Ol' Dirty Bastard

rap musician

Personal Information

Born Russell Tyrone Jones on November 15, 1968, in Brooklyn, NY; died November 13, 2004 in New York, NY; also known as Ol' Dirty Bastard, ODB, Osirus, Big Baby Jesus, Dirt Dog, Dirt McGirt, Joe Bannanas, and other aliases; married Icelene Jones; children (three by Icelene Jones): Barson, Taniqua, Shaquita, Osiris, Allah, God Ason, and Ashana.

Career

Rap musician, late 1980s-2004. Wu-Tang Clan, co-founder, 1991; signed to Roc-a-Fella label, 2003.

Life's Work

After rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard died of cardiac arrest in a Manhattan recording studio in 2004, an autopsy revealed a dangerous mixture of cocaine and prescription drugs in his system. To some who had followed career the career of a man often known as ODB, his death seemed an unsurprising outcome to a notorious spree of criminal behavior that spanned most of a decade. While he was alive ODB's drug-fueled crimes tended to overshadow his considerable musical creativity. As a member of the innovative hip-hop act the Wu-Tang Clan and later as a solo artist, ODB forged a humorous, often obscene, ragged-edged, but subtle style that evoked hip-hop's roots in older funk music. What Salon writer Pete L'Official described as ODB's "gold-toothed, marble-mouthed, free-associative nonsense raps" seemed to emerge after his death as his most important contributions to hip-hop musical culture.

Ol' Dirty Bastard, whose given name was Russell Tyrone Jones, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 15, 1968, and grew up in the tough Fort Greene neighborhood. His mother Cherry Jones called him Rusty and after his death described him to the New York Daily News as "the kindest and most generous soul on earth." Over his short life, he would have many names. The most famous of them, Ol' Dirty Bastard, took shape after he began to spend time on Staten Island with his cousins Robert Diggs and Gary Grice and put together a hip-hop group partially inspired by the Asian kung-fu films they all liked. That group, first called All in Together Now in the late 1980s, became the Wu-Tang Clan after Diggs read books on Eastern philosophy during a prison stint. Diggs and Grice became RZA and GZA, and Russell Jones became Ol' Dirty Bastard--because, as the Wu-Tang Clan put it on their 1993 album Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers, "there ain't no father to his style."

Arrived at Welfare Office in Limousine

The Wu-Tang Clan issued a limited-edition single called "Protect Ya Neck" in 1992, and news of their innovative style spread from college radio stations to major labels. Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers appeared the following year, with ODB preparing the way for the group's contract with the Loud label by offering an out-of-control version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" before a group of executives from Loud's conglomerate distributor, RCA/BMG. ODB showed a flair for attracting attention to the group; he once drove to a welfare office in a limousine to collect food stamps, trailed by invited camera operators from the cable-television music channel MTV.

By the early 1990s, ODB had already begun to run afoul of the law; he drew a second-degree assault conviction in 1993 and was shot in the stomach during a street dispute the following year. His injuries were minor and did not prevent him from finishing work, with RZA as producer, on his album Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, released early in 1995. Kelefa Sanneh of the New York Times later termed it "a wildly entertaining collection of low-down jokes and memorable rhymes." The album cracked Billboard magazine's top 10, and two of its singles, "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" and "Brooklyn Zoo," became hits. "Shimmy Shimmy Ya," though less raunchy than many other ODB numbers, was typical of his style musically: its refrain of "Baby, I like it raw" was mostly rapped but was subtly structured so that it landed on sung pitches from time to time.

ODB continued to experience success in 1996 and 1997, contributing a guest rap to vocal diva Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" and a piece called "Dog S-t" to the top-selling Wu-Tang Forever album. In November of 1997 he was arrested for nonpayment of child support; he had three children with his wife Icelene Jones, and there were reports that he fathered as many as ten other children (though only four out-of-wedlock children were located after his death). The Wu-Tang Clan took hip-hop cross-marketing to new levels, and ODB launched his own clothing line, My Dirty Wear, early in 1998. Around the same time, he helped rescue a four-year-old girl who was trapped under a car that had hit her. He also grabbed headlines that year by grabbing the microphone from singer Shawn Colvin at the Grammy awards ceremony in Los Angeles and ranting about the Wu-Tang Clan's loss to Sean "Puffy" Combs for the best rap album award.

Arrested Repeatedly

After that bizarre incident, ODB's life fell apart. Over the course of the next year, he pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting Icelene Jones; was charged with threatening an ex-girlfriend; was arrested for shoplifting in Virginia Beach, Virginia; was robbed and shot in an apartment in Brooklyn; was arrested at a hotel in Berlin, Germany, for lying nude on a balcony; threatened to kill a security guard at the House of Blues club in Los Angeles; was charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting at police in Brooklyn (a charge that was eventually dismissed); and became the first person arrested under a new California law barring convicted felons from wearing bulletproof vests.

The bad news continued in 1999 despite help from former O.J. Simpson defense attorney Robert Shapiro. ODB was jailed for a bond violation in connection with the House of Blues threats, and in New York officers found marijuana and 20 vials of crack cocaine in his car after he ran a red light. Between court-mandated stints in a pair of drug-rehabilitation centers, he teamed with rapper Pras on the hit "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)" and recorded the album Nigga Please, another top-ten smash that landed the rapper on the radio once again with "Got Your Money." That single featured future stars, including "Milkshake" rapper Kelis and the production duo the Neptunes. The album also included a version of the Billie Holiday jazz standard "Good Morning Heartache" that, Sanneh noted, "should have sounded like a joke but somehow didn't. You could hear the sorrow that lurked beneath the surface of so many other ODB songs and stunts."

