Saturday, November 13, 2004

R.I.P Russell Jones bka Ol' Dirty Bastard, Big Baby Jesus, Unique Ason, Osirus, Dirt McGirt

"There's no father to his style, that's why he's the Ol' Dirty Bastard..."

Truer words were never spoken. Clichéd as it sounds, the mould was broken after he dropped. I remember a freestyle that he dropped on Much's Rap City back in the day with Big Buddha Monk that still leaves me awestruck. Out of the core Wu members, several names come up as far as who's the illest: the GZA, Meth, Ghostface, and Raekwon, namely. But for me, it was always Ol' Dirty.

When I saw him rock "Brooklyn Zoo" on The Jon Stewart Show back in the day, I was SO amped to get his album Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version. It's still my favorite Wu-related project. I gotta admit that Nigga Please didn't do it for me at first, because the Neptunes' production style was so new back then. I listened to it again not too long ago, and it sounded a little better to me. Actually, a lot better.

I was also amped when he signed to Roc-A-Fella, especially after realizing what a genius Kanye West is (before him, I never would've touched one of their releases, as dope J-Hova is.). Brother was gettin' his life back together, and he was gonna hit us with some heat. It's a shame. I'm just glad we were able to enjoy your one-of-a-kind presence on this earth, no matter how brief a moment it was.

Rest in peace, Dirt.

2 comments:

TRoyal said...

Fa sho. I got nothing else to add.

Allan Lorde said...

Word. People talk about hip-hop and originality...you didn't have to look any further than him for a prime example.