For Myself & Others: RIP O.D.B.
By Bomani Jones, Special to AOL BlackVoices
It’s not shocking that the Ol’ Dirty Bastard is dead. We’ve seen chemical dependencies send many men to their demise ahead of schedule. The world’s surprise at Dirty’s sudden passing should come with a pang of guilt from having been entertained by his struggles with his addictions.
He was hysterical on the drunken ‘Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version.’ He was pretty funny on the hard rock-influenced ‘N***a Please’ (that would be Rick James’ brand of rock, not Led Zeppelin’s). And he was just long gone on the dreadful ‘The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones.’
Being hooked on drinks and dope isn’t funny, but the ODB made intoxication laughable, maybe more humorous than he should have. Inebriation played a role in making him the most unlikely pop star, a grimy, peculiar-looking underground emcee that lent comic relief to the dead-serious Wu-Tang Clan. While RZA was rambling about things that were either too deep for most minds or too random to be understood, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon were pioneering Mafia imagery in hip-hop, and Method Man was trying to maintain his balance on a line of gritty commercialism, Dirty was making us laugh.
But those attempts at comedy were dope. Since it’s obvious that his legacy is likely to become one of a caricature, a character not unlike the Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious, it’s necessary to remind the world why we ever found out who ODB was. Sid became the tragic embodiment of punk music, but his musical talent wasn’t worth mentioning (he couldn’t even play the bass, the instrument he was supposed to play for the Pistols). On the other hand, Dirty was a gifted emcee. Were his appeal limited to outlandish behavior, many others would be as famous as he. But before we realized he was nuts, he gained notoriety by blazing the Wu’s coming-out party, ‘Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers.’ He was dope enough to justify that his solo LP be released before every Clan member’s but Meth, and he brought heat on the classic ‘Return to the 36.’
‘N***a Please’ didn’t quite do the trick. As most know, drunks are more interesting and less disturbing than crack heads, the latter of which numerous reports would lead us to believe Dirty had become.
Dirty’s niche was making us laugh, but he wasn’t funny like Slick Rick or Shock G. The outrageousness wasn’t contrived, nor did fashion accessories like eyepatches and plastic noses amplify it. No matter how foolish he appeared to be, it was so interesting because it seemed natural and unrehearsed. It would be more likely to see Dirty on the street dressed like a broke Don Cornelius than it would be to see Shock dressed as Humpty Hump. It would be impossible to script the hilarious ad-libs and outtakes on his first album. Only Dirty could say something as goofy as, “I don’t have a problem with you f***in’ me/but I do have a problem with you not f***in’ me” without drawing the ire of the most critical backpackers.
Does anyone really think he planned to rush the stage at the ’98 GRAMMYs? Could anyone else take a camera crew with them to pick up their welfare check in a limousine without being called a coon? Only if they were slick enough to have people address them as the Old Dirty Bastard with a straight face.
That’s what made Dirty so dope.
But at this point, does anyone remember when he was dope? How many people remember rushing to the record store to buy his first album, only to be blown away by its ridiculous cover art (a fictitious welfare identification card, though we knew he kept a real one in his wallet)? Who knew ‘Brooklyn Zoo’ would still bob head? Does anyone still think of the brilliant ‘Soul Train’ spoofs in the video for ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya?’ when they think of the late Russell Jones? In the swirl of his surreal life -- one that made the thought of Flavor Flav and Bridgitte Nielsen seem positively normal -- that all seems so distant.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of ODB’s career is that his character eventually overshadowed his art. The greatest tragedy of his life was that its potential was never fully realized because of addiction.
Nov. 19, 2004