"Aw, I don't want to...you,
you can't even sing!"
ODB: This Ol' Dirty b*stard,
man, you know what I'm saying?
I ain't doin' no...
You know what I'm saying?
Everything that I just spoke
on this is some real...
He said, "I'm Ol' Dirty
b*stard." He's telling you
who the...he is from the door.
I'm the one-man army, Ason
I never been tooken out,
I keep MC's looking out
I'll drop signs
like Cosby dropping babies
He is in the great tradition
of Black entertainers
like Rudy Ray Moore,
Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor,
and rappers like
Biz Markie, Flava Flav,
Fernando Jr.: ODB is a founding
member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
The rest of the clan
kind of looked at him
in a way for leadership.
Ghostface: Out of the whole
group, he was the soul.
And when he left,
it was a big loss for us.
Big, big, big, big, big,
big, big.
[ Shouting ]
Dirty was the energy
to everything we got started.
Me and Mariah go back
like babies with pacifiers
Old Dirt Dog's no liar
Carey: Hearing him,
it was a griminess.
And the fact that he was singing
the way he was singing,
ODB was the natural person --
the best person.
It's a fun record.
Him being a part of my life
changed my life.
He was festive. He was fun.
Dash: He was the crazy one.
He was the wild card,
but with a lot of swag.
He was the one that gave no...
We would sit down
and we'd be like,
"Yo, you changed."
He'd be like, "You...right."
He would admit it.
He'd go, "Yeah,
you...right I'm changing."
Suddenly he had all this
newfound money, fame, attention,
and the media
doesn't give you time to adjust.
Reporter: Rapper ODB
is in the news again,
this time facing
shoplifting charges.
Russell Jones,
known to rap fans as ODB,
was arraigned today
in Los Angeles.
Ross:
We get to live vicariously
by watching these celebrities
behave badly.
Slowly but surely,
he became somebody else,
and he started living
out Ol' Dirty b*stard
more than Unique Ason.
If y'all see Dirty on stage
too long, that...drunk.
We all watch a car crash,
right? I don't think
you can blame society.
You can blame the media,
I think, for perpetually
promoting these images.
Funeral services are planned
for Thursday
for Russell Jones,
the hip-hop artist known as ODB.
ODB: Ol' Dirty b*stard,
that's just, like, a job.
You know what I mean?
My children,
they know me as "Dad."
Fernando Jr:
Russell Jones, the man,
was someone who really loved
his kids and his wife.
Icelene:
"Daddy, Daddy." That's it.
That's all we called him.
I didn't call him Unique.
I didn't call him Ason.
I didn't call him Russell.
I didn't call him ODB,
Ol' Dirty b*stard.
It was just "daddy" to me.
Icelene: What's up?
Icelene: My husband, Unique,
he gave me a camcorder.
Once I got it in my hands,
it was a wrap.
You can't see anything?
Icelene:
Yeah, I can see you now.
I was everywhere with that
camcorder, recording everything.
[ Children cheering, laughing ]
Every day is ODB, ODB, ODB,
Russell Jones,
Ol' Dirty b*stard,
is reliving his life
and his death
over and over and over again.
[ Crowd shouting ]
Man: I wanna know where you
from, you know what I'm saying?
Are you from New York?
Are you from...?
ODB:
I'm from Brooklyn, man.
The only way you can flex
in Brooklyn
is going to the zoo,
because you can't make no money
without going to Brooklyn Zoo.
You can't sell no drugs
without going to Brooklyn Zoo.
You can't do nothin'.
You can't nothin'...
Nothin'!
[ Siren wailing ]
Fernando Jr.: In the late '60s,
when Russell Jones was born,
it was a tough time
for Black America then.
At the same time that blacks
were fighting for
and somewhat securing rights,
they were being k*lled.
Martin Luther King,
Malcolm X, Medgar Evers --
all three of those men
were assassinated.
It was just a very messy,
chaotic time.
Ramsey: We were living
in the Brownsville projects.
A lot of gangs
infiltrated different blocks.
You were always faced
with getting mugged,
coming from school, you know,
getting your pockets picked.
It got so bad that there was
a m*rder in our building.
After that had happened,
my father said,
"You know, we're going to move
to a better place."
And we ended up moving
to Linden Plaza.
Moving to Linden Plaza
had a whole different energy.
It was like a fantasy for us.
It was idyllic, very quiet,
beautiful.
It was like heaven.
We got to bicycle
and go to the pools
that were in different parts
of the complex.
Icelene: Linden Plaza is
a little bit more uppity-up
than the surrounding projects
around us.
We lived up on a mountain is --
that's what they called
Plaza, a mountain.
[ Laughs ]
Haskins: Their mom wore wigs
back then,
so we used to dress up
in her wigs and her clothes.
She always had beautiful,
beautiful clothes.
Jenkins: Everybody was
at the Jones' house.
That was the spot.
I'd be there more than
I'd be at my house.
RZA: You know,
we grew up together
from the age of six,
you know what I mean?
Running around.
He's my blood cousin.
His house was the house
I would go and hear music at
you know what I mean?
His family had the biggest
record collection,
you know what I mean?
So I would go over to his house,
and hear all these different
musics, and I think those --
that that influenced me,
you know what I mean?
Ramsey: My cousin, RZA,
would come over to our house,
stay over there
for like a couple of days.
It was -- It was a place of
solace.
ODB: My cousin and GZA comes
and brings me outside
to a block party.
And when I get
to the block party,
the DJ throws
on a couple of break beats.
You know what I mean?
He started rapping
like a dip-dip-dah,
so-socialize
And, yo,
I was blown out my mind.
Hip-hop was so new
and fresh for us.
We got into the artists
like Fat Boys and Kurtis Blow.
Jimmy Spicer lived in
Linden Plaza in Building Five.
We started making our own tapes.
I had my father buy me a mixer
and my two turntables and
Casio keyboard, drum machine.
I remember we were all
in the room -- it was RZA,
GZA, my brother, Russell,
and I.
My brother was watching
on the sidelines
and seeing how exciting it was.
Russell wanted to rap,
and RZA influenced Russell.
RZA: He was my student, first of
all, you know what I mean?
but he was one of the most
powerful students that I've had.
The first time I met ODB was,
you know,
back in my neighborhood,
Park Hill projects.
I had to be about 12 years old.
He was just a hip-hop head.
You know, I seen it in him.
Rap helped him, like, open up,
and his personality
started to come out more.
He was becoming more outgoing.
He was always seemingly
getting into trouble.
Raekwon: Dirty was
a professional thief,
him and me.
He would go to Macy's
and he would boost clothes.
Raekwon: He always would get in
the...and it was like
we was doing it for fun
because we knew how to do it.
Ramsey: He would get caught.
The security would call
our house and says, "Uh,
can we speak to Mr. Jones?"
And they would tell him,
"Hey, we got your son down here.
He's been caught shoplifting."
My father says, "Keep him,"
and hang up the phone.
[ Laughs ]
There was discipline.
My father just got tired of it.
I mean, he would -- he would
actually confront my brother,
and he was tired of going down
to those department stores
and getting my brother out.
To me, you know what I'm saying,
I deal with the science
of the Black man is God,
you know what I'm saying?
So -- So it goes even deeper
now.
Oh, man, I can't really
get deep into that right now.
Reporter: I understand, though.
You have your religion and...
No, it's not a religion.
It's a way of life.
It's my culture.
Ramsey: My cousin, Popa Wu,
he was the one
that indoctrinated Russell
into the 5% Nation.
Popa Wu was the one that
instilled it and enforced it
in all of them.
It helped to instill discipline,
confidence in themselves,
because at that time,
Black men needed that.
The 5% Nation, the Nation of
Gods and Earth, started in 1963
when Clarence 13X actually left
Mosque Number Seven in Harlem,
when Malcolm X was the minister.
Fernando Jr.: One of the main
tenants of the Five Percenters,
was that the original man
who was the Black man
was God in the flesh.
That was a pretty radical
thought at the time --
to believe the Black man is God.
Everlasting: Of course,
there's mysteries and things
that might be great
that we don't know about,
but as far as things
that can be seen,
heard, and explained,
it's me.
Life: Basically what it is
is self-empowerment.
We don't believe in anything
up above, anything down below.