In 2000, ODB walked out of a rehabilitation facility in California and officially became a fugitive. He recorded music for the new Wu-Tang Clan album The W, but only one track, "Conditioner," was coherent enough to be included. The ODB mystique grew as he eluded arrest at the album's record-release party in November of 2000, but he was picked up at a Philadelphia McDonald's restaurant a few days later by a police officer who recognized him because her son was an ODB fan. Faced with a blizzard of charges, ODB pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in April of 2001 and was sentenced to two to four years in a New York state prison. He was placed under a suicide watch.

New ODB Albums Cobbled Together

Various levels of the music industry responded to the temporary lack of new ODB product by repackaging material he had already recorded: the Elektra label released Dirty Story: The Best of Ol' Dirty Bastard, and a small company called D-3 gathered the material ODB had recorded while on the run from police, added a largely random group of contributions by other musicians, and released the whole under the title The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones in 2002. Despite the slapdash quality of the album, it rose to the top ten of Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop album chart.

Released from prison in 2003, ODB was signed to the hot Roc-a-Fella label, owned by rapper Jay-Z. He announced a name change to Dirt McGirt and began working with the Neptunes and other producers on a new album. The album's eventual title, Osirus, referred to another of ODB's numerous aliases, which also included Joe Bannanas, Dirt Dog, Big Baby Jesus, as well as yet other variants. "I created all those worlds," he once said (according to London's Independent). The album was essentially completed, and reports indicated that ODB had gotten his life in order as its release date approached. The Hartford Courant termed it "the rapper's strongest work in years," pointing out that "'Dirty Dirty' features the same sort of manic raps that made him the comic relief in Wu-Tang."

On November 13, 2004, however, paramedics were called to a Manhattan studio after ODB, putting the finishing touches on Osirus, complained of chest pains and collapsed. His death was ruled accidental after an autopsy revealed that he had taken cocaine and the powerful prescription painkiller Tramadol. The surviving members of the Wu-Tang Clan recorded a tribute track, "I Go Through Life," that was posthumously included on Osirus. After his death, ODB's sister Lamarenae Jones mused to the New York Daily News that the rapper would have wanted his memorial service held at the Coney Island amusement park. "He was a big kid," she said. "He loved riding the Cyclone."

Works

Selected discography

(With the Wu-Tang Clan) Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers, Loud, 1993.
Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, Elektra, 1995.
(With the Wu-Tang Clan) Wu-Tang Forever, Loud, 1997.
Nigga Please, Elektra, 1999.
(With the Wu-Tang Clan) The W, Loud, 2000.
The Dirty Story: The Best of Ol' Dirty Bastard, Elektra, 2001.
The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones, D3, 2002.
Osirus: The Official Mixtape, Sure Shot, 2005.

Biography

One of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, who recorded some of the most influential hip-hop of the '90s, Ol' Dirty Bastard was the loose cannon of the group, both on record and off. Delivering his outrageously profane, free-associative rhymes in a distinctive half-rapped, half-sung style, ODB came across as a mix of gonzo comic relief and not-quite-stable menace. Unfortunately, after launching a successful solo career, his personal life began to exhibit those same qualities. ODB spent much of 1998 and 1999 getting arrested with ridiculous, comical frequency, building up a rap sheet that now reads not so much like a soap opera as an epic Russian novel. At first, his difficulties with the law made him a larger-than-life figure, the ringmaster of rap's most cartoonish sideshow. Sadly, his life inevitably slipped out of control, and the possibility that his continued antics were at least partly the result of conscious image-making disappeared as time wore on. It was difficult for observers to tell whether ODB's wildly erratic behavior was the result of serious drug problems or genuine mental instability; bad luck certainly played a role in his downfall, but so did his own undeniably poor judgment. Despite being sentenced to prison on drug charges in 2001, it's worth noting that while he was running amuck Ol' Dirty's offenses were largely nonviolent; the saddest part of his story is that, in the end, the only person he truly harmed was himself.

Ol' Dirty Bastard was born Russell Tyrone Jones in Brooklyn in 1969, and grew up in the neighborhood of Fort Green as a welfare child. As he got older, he started hanging out more and more with his cousins Robert Diggs and Gary Grice; they all shared a taste for rap music and kung-fu movies. The trio parlayed their obsessions into founding the Wu-Tang Clan, renaming themselves Ol' Dirty Bastard (since there was no father to his style), the RZA, and the Genius, respectively. The Wu grew into an innovatively structured hip-hop collective designed to hit big and then spin off as many solo careers for its members as possible. Buoyed by the RZA's production genius and a number of strong personalities, the Wu-Tang Clan's first album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), was released at the end of 1993 and became one of the most influential rap albums of the decade. Earlier in the year, Ol' Dirty had been convicted of second-degree assault in New York, the only violent offense ever proven against him; trouble continued to stalk him in 1994, when he was shot in the stomach by another rapper in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn following a street argument.

Luckily, the injuries weren't serious, and Dirty became the second Wu-Tang member to launch a solo career (after Method Man) when he signed with Elektra and released the RZA-produced Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version in early 1995. The stellar singles "Brooklyn Zoo" and "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" both became hits, making the album a gold-selling success. Additionally, his guest spot on a remix of Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" produced one of the year's unlikeliest hitmaking teams. With the concurrent success of the other Wu solo projects, anticipation for the group's second album ran high, and when the double-disc Wu-Tang Forever came out in the summer of 1997, it sold over 600,000 copies in its first week of release. Included on the second disc was "Dog Shit," two and a half minutes of perhaps the most bizarre, scatological ODB ranting that had yet appeared on record. And then, the saga began.

