Known for his outlandish behavior and exotic vocal delivery, Ol' Dirty Bastard is nothing short of a legendary figure in hip hop lore. It's hard to believe a guy like this once lived among us. But it's true.
ODB founded the Wu-Tang Clan along with his cousins with RZA and GZA and went on to have a moderately successful solo career before he fatally overdosed on a cocktail of cocaine and prescription opioids in 2004. Click through the gallery to revisit 10 essential ODB verses, songs, and moments. It all began in 1993...
Wu-Tang Clan - "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" (1993)
The Wu's debut album Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers was a revelation upon its release in 1993. Its songs had the feeling of a raw cipher, with 6-7 verses that embodied friendly competition and fierce brotherhood. ODB often typified the group's unique blend of grit and oddball humor. His "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" verse starts at 1:40.
Wu-Tang Clan - "Protect Ya Neck" (1993)
ODB's "Protect Ya Neck" verse is widely regarded as one of his finest. He preceded the verse with a sing-song chant, ("C'mon, baby baby, c'mon, baby baby...) the cadence of which closely resembled the intro he laid down a decade later in his now-legendary session with Pharrell.
"Brooklyn Zoo" (1995)
ODB charismatic defiance of convention extended to his off-kilter rhyme schemes. OBSERVE:
"Enough to make you break and shake your ass /
As I create rhymes good as a Tastykake makes."
"Shimmy Shimmy Ya" (1995)
Baby I like it raw...
Mariah Carey - "Fantasy" feat. ODB (1995)
The incredible true story of ODB's contributions to "Fantasy," as told by Billboard:
I reached out to ODB and he wanted $15,000 to rap on the record. At the time, that was a lot of money, but it really wasn't for Mariah Carey's budget -- so, no problem. He finally showed up, three hours late, and when he got there, it was about 10:30 at night. He had been drinking, and was on the phone when he walked in. Irate, screaming at some girl how he's gonna come kill her, he's going to kick her ass...and then whispering, “I love you.” Then screaming again. This went on for an hour.
He finally came out and was like, “Yo, pardon me, this bitch is driving me crazy. I need some Moet and Newports before we get into this record.” I said, “It's 12:30 at night now bro, I don't know where we’re going to get Moet from.” He started yelling at the assistants, calling them white devils, saying, “You white devils, y'all don't want black people to have shit.” They went out for like an hour, and the only thing they could find were some Heinekens. He was so disgusted, he threw a bottle on the floor.
At this point Mariah had been calling every hour on the hour, wanting to hear something over the phone. Tommy was pissed because Mariah was keeping him up, so he finally got on the phone with ODB -- and after that, finally we started to record. He said one line -- "me and Mariah, go back like babies with pacifiers" -- then paused, said, “Yo, I need to take a break,” and went to sleep for 45 minutes. He woke up and was like, “Yo, let me hear what I did so far.” We played his one line back, he sang another line or two, and then slept for another hour. He would come up with a line, punch that in, go to sleep. He went to sleep 3 different times in the middle of trying to get that one verse done. If you listen to the record now, on his verse, you can hear that it’s punched in in pieces. He actually told the engineer, “Y'all better have your shit set and record it right, cause I'm not doing it twice.”
I stayed in the studio until we finished it. So I was sleeping in the studio when Tommy and Mariah called me, and said they loved the record. But Tommy had a bright idea: let's get ODB back in the studio, and instead of just, “New York in the house,” do [a line] for every city. I said, “You’ve got to be kidding.” Of course [ODB] wanted another $15,000. He came back to the studio, a little more mellow but dead tired. He's sitting there picking food out of his teeth -- he pulled a piece of food out of his mouth so big it was scary. I was like, “How long did you walk around with that food in your mouth?” Like, it was unbelievable. Then he fell asleep on couch, kicked one shoe off. His foot smelled so bad, we had to let him sleep and leave the control room. Eventually, we got the other parts done and that was that. I thought the story was over.
A week later, it was time to shoot a video. We reached out to him, and he wanted another $15,000 dollars. No problem. So I sent a car to his house and he drank every friggin’ thing in the limo, showed up at Rye Playland [in New York], and went to his trailer. I had asked him, “Do you need the stylist to buy clothes for you?” He said, “Nah, this is hip-hop -- I'm just rocking some jeans and Timbs.” [That day], he was in the trailer, in and out of consciousness, when I said, “We're getting ready to do a scene.” He said, “I don't got no clothes, how am I going to do a video if I ain’t got nothing to wear?” I started screaming at him.
Tommy told us take my corporate credit card to the mall. ODB disappeared for a minute, and we found him in a store trying to buy Louis Vuitton luggage. He said, “I'm going to use it for a scene.” He came back [to the set] with all these bags of Tommy Hilfiger clothes and Timberlands.
It was finally time for him to do his scene, and I promise you, he put on a pair of jeans and Timbs, and said, “I'm not going to wear a shirt, I don't need no clothes.” I wanted to shoot him. He was like, “I have an idea -- I want to tie up the clown.” Plus, Mariah turned him on to peach schnapps, which she used to always drink. He drank like two bottles of that. So between the hot sun and him drinking two bottles, what a disastrous day that was. The video was a miracle, a real miracle.
ODB crashes Shawn Colvin's Grammy acceptance speech (1998)
Many years before Kanye West crashed Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the 2009 VMAs, ODB crashed Shawn Colvin's 1998 Song of the Year acceptance speech at the Grammys -- to protest the Wu-Tang's Rap Album of the Year defeat at the hands of Puff Daddy:
"Wu-Tang is for the children. We teach the children. Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best. I want y'all to know that this is ODB and I love you all."
"Got Your Money" feat. Kelis (1999)
ODB could flourish while rapping over the kinkiest beats. "Got You Money" featured an irresistible pocket groove that was more palatable to some: the song was the highest-charting single of his career, reaching #26 on the Hot 100.
"Nigga Please" (1999)
A few months before ODB released his sophomore album Nigga Please, he was involved in a one-sided shootout with cops at a traffic stop with Brooklyn. Police fired eight shots at his car and claimed that he opened fire first. But the alleged "gun" he used was never recovered.
"Cold Blooded" (1999)
Only Ol' Dirty Bastard had the balls to cover Rick James' "Cold Blooded," the song that Dave Chappelle would eventually immortalize in his sketch Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories.
"Pop Shots" (2005)
In 2005, ODB's camp released a posthumous album Osirus, named after one of his pseudonyms and Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead. One of the project's most popular songs, DJ Premier-produced "Pop Shots" contains the following maxim, which nicely sums up ODB's approach to life:
"Niggas out here trying to prove whose the realest
It's ok to pop shit, but come a little different."