Everything that we have
we got to do for ourself.
Russell changed his name
to Ason Unique.
Fernando Jr.:
Ason Unique --
that was his righteous name.
It was his Five Percenter name.
You don't
just take a Five Percenter name.
You got to earn it.
You have to memorize these
word for word --
So there's a lot
of discipline involved.
Ramsey: He was mischievous,
but when he was Unique,
he was much more scholarly.
He was all about learning
the lessons, the mathematics.
So it was like
two different personalities.
Icelene: He was an exciting
person to know.
He was lots of fun,
lots of love.
I know I seen it all.
And that was a blessing,
to experience all of him.
Elnora: We gave her
a big 16th birthday party.
I guess he met him there --
skinny guy
with a broken tooth.
And I'm looking at him.
I'm like, "Oh, my God, trouble."
[ Laughs ]
Yeah, yeah.
I closed the door in his face
because he says that,
you know, I invited him there,
and I know I didn't.
Two weeks later,
my friend had a birthday party,
another Sweet 16,
and he came in there
and I was hiding from him,
because I'm like,
"Oh, my gosh, that's the guy
that I slammed the door
in his face."
But then he came and found me,
and we started dancing
and stuff like that.
He just told me his name,
Unique.
He kept coming around
and wanting to see me
and nobody never
showed interest like that.
Me and your father used to
come here all the time.
This was like the times
when we were falling in love.
What was the breakdance?
They was doing "Ason,"
like this,
going all down to the ground.
That's the Ason?
Yeah.
He used to be dancing.
I ain't doing it right,
but he used to be
getting down.
And everybody would just be
trying to do the Ason.
Icelene: He started talking to
me about the sun, moon,
and stars, and he told me I was
going to have a different name.
He said, "Your name
can't be Tracy anymore.
Your name is gonna
be Shaquita...
in the name of Allah."
And I'm like,
"Um... [ Laughs ]
What are you talking about?"
Her name was Icelene Pernell.
To me, I didn't really care
for him, but she loved him, so.
I'm not going to say
too much about him, eh.
One dream we always spoke about
is me and him making it big.
And we always knew, after
we moved from Linden Plaza,
never to move
into a project.
You sort of get stuck
into the projects
and within a square,
you got your shopping center,
you got your check-cashing
place,
you got your liquor store.
You don't need to go outside.
We wanted to get out of that.
And he was always talking
about his music career
and what he wanted to do.
I believed that he was
going to make it one day
because I know
he had something special.
A little. Come on, baby.
Pump it up.
'Cause we got something live
for you now.
Come on!
Yo, yo, I got it.
Give it to me!
Give it to me!
This is a lesson
that makes you feel fine
Kinda ease your nerves
and relax your mind
I said don't try to use
no hypnotic spell, she said
"Be my assistant,
I'd show rather tell"
Icelene: He was battling
from when I first met him.
He would go and battle people,
and he would always win.
The GZA taught the RZA.
The RZA taught me.
And, you know,
we've been doing this for years.
Woman: Okay.
Around 1981,
RZA, GZA, and my brother
put together a crew called
the All In Together Now crew.
GZA: All In Together Now crew.
What? What? Who?
Used to run around, battle,
do rap things up, represent.
And it all started from there.
He used to go out all the time
and rap
and used to be around each other
all the time
and back and forth
each of their houses.
And he has to pushing
real, real hard.
One, two, three. Huh.
[ Beatboxing ]
That's when ODB used to call
himself "The Rap Professor."
He was a scientifical,
hip-hop, junkie rhymer.
And they were doing they thing.
And, you know, you could tell
that them three was on a mission
to make a mark in the game.
One, two, one, two.
This how we do it
from Brooklyn.
[ Beatboxing ]
Aw, yeah,
that sounds kind of funky.
Ow
We was actually doing
every mother...thing
which way but loose
go get a deal.
Man: Yeah.You know what I'm sayin'?
Man: Ghostface Killah.
Take one.
[ Clears throat ]
The way me and ODB met
was through RZA.
I'm up at RZA house.
I'm eating a pastrami
and cheese sandwich.
And he come to me
on the terrace...
He just asked me like, "Yo.
Let me get a piece of that."
Dirt was -- He was like
one of them guys that'd be like,
"Yo, that's -- Yo, God.
That was the best...sandwich
I ever had in my life.
...than my babies."
And this, that, and the third.
From there,
it just opened up a door.
It was like,
"Yo, I like this dude."
Ramsey: After being in it
for almost like 15 years,
my mother got evicted
with my brothers and sisters.
It felt like the world
was coming apart at the time.
Aisha: My stepmother
moved in to the house
that her mom had
on Putnam Avenue.
When Icelene got pregnant
with Taniqua,
my brother was kind of like,
"Alright. Now I'm a father."
Icelene: His mother
had a room in the house.
He asked his mom,
"Please, can I have his room?"
She says, "I don't know, Unique,
'cause there's a lot
of other people."
So he had to show her
that he really wanted the room.
Aisha: He made a nice, clean
space for him and Shaquita.
He was very, very protective.
He had Taniqua and Bar-Sun.
Icelene: That's all
he cared about, was us.
We was his purpose on
being righteous, being a rapper,
doing everything,
was to make sure he have us.
Fernando: Ol' Dirty b*stard,
to me, was a character.
That was a name
that came to him from RZA.
RZA:
In all history of rap, man,
ain't nobody got my style.
I keep it real. I keep it live.
That's ol', dirty, and he's
a b*stard.
Fernando: Ol' Dirty
got his name from a movie
called
"Ol' Dirty and the b*stard,"
in which
there's this drunken monk.
It's like almost comic kung fu,
like Jackie Chan,
where this guy's tipsy,
but he's, like, messing up
his opponent with the kung fu.
All your rap dudes on Saturdays
was in the house,
waiting for 3:00 to come.
[ Men grunting ]
[ Imitating grunting ]
Fighting each other.
It was just illmatic.
Certain flicks
would just be like,
"Yo, that's amazing!"
When I had brought
that flick to RZA,
"Shaolin Vs. Wu Tang"...
Shaolin shadowboxing.
And a Wu-tang sword style.
...it just opened up
a door in his mind.
He said, "Yo, I want to make
a group called the Wu-Tang,"
off of that flick.
We never knew that RZA
was so passionate about it.
Just the way they was moving,
you would have thought
they was Chinese...
You know what I mean?
I remember one day RZA
just giving me a call
and saying,
"Yo, we want to start a group."
So I'm like, "Perfect!"
But when RZA incorporated
"ting-ting"
all inside the...
And..."Bring Da Ruckus."
Is the Wu-Tang.
You know what I mean?
All that talking karate...
Yo, it just went with it.
Man: If what you say is true,
the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang
could be dangerous.
Do you think your
Wu-Tang sword can defeat me?
Fernando: I first heard Wu-Tang
in October of '92,
and the song was
"Protect Ya Neck."
Wu-Tang Clan comin' at ya,
watch your step, kid
Watch your step, kid,
watch your step, kid
Watch your step, kid So set it off
Watch your step, kid,
watch your step, kid
I smoke on the mic like
Smokin' Joe Frazier
The hell raiser,
raisin' hell with the flavor
"Protect Ya Neck" was
the first record ever assembled.
So when that record hit,
it was like, "Oh..."
We all looked at each other
and we like,
"Yo, ain't no stopping now."
I knew -- Like,
"Yo, it's about to be on.
And we takin' --
Whoever got that belt,
we comin' for it
and we gonna hold that.
You feel me?
...that. We want that belt.
We want everybody belt.
Single-handedly and group-wise."
So that was the mission.
We knew the record was different
and it was dope,
but it just was something enough
to get people
to take a look at us.
I think what was extraordinary
about Wu-Tang Clan
that was so striking
for all of us
was that they were a group
and they were cohesive.
Raekwon: At that time, they
wasn't making groups like this.
They wasn't putting
10-man groups together.
A lot of hip-hop is kind of
this beautiful
Italian sports car,
and it's been buffed
and it's been polished
and it's candy-apple red
and it's shiny.
RZA's music?
Pop the hood.
What drives that car?
What drives
that performance machine?
Ghostface: The reaction
to "Protect Ya Neck" --
it was madness.
Riding past cars hearing it.
