. “He was a genius, and a great guy,” singer/producer Pharrell Williams told MTV News upon hearing about Jones’ death. Williams has produced Jones’ hit single, “Got Your Money” and was going to produce his LP, Dirt McGirt. As of press time, the cause of Jones’ death is unknown, but authorities are still performing on autopsy to determine the cause. In any case, this 40 oz.’s going out to you ODB. R.I.P.
Well-known rapper Ol´ Dirty Bastard (ODB for short) recently passed away. (Image courtesy www.membres.lycos.fr/therza/)