In November 1997, Ol' Dirty Bastard was arrested for failing to pay nearly a year's worth of child support -- around 35,000 dollars -- for the three children he had with his wife, Icelene Jones (by this point, he'd fathered a total of 13 children, beginning in his teenage years). Things picked up in February 1998: he started his own clothing line, dubbed My Dirty Wear, and along with several protégés, he rushed out of a New York recording studio to help save a four-year-old girl who had been hit by a car and lay trapped underneath. The very next day, at the Grammy Awards (where the Wu had been nominated for Best Rap Album), there followed the incident that truly established the Ol' Dirty legend. During Shawn Colvin's acceptance speech for her Song of the Year award, ODB rushed the stage seemingly out of nowhere, clad in a bright red suit. He took over the microphone and launched into a rambling complaint about buying an expensive new outfit but losing the Grammy to Puff Daddy, whom he described as "good" but not as good as his own group, because "Wu-Tang is for the children." Hustled off-stage after this puzzling, oddly timed outburst, ODB was the talk of the next day's news reports, and many mainstream outlets had to find ways of avoiding the "bastard" portion of his name. He further confounded the public by announcing in April that he was scrapping his Ol' Dirty Bastard alias (which headed up a long list that included Osirus [sic], Joe Bannanas [sic], Dirt McGirt, Dirt Dog, and Unique Ason) and calling himself Big Baby Jesus. None of his explanations in interviews even verged on coherence, and the press never took the switch all that seriously; even the erstwhile Big Baby Jesus himself seemed to forget about the idea after a short time.

The rest of 1998 was a slow downward spiral. In April, he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted assault on Icelene Jones, resulting in a protection order against him; the following month, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest after he missed two court dates concerning his child support payments (he finally did show up and signed an agreement to pay off the debts). In late June, ODB was shot in a robbery attempt in Brownsville, Brooklyn; two assailants pushed their way into ODB's girlfriend's apartment, stole some money and jewelry from the rapper, and shot him once. The bullet entered his back and went through his arm before exiting his body, but luckily the wounds were superficial, and several hours after receiving emergency-room treatment, ODB ignored the hospital's request for overnight observation and simply walked out. Only one week later, ODB was arrested in Virginia Beach for shoplifting, after walking out of a shoe store wearing a pair of 50 dollar sneakers. Adding insult to injury, his SUV was stolen from outside a New York recording studio a couple weeks later. Undaunted, Dirty went ahead with his plans to tour, set up his own Osirus Entertainment label, and recorded with a group of protégés called D.R.U.G. (Dirty Rotten Underground Grimies). As a result, he missed several court dates concerning his Virginia Beach shoplifting charge, resulting in an order for his arrest.

That difficulty seemed to matter less when, in September, ODB was arrested in Los Angeles for making terrorist threats. He'd been attending a concert by R&B singer Des'ree at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, and refused to be escorted outside by security who'd grown tired of his drunken rowdiness; after he was kicked out, he returned and threatened to shoot the security staff -- a felony in California, punishable by up to three years in jail. Not two weeks after posting bail, ODB was kicked out of a hotel in Berlin, Germany, for lounging on his balcony in the nude (no charges were filed). He later returned to California, where he was arrested once again in November on more charges of making terrorist threats -- this time allegedly threatening to kill an ex-girlfriend (and mother of one of his children). ODB pleaded not guilty in both "terrorist" cases, and returned to New York in January. At this point, it was still difficult to view ODB as a genuine criminal -- not that his conduct had been exemplary by any means, but there was a possibility that he was simply misunderstood, or that the California criminal justice system was essentially criminalizing the act of being a blowhard.

Shortly after ODB's return to New York, he was pulled over for a traffic violation while driving with his cousin. What happened next was never fully clarified. The officers claimed that ODB got out of his vehicle and started shooting at them; he was arrested and charged with attempted murder and criminal weapon possession. However, the police were never able to produce a matching weapon, ammunition, or empty ammo shells to support their claims, and there were a multitude of conflicting stories reported from their side as to the exact details of the incident. In February, a grand jury decided there was not enough evidence and dismissed the case, after which an outraged ODB filed suit against the arresting officers. Just a couple of weeks later, ODB once again fell victim to the vagaries of the California legal system. After citing him for double-parking his car in Hollywood, police discovered that he was driving without a license, and when they searched him, they found that he was wearing a bulletproof vest. This was understandable, given his recent experience in New York, but California had recently passed a law making it illegal for convicted violent felons to wear body armor -- and because of his 1993 second-degree assault conviction, ODB fell under that category (in fact, his arrest was one of the very first under the law). In March, now back in New York, ODB was pulled over for another traffic violation (this time driving without license plates), and police found a small amount of crack cocaine in his SUV, leading to misdemeanor drug possession charges. Five days later, ODB was pulled over and cited again for driving without license plates, as well as driving with a suspended license. In the face of this impossible legal maze, April brought one small bit of good news -- the terrorist-threat charges involving his ex-girlfriend were dismissed due to lack of evidence. What was more, former O.J. Simpson defense attorney Robert Shapiro signed on as ODB's legal representative.

