Top 10 Songs by Ol’ Dirty Bastard
Russell was born in Brooklyn in 1969 and grew up in a rough neighborhood while his parents were on welfare. He grew up with other members of Wu-tang RZA and GZA sharing a desire and love for rap music and kung-fu which can easily be seen in his work with Wu-tang. His rap name is unique in itself and stands for the fact that his style has no father. Wu-Tang’s first album, 36 Chambers, was released in 1993.
This is one of the most definitive Wu-Tang albums and is seen as one of the best rap albums out today. After which Ol’ Dirty came out with his first solo album, Return to the 36 Chambers, in 1995. This album included a few of my top 10 songs from ODB including “Brooklyn Zoo” and “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”. Wu-Tang was not over with however as they continued to release albums as a group, as did the ODB. in 1999 he released the album Nigga Please which included greats like “Got Your Money”, “Nigga Please”, and “I Want Pussy”.
During his fugitive days, he recorded music with RZA and J-love creating songs like, “Pop Shots” and “Lift Ya Skirt”. This leads to the countdown of his top 10 songs releases as one of his aliases, ODB, Dirt Dog, Osirus, Dirt McGirt, Ason, or Big Baby Jesus…
# 10: “Dirty the Moocher”
# 9: “Cracker Jack”
# 8: “Dirty Run”
# 7: “Lyrical Virus”
# 6: “Got Your Money” (features Kalis)
# 5: “Back in the Air” (features Ghostface Killah)
# 4: “Dirty & Stinkin pt. 2” (features Method Man)
# 3: “Brooklyn Zoo”
# 2: “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”
And the number one song from Dirt McGirt: “Brooklyn Zoo II (Tiger Crane)” (features Ghostface Killah)
The success of his music and being in the spotlight most likely influenced his bad behavior outside the studio…or perhaps he’s really just completely insane. Either way ODB faced numerous criminal charges. One of which was for unpaid child support totaling around $35,000. Another of course was for welfare fraud. This showed that the system, which allowed a gold record holding artist to get welfare checks, was in itself a horrible one.
Later he was arrested for attempted assault on his wife, shoplifting (and not appearing in court afterward), terrorist threats to security guards, attempted murder of police officers (not charged in court), criminal weapons possession (same incident as previous), driving without license plates, crack cocaine possession, and failure to pay bail all were locked in his criminal record for life. After going into rehab to escape jail time, he was soon kicked out for violating the rule of not drinking alcohol and was then sent to jail. Instead of going to prison, ODB was sentenced to 6 months in rehab.
However before he finished the sentence he ‘bounced’ out of rehab and became a fugitive. He showed up to a record release party for Wu-Tang’s new album W. He seemed to somehow escape the show which was filled with police officers until he was caught in a McDonald’s parking lot giving out autographs. After serving his time in jail and getting beaten, he was released in 2003 and started making music again. However, he collapsed during one such recording in 2004 and died shortly after. The autopsy later showed he died from drug overdose.
ODB will be missed by all the Wu-Tang and fans around the world, but will never be forgotten for his ‘bastard’ rap style. In 2006 the properly title album, A Son Unique, was released with his unreleased material from mix tapes and recordings.