People calling up, "Yo, could
you play that Wu joint again?
Yo, we need that."
One thing just led to the next.
The buzz around the Wu-Tang Clan
before they got signed --
it just kept growing
and growing and growing.
It's on the radio.
It's everywhere.
And everyone's trying to get
a piece of this Wu-Tang Clan.
Steve Rifkind. I was the founder
and CEO of Loud Records.
I'm pretty competitive,
so I wanted it to be the biggest
and best label
that it could possibly be.
Wu-Tang brought
the New York rap scene back.
When they played that record
the first time,
you know, when the guys left,
I said,
"I got to have this.
What is it gonna take?"
Before we even got it going,
we did have conversations
about each one of us
have their own style
that they're gonna
bring to the table.
And the first one that
was gonna be off the roster
that was gonna go first
was Ol' Dirty b*stard.
His delivery was different.
There's no father to it.
He's gonna say
whatever he want to say
and make it sound crazy.
It's like he already knew
what he was getting ready
to give the world.
Ya best protect ya neck,
ya best protect ya neck
The Wu brought a lot of...
to the game, man.
I mean,
the Wu brought intelligence.
The Wu brought,
you know, charisma
on that microphone.
We brought slang.
I brought a dress code.
You see me, man.
I brought Wonder Woman bracelets
and robes and clocks.
You know what I mean?
Dirt was doing what the...
he was doing.
We brought science.
We was young. 25.
You feel me?
Doing what 25-year-olds do.
That's getting money.
You know what I mean?
Carey:
I was a very big fan
of Wu-Tang Clan
"36 Chambers."
I loved "C.R.E.A.M."
Rifkind: In its heyday,
I think we did two main units
without really a radio record.
We had the record "Shame,"
which it was really
featuring Dirty,
and that record
was just a smash.
I first heard Ol' Dirty b*stard
on the record
"Protect Ya neck."
The next time I heard him
outside of that context
was on the
"Stretch & Bobbito" show.
Ason was a listener of our show
starting in '90,
and he would call up
and he would get through a lot,
and he became, like,
this character
that we knew who was out there.
And then he came in --
came to the station with RZA.
Ross: Now Stretch and Bob
had a very, very popular
underground show
during the '90s.
If you came through
the "Stretch & Bobbito" show,
that was almost as good
as getting a deal.
Stretch: One of our dear friends
in the industry was Dante Ross.
Dante was an A&R executive
at Elektra,
and one night he was listening
and he heard Ol' Dirty
just smash it.
Dante offered him a deal on site
that night.
Raekwon:
He was one of the first ones
that we knew out the crew
that was definitely going solo.
Ross: I signed ODB
to Elektra Records
and executive-produced
his first record.
He had six songs on the demo.
They all were on the album.
His demo was one of
the greatest demos
I've ever had in my entire life.
It was a no-brainer.
When I heard those records,
I knew that he was
going to be a star.
Oh, one more -- one more thing
before you cut it off.
I'd like to congratulate
my physical cousin Ason
for his newborn
baby daughter today.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
[ Cheers and applause ]Congratulations.
Icelene: Unique and the Clan
were out grinding.
I was at home with two children
and pregnant with my third.
At this time,
I'm staying with my parents.
After I had my third child,
which was Shaquita,
my parents were like,
"You got to go into a shelter."
So me and Unique and the
children moved into a shelter.
Then one day out of nowhere --
we were in the shelter --
he just came home and says,
"We're gonna go get married."
That was the proposal.
[ Laughs ]
We stayed in the shelter
for about six months.
And then we found the place.
So we ended up choosing Harlem.
We only lived there
for maybe six months,
and around the same time
Wu-Tang had made it
at that point
when it got noticed.
You heard their music
on the radio,
and he was going through a lot
to make it happen.
Chang:
I saw his hair first.
I probably just went up
and introduced myself.
I don't even think that I needed
to ask if it was him.
And, you know, in clubs,
it's so loud,
so he had to be
really close to me
and kind of, you know,
almost yelling in my ear.
And I just remember laughing
really loud.
And then there was g*nf*re.[ g*nf*re ]
And he immediately
pushed me down.
Like, "Get on the floor."
I had never heard g*nf*re
in my life.
He pushed me down immediately.
He's like, "Get down, Sophie!"
And then he just
stayed down with me.
And when everything
started to clear,
I just remember
he was laughing really hard.
He just thought it was so funny.
He wasn't shook at all.
I was shook for sure.
I eventually made my way home
in a cab.
And he called me.
And he said, "Hey, Sophie.
It's Dirty. Are you okay?"
All of that is --
was so telling about the man.
You know,
when I think about Ason,
I don't think about his music,
I don't think about his rhymes.
I think about his heart.
Dirty said, "Sophie,
I love the...out of you."
He said,
"You know, when I'm with you,
I don't have to be
Ol' Dirty b*stard.
I can be Ason Unique."
[ Click ]
ODB: You know?
You know what I'm saying?
You know what I'm saying?
[ Tape whirring ]
Ross:
In shaping his public persona,
I would say that Dirty was 100%
responsible for all of it.
He was very self-aware
of the character
he was portraying.
He had a warm spirit and soul.
He was someone who I genuinely
cared for as a person.
And Ol' Dirty b*stard
was the -- [ Chuckles ]
the yin-yang version of that.
He was a performer,
an entertainer,
a troublemaker, half a derelict,
someone who had to
live up to his name.
He demanded to be
the center of attention.
There was no way you were
not going to notice him.
Woman: Tell us some more
about the album.
The album is called
"Return to the 36 Chambers."
You know, the reason
why we said --
we call it the
"Return to the 36 Chambers"
'cause, see,
the Ol' Dirty b*stard
is like the representer
of the Wu.
You know?
They gave me that title.
They gave me, you know --
They'll throw me out first.
Ross: He designed the record
cover. That was his idea.
And that embodies
how aware he was
of the Ol' Dirty b*stard
character
and how we wanted it
to be positioned.
He literally came to my office
with his welfare card.
I think it might've
been Icelene's
welfare card actually.
And said, "I want this
to be my album cover."
You know, the way he talked --
He's like,
"I got crazy thoughts.
I got thoughts, God."
Like, "Here's the thought."
Clinch:
There was not a lot of hip-hop
in Rolling Stonemagazine,
if any.
The big name-photographers,
the veterans,
they weren't sh**ting hip-hop.
It wasn't of interest to them.
They thought it was a fad.
So it opened the door
for a lot of young photographers
like myself.
Jacobson: Right away, I could
tell that he had a really strong
and definite idea of his image,
and how he wanted to portray
himself for the album cover art.
Clinch: There was certainly
a buzz about ODB.
The idea was to create
an identity there for him,
cultivate this character.
Danny, being
the coolest cat in the world,
asked Dirty
what he wanted to do.
And Dirty was like, "Yo,
we should go to my cousin's.
My cousin's rest in Brooklyn
is mad...up."
Dirty art-directed the sh**t.
He said, "The room,
it's not...up enough."
And he sent his assistant
to get like 10 blunts
and a bunch of forties.
And he poured
most of the forties out
and he put them around the room,
and he took all the blunt guts
and he put them on the floor
all over the place.
And he took the TV
and the stereo
and stacked them on each other,
took his shirt off,
and was like, "Let's go."
Dirty was the antithesis
of what rap was.
He was not upwardly mobile.
He might have been
downwardly mobile.
He kind of celebrated what
some would call the struggle
in a gregarious fashion.
He was wrapping up his album,
and I saw him, and he was like,
"Yo, God, I need something
for the album."
I was like,
"I'd love to be on it."
He was like,
"You got to hurry up, though."
I'm digging.
I'm looking for sounds.
And I found this drop
that was so crazy-sounding.
I called Dirty.
I was like, "Yo, I got it."
I played it, and instantly
he was in love with it.
Introducing the Brooklyn Zoo,
something that y'all
have never experienced before.
Something that you didn't expect
but you wanted
and you needed it
because it's something
that you just had to get.
We was listening to it
over and over again.
He was like, "Yo, God, I think
this might be my first single."
"Brooklyn Zoo" was, like,
a really unorthodox --
Like Ol' Dirty b*stard.
You threw it on
in a 1,000-person club,
and everyone is gonna end up
like 20 feet
from where they started.