Still, ODB's run of ill luck continued. At the end of July, he was jailed in California for failing to pay a portion of his bail from the House of Blues case (in a recent court hearing, he'd acknowledged financial difficulties stemming from his legal bills). He was able to post the money and was released; however, just days later, he was arrested in New York after running a red light. He was still driving on a suspended license, but what was more serious, officers discovered not only marijuana, but 20 vials of crack cocaine. He was able to post bail, but didn't return to Los Angeles for a hearing in the body-armor case, and his bail there was revoked and a bench warrant issued for his arrest. In mid-August, ODB checked himself into a rehab center in upstate New York, hoping to address his escalating problem with hard drugs; he soon transferred to a different center in California.

Somehow, in the middle of his incredible, headline-dominating run as a bicoastal outlaw, ODB had found time to record a new album under the auspices of several different producers, including the RZA and the Neptunes. Released in September 1999, Nigga Please entered the charts at number ten, aided by his position as the undisputed king of hip-hop bad boys; it also spawned a minor hit single in "Got Your Money." In November, ODB received more good news, of a sort: his sentencing in the two pending California cases (the body armor and the House of Blues) came out to one year in drug rehabilitation and three years' probation, with no prison time. Despite the fact that a resolution was in sight, ODB complained during the sentencing hearing that he felt police had been targeting him excessively. That sense of persecution manifested itself in a January 2000 hearing in New York, related to his drug charges; apparently exasperated by all the chaos, a sullen ODB ignored the presiding judge, talked dirty to a female DA (in typically bizarre fashion, he reportedly called her a "sperm donor"), and actually took a nap, thereby erasing any inclinations the prosecution had toward leniency. Afterward, he apparently got drunk, violating the terms of his rehab program and probation conditions; upon returning to California, he was kicked out of rehab and transferred to jail. Although he could have faced prison time for breaking probation, ODB received a more lenient sentence of six months in rehab.

Up until this point, ODB had managed to avoid prison time, since he was clearly a drug addict in need of help. Yet at the same time, his apparent unwillingness to be helped meant that, for better or for worse, he was running out of chances. While he'd suffered some terrible luck in his run-ins with the law, the last straw was entirely of his own making: in October 2000, with just two more months in rehab to go, ODB made a run for it. He spent the next month as a fugitive from the law, making his way across the country and secretly recording some new material with the RZA. ODB turned up in a very public fashion at the November record-release party for the new Wu-Tang Clan album, The W (which had been dedicated to him, and featured his vocals on one track, "Conditioner"; other contributions had been deemed too bizarre for release). He took the stage in the Hammerstein Ballroom in front of hundreds of incredulous, wildly cheering fans, and only added to his mystique by managing to leave the facility without getting arrested, despite the large police presence outside. After a few more days on the lam, ODB was captured in a McDonald's parking lot in Philadelphia while signing autographs for a large crowd of fans; in fact, the crowd was so large that the restaurant manager had called police, not knowing what was going on. ODB was extradited to New York, where he stood trial on not only his prior drug charges, but also the various traffic violations and a charge that he violated the protection order on Icelene Jones in 1998. After several trial postponements, in April 2001 ODB accepted a deal from prosecutors that essentially wiped out his other offenses in New York in exchange for a guilty plea to the cocaine possession charges. He received the minimum sentence of two to four years in state prison, and received credit for the eight months he'd already served; moreover, he was allowed to serve the jail time he owed the state of California concurrently. Still, the daunting prospect of state prison was nearly too much for ODB to bear; in July, he had to be put on suicide watch pending a psychiatric evaluation, and reports surfaced that he'd suffered a broken leg after being assaulted in a holding facility.

It remained to be seen how ODB would hold up under the harsh environment of prison, and whether he would ever resolve his legal problems to the point where he could once again enjoy a productive recording career. Accordingly, Elektra issued the best-of compilation The Dirty Story: The Best of Ol' Dirty Bastard in late 2001, despite the fact that he'd only released two albums. In early 2002, some of the material he'd recorded during his fugitive days surfaced on the new album The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones, put out by the small D-3 label. With a dearth of actual ODB material to rely on, the album was padded out by a number of guest rappers and handled by unknown producers (even the RZA steered clear of the affair), and ODB himself went on record as knowing virtually nothing about the release. The reviews were almost uniformly scathing, calling Trials and Tribulations a shoddy piece of exploitation. In 2003 ODB was released from jail and quickly signed to Roc-a-Fella Records. The following year found him working on a new album, work that ended suddenly when ODB collapsed in a recording studio and died shortly thereafter. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide

Discography: Ol' Dirty Bastard

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Nigga Please Buy this CD	Nigga Please [Clean] Buy this CD	Free to Be Dirty: Live! [DVD] Buy this CD	All in Together Now Raw: A Tribute to Ol' Dirty Bastard Buy this CD	Return to the 36 Chambers Buy this CD
Return to the 36 Chambers Buy this CD	Return to the 36 Chambers Buy this CD	Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones [Clean] Buy this CD	Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones Buy this CD	ODBEP Buy this CD

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Wikipedia: Ol' Dirty Bastard

