Ol' Dirty Bastard

A co-founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, ODB was famous for his unique and witty delivery, comical quality and a somewhat unhinged persona. Aside from his global success as a Wu Tang Member and a solo artist, he lived a life paved with hedonistic excess, trouble and genuine psychological turmoil. He died at the very untimely age of 35 in 2004.   

Born Russell Tyrone Jones in Brooklyn in 1969, he was close friends with his cousins Robert Diggs and Gary Rice during his formative years. The three shared a love for hip-hop and Kung Fu Movies and eventually channelled their passions by forming the seminal rap group The Wu Tang Clan – the three taking on the names of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, the RZA and the Genius respectively. The Clan gradually swelled in numbers and also spawned various solo projects.

The Wu Tang’s first album, ‘Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’, surfaced in 1993 and was widely heralded as one of the most important rap albums of the decade. Not shy of controversy, at this time Ol’ Dirty was convicted of second-degree violent assault after being involved in a skirmish in New York. The following year, ODB was shot in Brooklyn following a street argument. Fortunately he recovered quickly and in early 1995 he released the Return to the 36 Chambers: Dirty Version. Later that year he appeared on the Mariah Carey track ‘Fantasy’.

Following the release on The Wu Tang’s second album ‘Wu Tang Forever’ in 1997, ODB got into many, many brushes with the law – he was arrested for refusing to pay $35,000 worth of child support  for three of his children (he fathered about 13 children to a host of different mothers). He also got into trouble for storming the stage during Shawn Colvin’s speech at the Grammy awards. Yet more trouble followed… in 1998 he was charged for attacking a former wife and was shot by a robber during an attempted robbery at his girlfriends flat…. he was arrested for robbing a pair of trainers in June…. In September and November he was arrested for making a series of ‘terrorist threats’ for which he pleaded not guilty. In February the following year he was charged and then acquitted for attempted murder and weapon possession after allegedly shooting at police. In the ensuing year he was arrested for a series of traffic and drug-possession offences. He was spared jail because of his severe drug dependency – he was desperate for help.

Despite all the woes he found time to record the album ‘Niggaz Please’ featuring the collaboration with Kelis ‘Got Your Money’. Over the next few years he violated his drug rehab programme many times, before the release of the Wu Tang’s defining third album ‘The W’. Eventually, his past and constant fugitive activities caught up with him in July 2001 and he was ordered to serve a prison sentence for two years. Late that year, a ‘best of album’ was released, despite the fact he’d only recorded two albums. In 2002 a third album ‘The Trials and Retributions of Russell Jones’ surfaced – the album was recorded during his fugitive years. A year after his release from prison Ol’ Dirty collapsed and died in a New York studio whilst recording his next album.