Choke No Joke:
One-man army, Ason
I never been tooken out,
I keep MC's looking out
Yo. Like, the flow
is just crazy!
He didn't have a style.
Ol' Dirty b*stard's
gonna make you like,
"What the -- What?!
What did he say?!
Yo, he's crazy!"
Funkmaster Flex:
He had the most swag.
His rhythm and his melodies
were ahead of its time.
A lot of people
zone in on his voice, not --
But it's the melodies.
It's the -- It's the --
In his voice to come up,
to come down
to stretch a word out.
I seen and heard,
no one knows
You forget, be quiet as kept
Now you know nothing
Before you knew
a whole bloodclot lot
You don't wanna get shot
Funkmaster Flex: You know,
his freestyle game, too.
It wasn't just
what he was saying.
It's his hand movement
and how he's moving.
You ever seen that video
of that freestyle?
Asiatic flow,
mixed with disco
I roll up on the scene
like the Count of Monte Crisco
And MC's start to vanish
I rolled up
on a jet-black kid
He started speakin' Spanish
Yo, he wasn't from Panama
I asked him
how the...he get so dark
He said, "Sun-tanama!" Crowd: Ohh!
Funkmaster Flex: That's an MC
mixed with being a b-boy
mixed with being from Brooklyn.
Connor:
ODB sewed the seeds
for rap as expression
rather than rap as like
a kind of technical exercise
in fitting together words
to rhyme the most.
He knew exactly what rules
to break at what time.
And "Mystery of Chessboxin',"
for me,
is really the song
that shows that the most.
What he's saying
becomes such, like, a overload
of kind of, like, expression
or him trying
to get you to hear him
that is just, like, this
really great moment of him
almost, like,
punching through the song
and reaching you directly.
And I think that kind of rawness
is really what makes people
unable to stop watching.
Dirty's first solo album --
it was raw, it was new.
It was refreshing.
You know what I mean?
A little raunchy.
You know what I mean?
But, again, it was him.
Everybody trying
to please somebody, man.
I ain't trying
to please no...body.
Know what I'm saying?
Either you like my...
or you don't like it.
I don't give a...
Ross: The record spread.
It was a hit record
because of his persona
and how much
he projected on screen.
And the camera loved him.
Ooh, baby, I like it raw
Yeah, baby, I like it raw
Ooh, baby, I like it raw
Yeah, baby, I like it raw
Shimmy, shimmy, ya,
shimmy, yam, shimmy, yay
Gimme the mic
so I can take it away
Off on a natural charge,
bon voyage
Yeah, from the home of
the Dodger Brooklyn squad
Wu-Tang k*ller bees
on a swarm
Rain on your college-a*s
disco dorm
For you to even touch
my skill, you gotta go...
Ross: He was dangerous on some
level, but he was lovable.
You kind of wanted
to put your arms around him
and give him a hug.
He had this everyman thing
that we all love,
and he had that combined
with this person
who had no boundaries.
My flow is like bam, jump
on stage, and then I dip down
Ross: He was not built for fame
and fortune and success.
Very few of us are.
He became the uber version
of Ol' Dirty b*stard.
And he was,
from my vantage point,
headed for some form
of disaster.
Jacobson:
When he was kind of alone,
he was a little bit
more introverted and quiet.
He struck me as a young person
who had a lot of responsibility.
He was scrappy.
He was -- He was coming up
and he had a mission
to make money.
Raekwon: Dirty -- he knew a lot
of people who had money.
He knew a lot of people
that didn't have money.
He knew people
from his own neighborhood.
Everybody knew Dirty
had a big heart.
His thing was always
to give back to his people.
He loved to give people money.
And that's just who he was.
Because he always said,
"I'm gonna make more money.
I'm gonna make more money."
He was the only guy that I knew
that really didn't care
about money at that time.
He loved to help people,
but he also loved to be
three minutes away
from where...is at.
He was drinking a lot,
and he stayed in those areas
where trouble
is right around the corner.
That's when you start hearing...
If a mother...see you drunk,
he gonna feel like
he got one up on you.
Woman:
Trying to get in the hotel.
He was just putting himself
in bad places
at the wrong time, you know?
Icelene:
I'm at home with the children.
Unique's father calls me, says,
"Shaquita, don't be scared.
Unique is alright,
but he was shot."
He was in a familiar place,
and somebody attacked him.
I think that hurt him --
hurt emotionally
and hurt physically
from the g*nsh*t wound.
Life: Lot of the things
Dirty went through --
getting shot and everything --
was because he stayed
accessible to the people.
But you did have people
that was jealous.
I mean, he had things that other
people wanted, and, you know,
certain things happen,
unfortunately, you know?
But he never let that deter him.
He stayed who he was.
-[ Chuckles ] Okay.
-You know what I mean?
Alright.
Icelene:
It felt like magic.
You should be here
so you can lay down.
I was there with him
when he was writing his music
and playing the music
and blasting it
through the apartment.
It was something
that we worked on.
You couldn't believe
that something like this
was really happening.
[ Rapping indistinctly ]
[ Crowd cheering ]
My father -- he just did
whatever he wanted,
when he wanted to, on a stage.
And I couldn't believe
that that was my father.
He was being so funny,
but it was still real.
He had that joker about him.
I think he knew what he is.
He's a man of respect.
For honor.
Man: Give it up
for the ODB, y'all!
[ Indistinct conversations ]
[ Indistinct conversations ]
He really loved people.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
He showered people
with their love.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
That love goes a long way.
You know? 'Cause he --
he had this strong love.
Mommy was his love,
his only love.
And it became --
all of that love
that you have from your wife
goes into your children.
Taniqua: We're different than a
lot of people, upbringing wise.
We don't move
like a lot of people.
Bar-Sun: My father understand
that we was one.
We was all one,
united and connected.
Shaquita: It was kind of
like keep us together.
Keep us tight, close.
But we can't just let
anybody and everybody in.
He didn't have us
around everybody.
He always kept us away
And just be like,
"Okay. This is where y'all are.
And this is where
y'all gonna be."
We keep everything tight
in our little cipher.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Cipher is from the mathematics.
Cipher is a circle.
And we don't let nobody
break our cipher.
We don't let anybody
come into our cipher.
If we do, we're giving you
the ultimate trust and respect.
And once you are in, you're in.
And if you break it, that's
it -- we're pushing you out.
ODB: Come on, man. I gotta
spin this thing. Look out.
Spin it.Spin it, spin it, spin it!
[ Laughter ]
Icelene:
I kept trying to get him back
on track as being Unique Ason.
He didn't know
which way to go at times
because there was so many people
pulling him in a negative way.
Child: Are we going down
or something?
It became a little confusing
to him
on who was really there for him
and who wasn't.
Jacobson: He was kind of
a mixed bag of personalities.
There was a kind of -- a sadness
in a certain way with him.
Raekwon: Once he started getting
money, he just was confident
in what he believed
that he was gonna be.
But you know how it goes.
It start feeling different.
It start feeling funny.
Tour:
I was working for MTV News.
"Brooklyn Zoo" was out.
And I was like, "Let's do a
profile package with this guy."
The night before the sh**t,
I'm on the phone with Dirty,
his publicist.
Jacobson: Dirty wanted to make
the first stop of the interview
be going to a check-cashing
establishment.
And he's like, explaining, like,
"So, we're gonna go
to the check-cashing place
and I'm gonna get food stamps.
'Cause that relates
to the album cover."
And I was like,
"Okay. It's got to be real.
This is not a music video."
You're trying
to talk to a person,
but they're not
really listening.
Icelene:
He had a limo for the day.
We went to some check-cashing
place in Brooklyn
we used to go to a lot.
I'm thinking we just gonna
go in there
and talk or whatever.
He wanted me to put
my food-stamp card in there,
and I had it
'cause I had it in my wallet
'cause I used to carry it
all the time.
He said, "Put your card in
there. Put your card in there."
Woman: Thank you.
It was like 400 and somewhat
dollars of food stamps.
He, like, fanned it out
for the camera.
And I'm like,
"Okay, okay, okay."
ODB: We good to go.
Come on.
And then he put it in his pocket
and he walked out the door
and he got in the car.
And I was like,
"Wait! He left!"