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Ol' Dirty Bastard
Birth name	Russell Tyrone Jones
Also known as	ODB, Big Baby Jesus, Sweet Baby Jesus, Dirt McGirt, Dirt Dog, Dirk Hardpec, Osirus, Osiris the Father, Joe Bananas, Ol' Dirt Schultz, Roll Fizzlebeef, Hasaan, Ill Irving the Murderer, Flint Ironstag, The BZA, The Drunken Master Styles, Blast Hardcheese, Ason Jones, Ason Unique
Born	November 15, 1968(1968-11-15)
Origin	East New York, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
Died	November 13, 2004 (aged 35) New York City, New York, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper
Years active	1988 – 2004
Labels	Loud/RCA Elektra Roc-A-Fella Records Sure Shot Recordings NuTech Digital Dame Dash Music Group/Koch Records
Associated acts	Wu-Tang Clan Brooklyn Zu

Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 – November 13, 2004) was an American rapper and occasional producer, who went by the stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard (often shortened to ODB). He was one of the founding members of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

Ol' Dirty Bastard simultaneously brought a measure of humor and a touch of the absurd to the Wu-Tang Clan. Often noted for his unusual microphone technique (critic Steve Huey writes of Jones' "outrageously profane, free-associative rhymes" delivered "in a distinctive half-rapped, half-sung style"^[1]), Jones' stage name came from a 1980 kung fu film entitled Ol' Dirty & The Bastard[1], the relevance of which was articulated by Method Man's assertion that there was "no father" to Jones' style.^[2]

After establishing the Wu-Tang Clan, Ol' Dirty Bastard went on to a successful solo career. However, his professional success was hampered by his erratic personal behavior and frequent legal troubles, including incarceration. He died in late 2004 of an accidental drug overdose only two days before his 36th birthday.^[3] Recently a video documentary was made on Ol' Dirty Bastard's life entitled; Dirty: The Official ODB Biography. The documentary features interviews from Wu-Tang members, affiliates, and family members, and is set to be released on November 10, 2009."^[4]

1 Biography
2 Discography
3 References
4 External links

Biography

Early life and career

Russell Tyrone Jones was born in East New York, Brooklyn in 1968. As he got older, he started hanging out more and more with his cousins Dante Diggs and Gary Grice; they all shared a taste for rap music and kung-fu movies. Diggs, later known as the RZA, Grice, later the GZA formed Force of the Imperial Master, which subsequently became known as the All in Together Now Crew after they had a successful underground single of that name.

In 1990, Ol' Dirty became close friends with fellow "5 percenter," Freedom Shabazz Allah, "Slumlord Shabazz," while both were residing as roommates in Orlando, Florida. Shabazz, hailing from Plainfield, New Jersey, immediately became close friends with Tom Jones after graduating from Job Corps in upstate New York along with RZA's eldest brother. The two became inseparable and spent countless hours penning rhymes together and working a brief stint at the local Hardee's and at Universal Studios as laborers at the "Jaws" attraction.

The cousins soon added six more friends and associates to the Clan, and released their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993. 36 Chambers received enormous critical praise, and is now widely regarded as one of the best and most influential albums of any genre to be released in the 1990s, as well as one of the best hip hop albums of all time.^[5]^{[broken citation]}

While most of the members received individual praise from critics and fans, Jones became perhaps the best-known member of the group.^{[citation needed]} Armed with a seemingly crazed, slurred, often off-beat, half-sung half-rapped delivery, bizarre lyrics and humorous antics that were unlike anything ever heard before in rap, he seemed to encapsulate and personify the raw, unadulterated and innovative style of the group.

Solo career

ODB's solo career began in 1995, making him the second member of the Wu-Tang Clan to release a solo album, following Method Man's 1994 effort, Tical. Released on March 28, 1995, Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version spawned the hit singles "Brooklyn Zoo" and "Shimmy Shimmy Ya", which helped propel the album to gold status. The album's sound was as raw and gritty as 36 Chambers, producer RZA creating beats even more minimalist and stripped-down than on the group's debut.

That same year, he was featured on the remix of Mariah Carey's "Fantasy". What might have seemed like an unlikely pairing spawned a major hit song.

Around this time, Jones gained notoriety when, as he was being profiled for an MTV biography, he took two of his thirteen children by limousine to a New York State welfare office to pick up his welfare check while his latest album was still in the top ten of the US charts. The entire incident was filmed by an MTV camera crew and was broadcast nationwide.

In 1997, ODB appeared on the Wu-Tang Clan's second and most commercially successful album, Wu-Tang Forever. However, Jones appeared less often on the Clan's second album than on the debut; he contributed a solo track titled "Dog Shit" as well as hooks ("As High As Wu-Tang Get") and spoken introductions ("Triumph"), but other than these appearances and featuring prominently on the songs "Maria" and "Reunited," as well as delivering a very short verse on "Heaterz," he was absent.

In February 1998, Jones witnessed a car accident from the window of his Brooklyn recording studio. He and a friend ran to the accident scene and organized about a dozen onlookers who assisted in lifting the 1996 Ford Mustang—rescuing a 4-year-old girl from the wreckage. She was taken to a hospital with second and third degree burns. Using a false name, Jones visited the girl in the hospital frequently until he was spotted by members of the media.^[6]

The evening following the traffic accident, Jones rushed on-stage unexpectedly as Shawn Colvin took the stage to give her acceptance speech for "Song of the Year" at the Grammy Awards, and began complaining that he had recently purchased expensive clothes in anticipation of winning the "Best Rap Album" award that he lost to Puff Daddy. As Colvin took the stage to a round of applause, he implored the audience, "Please calm down, the music and everything. It's nice that I went and bought me an outfit today that costed a lot of money today, you know what I mean? 'Cause I figured that Wu-Tang was gonna win. I don't know how you all see it, but when it comes to the children, Wu-Tang is for the children. We teach the children. You know what I mean? Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best, Okay? I want you all to know that this is ODB, and I love you all. Peace!" His bizarre on-stage antics were widely reported in the mainstream media.