Why wouldn't you want
to get free money?
They ran that video
over and over again.
Everybody just loved it,
I guess.
I mean, but how could you
be abusing the system
when the system is already
crooked and...up anyway?
Besides, America owes
the Black people
forty acres and a mule,
any...damn way.
He called me drunk
the night after it aired.
He was fearful
that social services
were going to try
and take his kids from him,
and he was extremely emotional.
I think I was kind of
pissed off at Tour.
It's not media's responsibility
to save you from yourself.
I didn't tell him, "Go do that."
That was his idea.
I didn't tell him,
"Give the money back."
That's not my responsibility.
He's a grown man.
Icelene: That video
kept coming back to haunt us.
The whole New York government
was against us.
Bain:
Particularly for Black folks
who've come up out of Brooklyn
written off as welfare queens
and, you know,
folks who could only be
at the bottom of the bottom,
that was liberating.
He was so free.
He was so free with who he was
and comfortable in his own skin.
It makes you feel
a certain specialness.
Carey:
I think he brought so much
personality and effervescence
and just, like,
"No F's given" energy.
I was working on my album.
I had already done
the song "Fantasy,"
which samples
the Tom Tom Club loop.
I was surrounded
by record-company people
that really wanted me
to be in one specific lane,
which was
a very successful lane for me,
but I had a love of hip-hop
music since I was a kid.
The SWV record had come out,
with the whole Wu-Tang Clan
right before that --
"Anything."
Whoa, oh, oh
Ol' Dirty Bas,
style cuts like glass
Gotta, gotta keep it high,
power to the mass
Carey:
His voice in tandem with mine,
they were so different
from each other.
People weren't expecting it.
I went in, redid my parts.
Then there was the session.
I had no idea
what he was gonna say.
I had no idea what the rhyme
was gonna be, at all.
I'm, like, listening in
on the phone.
I remember this engineer,
this poor guy.
He was, like, this short,
little Caucasian man.
You know, really cool, nice guy,
but wasn't ready for ODB.
And he was like,
"Yo, Devil, go get me --"
[ Chuckles ]
"Go get me this and that."
I was on the phone like,
"Oh, my God."
A few more hours went by,
he took a nap,
and then it's on speakerphone.
I'm listening. I'm dying.
I'm sitting there like
the giddiest kid on Earth.
So happy. Basically jumping up
and down on the bed, so happy.
And then when he gets
to the "me and Mariah" section,
I'm flipping out even more.
I'm like -- I can't even believe
what this is.
Me and Mariah go back
like babies with pacifiers
Ghostface: When I heard him
on Mariah's...
it was like, "Oh..."
He knew how to do it.
You got regular rap songs
and rap all through the...
But there's no moments in there.
Know what I mean?
His part is the moment.
When we did the video,
I had the concept
at Rye Playland.
Let's just sh**t it there.
Man:
Welcome to the...
Carey:
In the pop version, the clown --
he's, like, leading you
through the video.
So I said to ODB, "What do you
think about that clown --
if now you've tied him
on this pole and, like,
you've clearly
taken over the moment?"
And he was like, "Yo.
That's peace, that's peace,
that's peace."
And I was like,
"Okay, let's go."
Yo, New York in the house
It's Brooklyn in the house
Carey: I love, love, love
his performance in that video.
Every single part of it
was genius.
The way he performed,
he was free.
He did stuff so spontaneously,
like in the moment.
He was in the moment.
Even when he had the wig on
and was, like, looking up
in the sky with no shirt.
Like, that was his thing.
Me and Mariah go back
like babies with pacifiers
Carey: Not every hip-hop artist
was playing
Madison Square Garden.
Backstage, we spent
like 30 minutes
taking pictures with him and,
like, everybody in the family.
He had maybe two dressing rooms
full of family --
kids, lovely ladies.
Lots of family.
The record was, I believe,
number one on the hip-hop charts
for eight weeks.
It was a big deal for us --
I think for us both. You know?
Guesting on
Mariah Carey's "Fantasy"
catapulted him into a whole
other level of awareness.
People who may not
have been hip-hop fans
were hearing him
for the first time.
It went to his head.
I think he thought
it was an opportunity
for him to get to a next level
that unfortunately,
'cause of his self-sabotage,
he did not get to.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
[ Indistinct conversations ]
[ Singing indistinctly ]
Russell Jones didn't have time
to kind of adjust.
Tour: Suddenly he has money,
and he's spending a lot of it
on stuff to make himself happy.
There was just
massive excitement around him.
And you got to outdo yourself
to be that guy.
And he wanted to be that guy.
Jacobson:
Also, for him, he had a persona,
and he kind of had to
keep the persona going.
He got pretty egotistical.
Some of his humility
got pushed to the back burner.
[ Crowd cheering ]
Ghostface:
He knew how to get women.
He knew how to get 'em.
He knew how to get 'em.
He'd do the...
that you would want to do
but you were afraid to do it.
MeToo would probably
come and get Dirty
for his troubling behavior.
You give me your number,
I'll call you up
True Master:
I was driving with Dirty.
We at a light.
And it's just ugly girls.
Well, then, she starts smiling,
and he starts smiling.
Like, "Oh, baby, pull over."
Gets her number, talks to her.
Get in the car. I'm like, "That
b*tch was ugly as hell, God."
All the pretty girls
in the world
And the ugly girls, too
'Cause to me you're
pretty anyway, baby, heh
He says,
"Sometimes ugly b*tches --
You'll have the time
of your life."
[ Laughs ]
And I remember he controlled
like 50 women at one time.
He came in the building
with, like, a mom.
This was the power that he had.
Allen:
He was a womanizer.
I didn't like
how he treated my friend.
Icelene:
One day, out of nowhere,
a young girl knocked on my door.
She was like, "I can have
your man and mines, too."
Raekwon:
His wife, to me, was really
the only one
that understood him.
But they would have they fights.
You know, his wife ain't
no joke. She's a strong lady.
I ain't got no time
for no mother...b*tches
Calling my mother...house
with that bull...
You got three...babies
to take care of
...that...
Raekwon:
If she suspected his a*s,
she would prove it,
kick his a*s out.
So a lot of times
Dirty didn't have
that support system no more
because he was...up.
He messed with different girls.
All my friends and family know
he's out there doing this stuff.
It was just real hard.
I got babies. Got one in the
oven right there. See? See?
We're having a son real soon.
Taniqua: He was bringing
different women over.
Very blunt.
"Here, Shaquita.
I just had another baby."
Icelene:
I used to always threaten him.
I was like, "I'm not
gonna be with you anymore.
I got three babies,
and I'm just sick of this."
He had more money than I had.
He was like,
"We're not getting a divorce."
Divorce? That's like
when Moses parted the Red Sea.
You know what I mean?
But it had to come back
together again.
You know? And it got to
stay back together.
She was his.
He was taking ownership of her.
He was -- [ Sighs ]
cruel sometimes to her.
Icelene: I seen him in
the car once with a girl --
in my car, my Infiniti
that he bought for me.
I went knocking on the window,
and she rolled the window down
like this much, and I was like,
"Where's my...husband at?!"
I went without for a long time
and just struggled
for a long time,
but I was done at that point.
Man: Your wife has said
that you hadn't paid
a fair amount
of child support.
Of course I pay child support.
You know what I mean?
I mean, why wouldn't I?
I love my wife.
[ Laughs ]
Yes, I love her, dearly.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Ross: His name was
Ol' Dirty b*stard.
He's living his life in public.
He was expected to do wild...
You know, do things like walk
on the stage at the Grammys.
Announcer:
It's music's biggest night!
The 40th Annual Grammy Awards!
We were all at my house,
and he goes,
"How come you're not going?"
I said,
"We lost already. They announced
it at 3:00 or 4:00."
He got pissed,
was like, "I just spent
$2,000 on a suit."
[ Imitates drumroll ]
Shawn Colvin
and John Leventhal...
[ Cheers and applause ]
ODB: Please turn it down.
The music and everything.
Everything.
I went and bought
this outfit today
that costed
a lot of money today.
You know what I mean?
'Cause I figured
that Wu-Tang was gonna win.
Like, "Oh, my God.
What is he doing?"
I didn't know how everyone else
was gonna take it.
I don't know how y'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 y'all to know
that this is ODB
and I love you all!
Peace!
He came back straight
to the house,
and he said,
"Am I gonna get in trouble?"
"No," I said,
"You'll probably be
the biggest draw in the world
for the next 48 hours."
That never left me --
like, that statement
and that moment.
I was just like...
He was a genius
with those kind of moments
when everybody else
was still scared.
After the Grammys,
everybody was going crazy.
It worked.
U-God:
It was plastered all over
every...news channel
across America.
We got Ol' Dirty b*stard here.
He was the big star of
the Grammys last night. Took
over the whole...damn thing.
Yeah, wasn't
even scheduled.
I didn't mean no disrespect.
You know? I just had to --
You had to say
what you had to say.
I was actually looking out
for all rap artists.
Jacobson: When he walked up
on stage at the Grammys,
that was a bad look
for a major label.
There was not a lot
of keeping him in check.
Like, this is not
how you can behave.
The label was concerned
with business --
making money from him
and his career.
I don't know that they really
cared about his well-being.
Rifkind: He would literally come
to my record-company office
twice a week -- with a record
out, not a record out --
so he could just relax.
I don't know if that was
the drugs, the drinking,
the pressure of his wife,
baby mama.
I thought it was some paranoia,
but he was really having
real issues.
ODB: I need help.
I need help.
The government is after me.
[ Giggles ]
Rifkind:
Well, I call some people,
and that's when I realized
the cops -- they were
definitely looking at him.
Tour:
NYPD had a task force
that we called
the Hip-Hop Police.
They tried to keep tabs
on where all the rappers
were going,
as if they were some
organized-crime syndicate
or something.
Choke No Joke: If they know Ol'
Dirty b*stard you got a show,
they gonna follow him
from his house
and they're gonna pull him over
hoping to catch g*ns,
this, that, and the other.
Dirt was one of them guys like,
"Yo. The government is on us.
They gonna try to k*ll me
like this.
They gonna try to k*ll me
like that."
I didn't take it
as really like...
Fernando: People think
that Dirty was kind of crazy,
and drugs were making him
paranoid or whatever,
but he actually did have
a legitimate concern
that the feds were after him.
He knew that he was on the radar
of law enforcement.
It turned out
that he was correct.
There's a 95-page FBI file
on Wu-Tang.
They were being investigated
for racketeering and g*n-running
and all this stuff.
And all of this came out
years later.
They had been following Wu-Tang
for years.
A generation ago,
the counterintelligence program
did the same thing
to the Black Panther Party,
the same thing to
the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee.
Did the same thing to Malcolm X,
to Martin Luther King.
The Hip-Hop Police
are the latest incarnation
of that surveilling
influential Black folks
that might attract a following
and doing whatever they can
to destroy those individuals
and those organizations.
If you a Black man,
you only got an opportunity
to rise but so far.
They only give you so much
power. Know what I'm saying?
But then they snatch it
right out from under your feet.
Dirt was ahead of his time
on that...
Fernando:
In the years 1998 to 1999,
he really started
getting into trouble a lot.
All of these charges --
possession of drugs,
petty larceny,
wearing a bulletproof vest.
You know, he was shot twice.
He had to drive himself
to the hospital both times.
So, after that,
he's kind of paranoid
that people are gunning for him.
When he started his career,
the press, you know,
was very much on his side.
These same members of the press
covered his arrests
and his drug use.
Let's go. Ain't
nobody no mother...
amateur here. Let's go.
I think
he felt attacked.
But I know that...
And I know
that damn well
we are somepartying mother...
It's impossible
to know what begets what.
If you don't like
how you're being portrayed
and then you get high
to lessen the negativity,
it's like a vicious cycle.
That can really color
someone's self-image.
When I look back at that
Howard Stern interview,
he was actually humble.
-Did you hear about that?
-No. What happened?
You saved a little girl's life
the other day, didn't you?
Yes.
Divine: It wasn't anything,
like, special.
You know, it was a kid
in trouble. You helped them.
Maati:
It was a Saturday morning.
I was trying to teach
my oldest sister how to shop.
I was a young child.
I was only four years old.
They were standing
in front of the van.
The car came
from out of nowhere.
Divine:
I was in the office.
You hear the collision.
You hear the accident go on.
[ Glass shatters ]
Maati was nowhere.
I couldn't find her.
And I kept saying,
"Where's my daughter?
Where's my daughter?
Where's my daughter?"
And everybody said,
"Under the car."
When I bent down,
all I saw was her.
And she wasn't crying.
She wasn't screaming.
But when she saw me,
then she screamed.
I remember, like, bits
and pieces of the accident.
I remember the heat.
From out of nowhere,
ODB lifted the car.
He's literally trying to lift up
the car by himself immediately.
We help him lift the car,
and he brings the girl out
from under the car.
She had a coat on,
and the coat
was burned through,
and her leg was burnt.
I remember being rushed
into the hospital.
[ Siren wails ]
Dirty went to the hospital
to go check on the girl.
He kept checking.
He didn't just
leave it like that.
And I told him, "Anytime
you need to talk, call me."
So he would call me
and tell me things
that were on his head, you
know, and he was glad
that he was there.
I think he was trying to prove
that he was a good guy.
And I said,
"I agree with that."
You definitely
helped my child.
It shows what type
of person he is, you know?
I got an album coming out.
It's called
"The Black Man is God."
Next album.
This is for the children.
Just make sure you get
a good education, school.
You ain't got to
tell your teacher off.
Tell that teacher off
with education.
Know what I'm saying?
b*mb his a*s.
Know what I'm saying?
White devil...
Yo, but, um, you know,
when I say white devil,
I'm just saying that, you know,
you got some good devils,
you got some bad devils.
It's like you got some
good Black men, you got
some Black devil men.
Know what I'm saying?
...Black man is God.
We know that the white man
came from the Black man.
So we created the devil.
So we know that --
[ Speaking indistinctly ]
Fernando: Dirty's second album
was supposed to be
called "The Black Man is God,
The White man is the Devil."
And, of course, the record
company didn't allow that.
The second album
was not nearly as popular.
He didn't promote it as heavily.
I don't think it sold very well.
We did interviews, but there
wasn't the crossover press.
He almost became
like a caricature.
He's all over TV.
He's everywhere.
Slowly but surely,
he became somebody else
and he started living out
Ol' Dirty b*stard
more than Unique Ason --
to me, in my eyes.
We can hear him,
but we couldn't see him.
He became so distant sometimes
that it's like,
"Dang, we hear our father
through the radio
more than we can even
share time with him."
Aisha: I hated seeing him high.
I hated that part.
He was still there, and he was
still aware, of course,
but I hated seeing him
like that.
The drug use --
it took away my older brother
to a different place.
I started to, like,
grow a dislike
for my other cousins because...
He was having a tough time
adapting to this new world
that he's in.
Icelene: He was getting
all this money and stuff.
And he was around people
that was getting high
all the time.
Raekwon: He thought if you were
getting high with him
and drinking with him
or whatever
that you was his friend.
He was using weed all the time,
smoking marijuana.
And it started from that.
And then he would mix
cocaine with it.
Then it got to the point
where he was mixing
crack cocaine with it.
Raekwon: He was looking
at the Wu sideways.
He was probably looking at his
own family members sideways.
He was looking at his circle
that he was hanging with
sideways.
He didn't know
who to trust anymore.
Everybody around him
became a yes-man
because they're looking at
what they could get from him.
They ain't looking
at if they're hurting him.
They're only looking at,
"If I need to ask Dirty
with something,
he gonna give it to me."
Especially when he high.
[ Chuckles ]
Icelene: He needed help. I kept
trying to get him in programs.
You know, he just didn't want --
he didn't want to do it.
I think the drugs
changed him mentally.
I don't know
who that was sometimes.
Drugs took him out of him.
Unique was lost.
I don't know what I'm drinkin.
Raekwon: You ever heard
that record "Sideshow"?
It's about a clown
that makes everybody happy.
Every time I look at Dirty,
I think about that record.
My man going through so much,
but to the world,
he's that clown face.
When he's by himself,
he's going through it.
The label pivoted away because
he became almost a liability.
Bain: He was cast aside
by the same folks
who embraced him
when he put his soul
on the line through his music.