In April 1998, he announced his new stage name, Big Baby Jesus (the first of many alternate stage names; see the list below), but was never able to give a coherent explanation for the very brief switch.

In 1999, he found time to release Nigga Please between jail sentences, which received much success and was even more bizarrely warped than his debut. This release included the single "Got Your Money" which became extremely successful in the US and elsewhere; it was produced by The Neptunes, and its success would serve as one of the production group's main stepping stones to the super-stardom they would later achieve. As well as the Neptunes, the single also put singer Kelis, who sang the chorus, on the map; she went on to have a successful solo career. During the same period, Jones was paid US$30,000 to appear on Insane Clown Posse's 1999 album The Amazing Jeckel Brothers. Completing his track in two days, his recording consisted of him rambling about "bitches." Insane Clown Posse re-recorded the track and reedited Jones' vocals in order to form four rhymes out of his rambling, giving the song the title "Bitches".^[7]

In 2001, with Jones again in jail for crack cocaine possession, his record company Elektra Records made the decision to release a greatest hits album (despite there being only two albums in ODB's back catalog) in order to both end their contract with the unreliable, troubled artist as well as make some money off the publicity generated by his legal troubles. After the contract with Elektra was terminated, the label D-3 records released the album The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones in 2002, comprised of tracks put together without Jones's input, using the vocals he had recorded with hypewoman Sic-wif-it (Salome), DJ extrodinaire Organix (Eden), and the high- profile lyricist T-Time (Tamara) prior to his capture by authorities. The label recruited many guests including several Wu-Tang Clan affiliates, No Limit Records artist C-Murder, and Insane Clown Posse. However, the album was critically panned and sales were poor.

The year 2003 brought a change in the life of Ol' Dirty Bastard however. The day he was released from prison, with Mariah Carey and Damon Dash by his side, Jones signed a contract with Roc-A-Fella Records, and began a new chapter in his life. Living at his mother's home under house arrest and with a court-ordered probation hanging over his head, he managed to star in a VH1 special, Inside Out: ODB Life on Parole. He also managed to record a new album, originally scheduled to be released through Dame Dash Music Group in 2004; it remains unreleased.

Aliases

The members of the Wu-Tang clan rapped under several personae, each with their own mythology and influences. Ol' Dirty Bastard takes his stage name from the 1980 Meng-Hwa Ho film Mad Mad Kung Fu (Guai zhao ruan pi she, also known as Ol' Dirty Kung Fu or Ol' Dirty & the Bastard). Some of ODB's recurring aliases:^[8]

Big Baby Jesus, Sweet Baby Jesus (from ODB: Dirty Minded Documentary)
Dirt McGirt, Dirt Dog
Russell Jones
Osirus
Osiris the Father
Joe Bananas
Ol' Dirt Schultz
Hasaan
Ill Irving the Murderer
The BZA
The Drunken Master Styles
Ason Jones, Ason Unique
Rain Man

Legal troubles

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)

Ol' Dirty Bastard taken sometime after an arrest in 2001.

In 1993, ODB was convicted of second degree assault for an attempted robbery and in 1994, he was shot in the abdomen following an argument with another rapper.

In 1997, he was arrested for failure to pay child support for three of his thirteen children. His wife, Icelene Jones, claimed he had not paid any support in over a year.

In 1998, he pled guilty to attempted assault on his wife and was the victim of a home invasion robbery at his girlfriend's house. He was shot in the back and arm but the wounds were superficial.

In July 1998, only days after being shot in a push-in robbery at his girlfriend's house in Brooklyn, he was arrested for shoplifting a pair of $50 shoes from a Sneaker Stadium store in Virginia Beach, Virginia, although he was carrying close to $500 in cash at the time. He was issued bench warrants by the Virginia Beach Sheriffs Department to stand trial after he failed to appear in court numerous times. He was arrested for criminal threatening after a series of drunken confrontations in Los Angeles a few weeks later, and was then re-arrested for similar charges not long after that.

During a traffic stop, the details of which remain clouded in multiple versions of events, he was arrested for attempted murder and criminal weapon possession. The case was later dismissed.

In February 1999, he was arrested for driving without a license and for being a convicted felon wearing a bulletproof vest (the first person arrested for this infraction under a new California law). Back in New York weeks later, he was arrested for drug possession of crack cocaine and for traffic offenses. With multiple cases in the past and present, he was arrested with marijuana and 20 vials of crack. After his arrest, ODB reportedly asked the police to "make the rocks disappear". During a court hearing, he once called a female prosecutor a "sperm donor."^[9]

This criminal record was commented on by Chris Rock in his 1999 spoken word song, "No Sex (In the Champagne Room)", with Rock asserting that "ODB couldn't've possibly committed all those crimes.

ODB entered rehab while still technically a fugitive from the law, but strange behavior during a subsequent court date sent him to jail for a brief period.

In October 2000, he escaped from his court-mandated drug treatment facility and spent one month as a fugitive. During his time on the run, he met with RZA and spent some time in their recording studio. He then appeared onstage at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York swigging a bottle at the record release party for The W, the third Wu-Tang Clan album. In late November 2000 while still on the lam, he was arrested outside a South Philadelphia McDonald's (at 29th and Gray's Ferry Ave.), after he drew a crowd while signing autographs. He spent a couple of days in a Philadelphia jail and was later extradited to New York City. A Manhattan court sentenced him to two to four years incarceration.