We know this country
has had a love affair
with Black pain and suffering
since its beginning.
Folks would gather
around lynchings after church
to watch Black bodies
hung from trees.
ODB was a part of that spectacle
of Black pain,
of Black suffering.
Jacobson:
They wanted to report on him
because it was kind of
like a car crash.
You couldn't look away.
I'm just hearing these stories,
and the stories are coming
fast and furious.
He broke into somebody's
apartment at 3:00 a.m.,
got shot.
Fernando Jr.:
Dirty missed his court dates,
and he was put in rehab.
All of a sudden,
it was in the news
that Dirty was on the run,
that he had escaped from rehab.
Man: Let's make some noise...
[ Crowd cheering ]
Fernando Jr.:
The Wu was giving a big concert.
In the middle of the show,
RZA, like,
quiets everything down.
He's like,
"Yo, we got a special guest."
The first time
in three years
we see the whole
Wu-Tang Clan on stage tonight.
Raekwon: I could tell that
he didn't want to be there.
He felt he had to because
he didn't want to let us down.
[ Crowd cheers ]
Fernando Jr.:
I think they caught
him a couple days after that
at the McDonald's in Philly.
Apparently, one of the arresting
officers was a fan of his,
so he knew it was ODB.
You know, what can you do
when you're a superstar
and everyone knows
that you're on the lam?
So they got him that time,
unfortunately.
[ Cell door slams ]
Bain: I think rehabilitation
in prisons is a complete joke.
It's never truly been
one of the goals.
I was charged with a felony
and spent time in prison.
The feeling
that I remember having
is, like, constantly
watching my back
and fearing for my life.
You just have no idea
where you're going,
what's gonna happen.
The sense of violation
is what I felt
when these cops
had their hands on me,
taking me into the facility
and just moving me around.
A lack of bodily autonomy,
lack of my own free will
to do what I want to do.
They tell you to strip, and they
tell you take off your clothes,
and they go through
this whole ritual.
In a room full of folks,
being told
to take your clothes off,
"Bend over, open your...
lift your..."
I mean, it's some...up...
The brutality, the inhumanity,
how degrading
and dehumanizing it is.
That never leaves you.
You know? That stays with you.
Icelene:
He's off the street now.
But jail is not a place
for him to be.
He just needed help
from the drugs,
and they were just
putting him in jail.
Taniqua:
He was in Clinton.
That's where rapists,
murderers was at.
Y'all got this person
that's self-medicating
and put him up here.
Icelene: It was just hard
being without your husband.
We had to make it back
and forth to see him.
I was working two jobs.
It affected me
and my children a lot,
especially my oldest daughter.
She just wanted her dad
to be home.
Once, when we went up there,
he was just quiet.
He didn't say nothing.
He got up,
and he went in the bathroom,
and he started screaming.
Just started screaming.
Being in prison,
anything could happen,
so I don't know
what was going on with him.
Something was off.
Energy building,
taking all types of medicines
Your a*s thought
you were better than Ason?
True Master: He's complaining
that they was injecting him
with...in jail.
Those drugs, you know,
the so-called legal drugs,
...him up, too.
We see over and over again
this range
of mental-health drugs
used to sedate and control folks
who are in prisons.
It's not by accident.
It's by design.
He used to say, "People
want to k*ll me in here.
The government is gonna k*ll me.
The correctional officers
are gonna k*ll me."
Prison really
added on that paranoia.
He shut down more.
The government
finally got to him.
I heard that
it was schizophrenic.
He ended up in the psych ward.
He had lit his back on fire
just to get out of prison.
I feel like,
for you to go that far,
you have to have some type
of mental disorder.
Icelene: It was hard knowing
that he was in there like that.
He always knew that we were home
'cause the only
real grounding he had
was what he made
with me and those children.
He didn't want to come back
into the industry.
He didn't want to be
a rapper anymore.
He didn't want
to come back to music.
I was surprised
when he came back.
Fernando Jr.:
Dirty did three years upstate
at the Clinton facility.
He basically
had to set himself on fire
to get into
solitary confinement.
Ross: He had one commodity --
himself.
So his only ways to make money
were to try to make music.
I'm not even working
for Roc-A-Fella on this day.
I just know that Ol' Dirty
b*stard's coming home from jail.
I'm gonna get that footage.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
A white guy named Jarred
was managing Ol' Dirty b*stard.
I don't know how,
but Jarred and Dame talked
about signing Ol' Dirty b*stard.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Funkmaster Flex:
Dame Dash and Roc-A-Fella
was the worst thing
to ever happen to that guy.
Ol' Dirty was a trophy to them.
I got to introduce myself?
I'm used to getting
the introduction.
You know. I'm Damon Dash.
I always wanted
to work with Wu-Tang.
When the opportunity presented
itself, I capitalized.
Choke No Joke:
Dame is trying to build
the roster for Roc-A-Fella.
All Dame thinking about
is "publicity."
He signed M.O.P., N.O.R.E.
He trying to get Twista.
He just signed Kanye.
Dash:
I was just trying to speak
in every single language
that anybody spoke.
It was, like, diversifying.
It was a different
language and lingo.
With MC in the back, we're not
allowed to talk about it.
I don't know why.
You know what I'm saying?
Carey: Dame called me.
He's like, "I really need you
to go with me to pick him up.
Like, this is an important
moment, and let's do this."
And I'm like, "Yeah, you don't
have to ask me more than once.
I got it. Let's go."
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Choke No Joke: He's surprised
by Mariah Carey's presence,
surprised by Dame's presence.
He has no clue what's going on.
He don't even know that
he's signing to Roc-A-Fella.
Jarred!
What -- Who --
Damon Dash.
What's the deal with that?
You going to him now.
Man:
He's in front of us.
I'm saying -- So --You're going
to a restaurant right now.
You planning a surprise
or something? [ Laughs ]
Woman: Yeah.
He was like a different person
when we picked him up that day.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
I felt, like,
this confusion/sadness
coming from him.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
You know I got to do it
official, give him a chain.
He can't go home
without that.
[ Cheers and applause ]
"I'm down with Roc-A-Fella.
Yeah, I'm rolling with Damon."
They don't give a...
about Ol' Dirty b*stard.
It was a business deal.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Next question.Man: Right here.
Dame personally signed
Ol' Dirty b*stard
and gave him a million dollars
out his own pocket.
A million dollars
isn't a lot of money.
I think he deserved more.
You know, based on
the records he sold,
we would make that back --
let's go.
I don't know whose idea it was
to sign him.
You know, if you care
about somebody,
you know you couldn't give
this guy a million dollars.
Icelene: The million dollars
is a mystery.
Me and my children never
received a dime of that money.
My husband had no idea
what happened to the funds.
I wish they would have used
some of that money
to put him in rehab,
to get him some help.
He was living
with my mother-in-law,
like, basically
sleeping on her couch.
And he was back in the same
environment, doing drugs.
Ross:
You know, Dirty was, I think,
just trying to feed his family.
But from what I saw,
the show "ODB on Parole" --
that felt exploitive to me.
Narrator: This is the story
of Russell Jones,
a.k.a. Ol' Dirty b*stard.
'02, '03, '04,
the game had changed.
The reality-TV shows,
people giving up
more of their life.
Come on, Jarred.
[ Laughs ]
Narrator: While he waited
for his parole hearing,
he met Jarred Weisfeld,
a 23-year-old aspiring
hip-hop manager.
Jarred has done everything.
Everything.
Without Jarred,
I don't know -- I don't know.
I am his co-manager --
with his mom, Cherry.
Icelene: Jarred didn't know
who Unique was.
Jarred just knew who ODB was
after coming out of jail.
He only knew him
for a few months.
He ain't know him long at all.
Nobody had a conversation
with Wu-Tang.
We didn't know
what was going on.
So when he came out and he
wanted to sign to Roc-A-Fella,
it was almost like...
"Hm. He feel a way."
Ghostface: Dirt was the soul.
I mean, he was the soul.
Out of the whole group,
he was the soul.
And when he left,
it was a big loss for us.
Big, big, big,
big, big, big, big.
I wasn't even mad at him.
I felt like...
us as a group let him down.
We wasn't there the way
we was supposed to be there.
How you live your
life is how you live your life.
Drugs was getting him
at that time.
I know that face,
know that little twitch.
I saw him a couple times, man.
He didn't feel like him.
He had put on a lot of weight.
I never thought anything
was gonna happen to him, though.
Choke No Joke: I went to
the MTV Awards with him.
It was his first time
seeing Method Man.
And I could tell,
looking at Meth,
he saw that his brother
wasn't the same brother.
It was like
he was kissing a baby,
like his little brother.
It wasn't a grown man.
Yeah, he -- he was hurt.
Yeah. I'm about to cry.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
Chang:
The last time I saw Ason,
probably one of the...
experiences of my life.
I was at the 36 Chambers Studio
on 34th.
They were like,
"Soph, Dirty's here."
I was like, "Word?"
Sat down. I just waited
for him to come out.
He comes out of the bathroom,
and he kind of looks at me...
and then just keeps going.
He was so high,
he didn't...recognize me.
I left and I got in a cab
and I called the studio.
And whoever picked up the phone,
I said, "Dirty's high.
He's...high.
It's not okay. It's not okay."
And it was so upsetting.
Raekwon: "Rock the Bells"
was a big show for us.
We knew how important it was
for all of us to be there.
-Turn the lights down!
-Turn the lights off!
He wouldn't come out
the room that day.
He wouldn't come out the room.
I remember him up there
on stage with us.
I think parts of him
were just feeling like,
"Why the...am I up here?"
'Cause he realized the group
that he helped become
one of the greatest groups
in the world --
He didn't feel the love back.
[ Vocalizing ]
Choke No Joke: None of us
really knew him like that,
to tell him to do anything.
He definitely needed family.
He was in it
because he loved it.
People that love it like that,
sometime they don't see
that cleaver coming.
You know, everybody else
in the family remembers
times they spent
with their pops.
I only remember the nightmare,
the last night I seen him.
That's the only real thing
I remember.
Taniqua: I was at
my father's sister's house,
and my cousin got a phone call
from her mom saying,
"Come home."
I just had this intuition that
something happened to my father.
Like, I don't know why,
but I had this intuition.
I just started running.
Icelene: Unique was working
on his last album,
and Bar-Sun was in the studio
with Unique.
Right after he left the studio,
Bar-Sun got a call, and it was
like, "We're trying to
resuscitate him and everything."
He's like, "What is going on?
He was just alive."
Taniqua: I was sprinting.
So, it was about
a two-block run,
and it was really long blocks
in Brooklyn.
And then I turned a corner,
and I seen my brother outside
slumped over but crying,
and I'm like,
"Bar-Sun, what happened?
Bar-Sun, what happened?"
The only thing
he could get out was, "Daddy."
Icelene:
My son called me.
He said,
"Daddy is not doing so good.
They're trying
to keep him alive.
They're trying
to resuscitate him."
And he's not doing so good.
He might not make it."
All I'm thinking is,
he's gonna be alive
'cause he's so strong and
he always get out of everything.
He's like a person
that has nine lives.
It was dark. It was raining.
It was just not a good night.
Taniqua: We get there, and
I remember so much ambulance.
You could see cops, detectives
outside.
Go into the studio,
it was a whole crowd of people.
Like, all my family members.
And I see a white sock
on the floor.
So I already automatically knew
that was my father.
Raekwon: I was driving
from Staten Island,
and I remember getting the call.
That...broke my heart
when I tell you.
I pulled over on the bridge.
Tears was just
running down my face.
Like, I couldn't
believe it, man.
I ran up to the studio.
Seen him laid out on the floor.
Ghostface: I'm in shock.
Like, yo, it's my brother.
You know what I mean?
I walk over to him, look at him.
I was there till they took him
out the building.
Icelene: He was laid there,
and most of the Clan members
were around, a lot of family.
They were trying to stop people
from actually going to his body.
I'm trying to jump over
the police, go under the legs.
I'm trying to crawl,
and they're pulling me back.
They let us through,
but they held Bar-Sun
'cause Bar-Sun was going crazy.
[Voice breaking] He was --
That's emotional 'cause...
he was trying his hardest
to get to his father.
But he was just, like, really
just acting out real crazy
like he wanted
to fight everybody.
He was going crazy.
You know, I didn't know
why I was mad.
A child is really not
gonna know why they're mad.
They just know and feel
that there's something wrong.
This is just...up.
You know, to see his father
laying there like this
and knowing that it could have
probably been prevented.
You know, I guess I was ready
to fight everybody
because he was only one
laying on the floor
and nobody was there
to pick him up.
I laid down with him,
and I just rubbed his head.
Teardrops falling off me,
falling onto his cold body.
And then my mom was on the
other side of him laying down,
screaming, saying,
"Unique, Unique, wake up."
I just figured if I could yell
he could hear me
and he'll wake up.
We was hitting on him and trying
to pull him up and everything.
He just wouldn't get up.
And they kept saying,
"Miss Jones, you know...
Excuse me. You can't --
You know, he's not coming back."
And I'm like,
"No, he's gonna come back.
He's gonna wake up.
And we just didn't want
to leave the floor.
We kept trying to get him up.
Taniqua: I just looked up,
and I looked at everybody,
and I just remember
nobody crying.
Just us. Just us crying.
I just -- I was just mad 'cause
everybody just sitting here.
I didn't understand
why nobody else was crying.
After it really sunk in,
that he wasn't getting up,
we -- we got up.
And me and Taniqua, we was,
like, yelling at everybody,
like, "...all you...
Everybody who sat
and got high with him,
who...took money out his pocket,
who allowed him
to stay away from his family
while y'all got high.
He didn't want to come home
'cause he knew y'all
would...get high with him.
...all y'all...
...all y'all.
I don't want nobody coming
around me and my children.
...y'all. I ain't got
no time for this...
'Cause that's all y'all want,
is just to see him...high.
And now look where he at.
Now he can't give none of
y'all...'cause he gone now."
Right now I just feel I've been
robbed. Know what I'm saying?
Hoodwinked. Bamboozled.
They stole something
that I love so much.
Seem like everything I loved
always been --
always be tooken away from me.
Carey: My friend and myself
went to the funeral together.
[ Breathes deeply ]
It was deep. It was very --
It was difficult.
Raekwon: It was surreal
to see him laying in a casket.
You know, you had brothers
in there drunk, too.
You know what I mean? You know,
that's how they was coming.
You know what I mean?
Pouring...on the floor.
Pouring liquor on the floor.
It's like, "Yo. Come on, bro.
Chill. Like, please, man.
Like, stop. Not right now."
You know, he was the only artist
that ever died on my watch,
so that was the first time
I ever had to deal with that.
I'd squeeze him. I'd hug him.
I'd...kiss him
all over his...face.
I'd probably sit there and cry
and wouldn't let him go.
I might fall asleep next to you.
You know what I mean?
Like, yo, that's what it is when
you love somebody like that.
You love somebody like --
My love was like that for him.
It was strong.
[ Applause ]
[ Applause ]
Icelene: I'm pushing real hard
to keep the legacy going.
That's all I think about
every day.
Taniqua: He's immortal.
That's how I feel.
I feel like
my father's immortal.
And he's never gonna die.
His soul, his spirit,
his essence, his aura.
It flows around everybody.
Chang:
He was outrageously talented.
He behaved
in an outrageous fashion,
sometimes to his detriment.
But he also, as an artist,
just embodied who he was
so fully.
And I don't think you can say
that of a lot of artists.
Ross: You know,
Dirty is misinterpreted.
A segment of culture
want to remember him
as the guy who jumped on stage
at the Grammys
or all the crazy...he did
as opposed to
the great art he created.
It does him and his legacy
a disservice.
You know,
a lot of people gravitate
towards the lower story,
and it bothers me.
Sometimes when you push out
too much frequency,
people don't like that.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
And that's...up
because energy is a blessing.
Aisha: His family gave him
a lot of his strength.
He spent a lot of time
with his family.
His work, his children,
his widow.
His rightful place in Wu-Tang.
I think that's his legacy.
ODB: Yo, peace, man.
Ol' Dirty Bas out, man. I'm out.
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Ol' Dirty b*stard: A Tale of Two Dirtys (2024)
Moderators: Maskath3, GabrielAlejo2341, sidolanters, Maskath3, sidolanters, GabrielAlejo2341