Death

Leading up to his early death, Russell Jones' legal troubles and odd behavior made him "something of a folk hero", according to The New Yorker writer Michael Agger.^[10] However, critic Steve Huey writes that "it was difficult for observers to tell whether ODB's wildly erratic behavior was the result of serious drug problems or genuine mental instability. The possibility that his continued antics were at least partly the result of conscious image-making disappeared as time wore on."

Jones collapsed at approximately 5:29 p.m. on November 13, 2004 (two days before his 36th birthday) at Wu-Tang's recording studio (36 Records LLC on West 34th Street in New York City). He was pronounced dead less than an hour later. His funeral was held at Brooklyn's Christian Cultural Center.

The official cause of death was a drug overdose as an autopsy found a lethal mixture of cocaine and prescription drug Tramadol, a synthetic opiate used to treat severe pain.^[11] The overdose was ruled accidental and witnesses say that Jones complained of chest pain on the day he died.^[12]

A statement was released on Saturday (November 13, 2004) evening by his mother Cherry Jones:

“

"This evening, I received a phone call that is every mother's worst dream," she said. "My son, Russell Jones, passed away. To the public, he was known as Ol' Dirty Bastard, but to me, he was known as Rusty, the kindest, most generous soul on earth. I appreciate all the support and prayers that I have received. Russell was more than a rapper, he was a loving father, brother, uncle, and most of all, son."

”

A statement was also released by Damon Dash, who signed ODB to Roc-A-Fella Records in the fall of 2004:

“

"All of us in the Roc-A-Fella family are shocked and saddened by the sudden and tragic death of our brother and friend. Russell inspired all of us with his spirit, and with a tremendous heart. He will be missed dearly, and our thoughts, prayers and deepest condolences go out to his wonderful family. The world has lost a great talent, but we mourn the loss of our friend."

”

Discography

Albums

Album Name	Release Date	Status
Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version	March 28, 1995	Platinum (U.S.)
Nigga Please	September 14, 1999	Gold (U.S.), Gold (CAN)
The Dirty Story: The Best of Ol' Dirty Bastard (compilation)	September 18, 2001
The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones	March 19, 2002
Osirus (mix-tape)	January 4, 2005
The Definitive Ol' Dirty Bastard Story (compilation)	June 21, 2005
Free to Be Dirty! Live	August 30, 2005
In Memory Of... Vol. 3	July 9, 2007
A Son Unique	November 07, 2009

Singles

1995: "Brooklyn Zoo"
1995: "Shimmy Shimmy Ya"
1999: "Got Your Money" (feat. Kelis)
2001: "Missin My Rock (An Ode to Lithdawg and crew)"
2003: "Welcome Home" (feat. Nicole Wray)

Appearances

1993 "Show & Prove" (from the Big Daddy Kane album Daddy's Home)
1995 "Nuttin' But Flavor" (Funkmaster Flex single)
1995 "Duel Of The Iron Mic" (from the GZA album Liquid Swords)
1995 "Fantasy" (from the Mariah Carey album Daydream)
1996 "Stricly HIP-HOP" ([Afro Jazz] feat ODB album [Afrocalypse])
1996 "Woo-Hah!! Got You All In Check (Remix)" (single by Busta Rhymes)
1997 "Fix (Main Mix)" (single by Blackstreet)
1997 "Hip Hop Drunkies" (from the Alkaholiks album Likwidation)
1997 "Say Nothin'" (from the Omar Lye-Fook album This Is Not A Love Song)
1998 "If You Don't Know" (from the Killah Priest album Heavy Mental)
1998 "Nowhere To Run" (from Chef Aid: The South Park Album)
1998 "Shining Star" (from the Sunz Of Man album The Last Shall Be First)
1998 "For The Money" (from the Mack 10 album The Recipe)
1998 "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)" (from Bulworth (soundtrack))
1999 "Bitches" (from the Insane Clown Posse album The Amazing Jeckel Brothers)
1999 "Prepare For The Buddha Monk" (from the Popa Wu album Visions Of The 10th Chamber)
1999 "Kiss Of A Black Widow" (from the RZA album Bobby Digital In Stereo)
1999 "Crash Your Crew" (from the GZA album Beneath The Surface)
2000 "Violence" (from the Cam'ron album S.D.E.)
2000 "Wreck (Mankind Theme)" (from WWF Aggression)
2001 "Black Widow Pt. 2" (from the RZA album Digital Bullet)
2001 "Sussudio" (from the album Urban Renewal)
2002 "Doe Rae Wu" (from the Wu-Tang Killa Beez album The Sting)
2003 "Pop Shit" (from The Neptunes album The Neptunes Present... Clones)
2003 "We Pop" (from the RZA album Birth Of A Prince)
2003 "When You Hear That" (single by Beanie Sigel)
2004 "Dirty" (from the Slum Village album Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit))
2004 "Dirty and Thirsty" (from the Melbeatz album Rapper's Delight)
2004 "Some Girls (Dance With Women)" (bonus remix of the first single off the JC Chasez album Schizophrenic)
2004 "Old Man" (from the Masta Killa album No Said Date)
2005 "Blah-Blah-Blah" (from the Brooke Valentine Album Chain Letter)
2005 "Break That" (from the Mathematics album The Problem)
2005 "Keep The Receipt" (from the Kanye West Mixtape Freshman Adjustment)
2005 "Thirsty" (from Blade Trinity OST)
2005 "Specially Trained Ninja" (from the Zu Ninjaz album Now Justice)
2005 "Where's Your Money?" (bonus track from the Busta Rhymes album The Big Bang)
2006 "9 Milli Bros" (from the Ghostface album Fishscale)
2006 "Where Brooklyn At?" (from the Bekay single "Where Brooklyn At?")
2006 "Build Me Up" (from the Rhymefest album Blue Collar)
2006 "Dirty Mef" (from the Method Man album 4:21...The Day After)
2007 "Toxic" (Mark Ronson remix from the album Version)
2008 "Do it For" (from the Brooklyn Zu and Chamber #9, Verse 32)
2009 "Strange Enough" (on the collaboration-project "N.A.S.A., The Spirit of Apollo" featuring Karen O)

References

^ Description at AllMusic
^ as related on track 5 of Enter the Wu-Tang
^ Zahlaway, Jon (December 15, 2004). "Autopsy shows ODB died of accidental drug overdose". LiveDaily. http://www.livedaily.com/news/7457.html?t=77. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
^ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002LFPBOW/ref=s9_simz_gw_s0_p74_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=06BBQ8WXY0CJ605JSZ3K&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
^ http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/A890.htm Acclaimed Music - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
^ News - Articles - 1429494 - 19980224
^ Bruce, Joseph; Hobey Echlin. "Big Money Hustlas". in Nathan Fostey. ICP: Behind the Paint (2nd Edition ed.). Royal Oak, Michigan: Psychopathic Records. pp. 414–433. ISBN 09741846083.
^ TV.com page on ODB: "Alias Names: Dirt McGirt, Russell Jones, O.D.B., Osirus, Big Baby Jesus, ODB, Dirt Dog, Joe Bananas"
^ Rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard dies suddenly in New York
^ Agger, Michael (2005-01-10). "Not Dirty". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/01/17/050117ta_talk_agger. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1494879/20041215/ol_dirty_bastard.jhtml
^ http://www.nme.com/news/ol-dirty-bastard/18784

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ol' Dirty Bastard

v • d • e Ol' Dirty Bastard

Solo albums	Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version · Nigga Please · The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones

Posthumous albums	Osirus · A Son Unique

Compilation albums	The Dirty Story: The Best of Ol' Dirty Bastard · The Definitive Ol' Dirty Bastard Story · Free to Be Dirty! Live

Singles	"Brooklyn Zoo" · "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" · "Got Your Money" · "Missin My Rock (An Ode to Lithdawg and crew) · "Welcome Home"

Related articles	Wu-Tang Clan · Brooklyn Zu

v • d • e Wu-Tang Clan

RZA · GZA · Method Man · Raekwon · Ghostface Killah · Inspectah Deck · Masta Killa · U-God · Cappadonna Ol' Dirty Bastard (deceased)

Studio albums	Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) · Wu-Tang Forever · The W · Iron Flag · 8 Diagrams

Singles	"Protect Ya Neck" · "Method Man" · "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" · "C.R.E.A.M." · "Can It Be All So Simple" · "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta F' Wit" · "Triumph" · "It's Yourz" · "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" · "Gravel Pit" · "Careful (Click, Click)" · "Uzi (Pinky Ring)" · "Back in the Game" · "Rules" · "The Heart Gently Weeps" · "Take It Back"

Compilations	The Swarm · Wu-Chronicles · Wu-Chronicles, Chapter 2 · The Sting · Disciples of the 36 Chambers · Legend of the Wu-Tang Clan · Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture · Mathematics Presents Wu-Tang Clan & Friends Unreleased · Wu-Tang Chamber Music

Related	Discography · The Wu-Tang Manual · The Tao of Wu · Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style · Affiliates · Affiliates discography · Category

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Discography	Reasonable Doubt · Ghetto Cyrano · In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 · Streets Is Watching · Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life · The Professional · The Coming of Age · Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter · The Truth · Backstage · All Money Is Legal · The Dynasty: Roc La Familia · The Understanding · The Professional, Pt. 2 · The Reason · The Blueprint · Jay-Z: Unplugged · State Property · Chapter One: Greatest Hits · The Best of Both Worlds · Come Home with Me · The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse · Philadelphia Freeway · Diplomatic Immunity · The Blueprint 2.1 · The Chain Gang Vol. 2 · From Me to U · The Black Album · M.A.D.E. · The College Dropout · Tough Luv · Unfinished Business · Collision Course · Purple Haze · The B.Coming · 534 · Brothers from Another · Roc-A-Fella Presents: Teairra Mari · Late Registration · Los Rompe Discotekas · N.O.R.E. y la Familia...Ya Tú Sabe · Greatest Hits · Kingdom Come · The Professional, Pt. 3 · Graduation · American Gangster · Free at Last · The Solution · 808s & Heartbreak · The Last Kiss · The Blueprint Collector's Edition

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Definitive Ol' Dirty Bastard Story Buy this CD	In Memory Of, Vol. 3 Buy this CD	Osirus: The Official Mixtape Buy this CD	Dirty Story: The Best of Ol' Dirty Bastard Buy this CD	Free to Be Dirty: Live! Buy this CD
Son Unique [Clean] Buy this CD	Son Unique Buy this CD	Brooklyn Zoo [EP] Buy this CD	Dirty & Stinkin' Buy this CD

Ol' Dirty Bastard

Biography

Contents

Biography

Early life and career

Solo career

Aliases

Legal troubles

Death

Discography

Albums

Singles

Appearances

References

External links