Watch Deck go in on some diverse topics. From Triumph, to C.R.E.A.M., to The Flood & mismangement. A good watch/listen.
Tag: odb
Thirsty Lemon D
Drum N Bass ODB Remix to enjoy.
VDB Rewinds: Review Return To The 36 Chambers
By Toure
Rolling Stone 4/20/95
* * * THE VOICE OF LANGSTON HUGHES Langston Hughes Smithsonian/Folkways * * * * RETURN TO THE 36 CHAMBERS: THE DIRTY VERSION Ol’ Dirty Bastard Elektra
In 1967, the year Langston Hughes died and the year before Ol” Dirty Bastard was born, Senegalese intellectual Leopold Sedar Senghor wrote, “The organizing principle which makes the black style is rhythm.” Though characterized by an obsession with rhythm, the evolution of black style is generally marked by some level of thematic or sonic dissonance meant to distinguish new developments from past styles and present imitators. This dissonance is often simply the sonic interpretation of the chaos of day-to-day African-American lives. New York is often the center of such tumult and, not surprisingly, the birthplace of black styles, from the Harlem Renaissance to or Dirty Bastards “Brooklyn Zoo”
Continue Reading “VDB Rewinds: Review Return To The 36 Chambers”
VDB Rewinds: To Elektra, He’s Not Just Another Ol’ Dirty Bastard
By Havelock Nelson
Billboard 02/25/95
BROOKLYN BASTARD: As it nurtures and develops Ol’ Dirty Bastard “from the ground up,” Elektra Entertainment is hoping crossover and urban radio will eventually respond to its grass-roots efforts.
The company’s marketing strategy involves taking the rugged rapper’s solo debut album, “Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version,” from the hip-hop world to the world at large. The plan for the set, which ships March 28, revolves around the artist’s association with Wu-Tang Clan.
Born Russell Jones, Ol’ Dirty Bastard is a loose part of that gold-selling Loud/RCA collective. His moniker came courtesy of his cousin (and Wu-Tang ringleader) the RZA, and functions as a convenient description of his distinctive raw and soulful vocal style.
Jones breaks his hip-hop handle down: “I’m dirty because when I step to a mike I come uncut; I speak my mind from the heart. The ol’ comes from the fact that I was influenced by the old school–everybody from Al Green and Millie Jackson to the Sugarhill Gang. And the bastard part is there because there is no father to my style.”
Continue Reading “VDB Rewinds: To Elektra, He’s Not Just Another Ol’ Dirty Bastard”
Citizen Of The Week: Ol’ Dirty
To remember Dirty
CITIZEN OF THE WEEK
03/09/98 Time
When OL’ DIRTY BASTARD, a member of the Wu-Tang Clan, left his Brooklyn studio on Monday, he was met with the sight of a 4-year-old girl trapped under a 1996 Mustang that had run her over. O.D.B. and several members of his posse rushed to the rescue and helped lift the car off her body; he later visited her while she was recovering in the hospital. Then, at Wednesday’s otherwise boring Grammy awards, O.D.B., who had lost an award to Sean (“Puffy”) Combs, tried to add some excitement by rushing to the stage, grabbing the mike and proclaiming, “Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best!” To top off his week, the next morning a chastened O.D.B. soulfully apologized.
Ol’ Dirty Bastard Saves Child
02.24.1998 MTV News
Over this past weekend ODB was in the studio with the Wu group Twelve O’Clock, in Brooklyn, when they rushed to the aid of a four-year-old girl who had been hit by a car outside of the studio.The child was trapped underneath the vehicle whenDirty and some of his friends lifted the car off of her. She was taken to the hospital and treated for first and second degree burns from the car’s engine.
Dirty visited the hospital to check on the girl’s condition, but the normally anything-but-low key ODB never identified himself to her family. However, they recognized him and alerted the media.
But Ol’ Dirty never left the funk behind; he just found it in a new, surprising source: Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo.
I had to post this (again). Stylus Magazine did a Second Thought article on N***a Please, and I doubt that many people read this. It was published this year, so it isn’t all that old. But it gives a interesting restrospective on the album. Enjoy
On Second Thought
Ol’ Dirty Bastard – N***a Please
By: Ian Cohen
Published on: 2007-05-17
For better or worse, we here at Stylus, in all of our autocratic consumer-crit greed, are slaves to timeliness. A record over six months old is often discarded, deemed too old for publication, a relic in the internet age. That’s why each week at Stylus, one writer takes a look at an album with the benefit of time. Whether it has been unjustly ignored, unfairly lauded, or misunderstood in some fundamental way, we aim with On Second Thought to provide a fresh look at albums that need it.
Some incredibly suspect albums have been the beneficiary of On Second Thought‘s critical amnesty, but if you take the title of this series literally, Ol’ Dirty Bastard might be its most unlikely inclusion to date. Don’t get me wrong: when it comes to being overanalytical, Wu-Tang fans are second to none, and there are probably dozens of readers who could fill volumes detailing how U-God’s side project with the Hillside Scramblers is an unheralded work of pure genius. But one would surmise that the entire point of ODB was that you didn’t have to think about him, let alone twice.
This often goes into the evaluation of his records in light of his fellow swordsmen, despite the fact that in some corners, he’s so essential to the Wu that they can’t possibly make a great record ever again without him. When talking about their unimpeachable solo run of the mid-90’s, you’ll often hear Liquid Swords, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Ironman, and Tical rattled off, but rarely Return to the 36 Chambers, despite the fact that it’s deserving; it might run a little long, but it’s surprisingly cohesive in sound and littered with tracks that are indispensable in both the Wu-Tang and pop canons.
And likewise, N***a Please isn’t judged within the context of the late-90’s drought, but for a more concrete reason: in between Enter the 36 Chambers and Iron Flag, there was no solo album that was less Wu than this one. Just about the only thing that ties it to its predecessor is its color scheme, and the RZA’s sole production is the title track, a brassy fraction of a tune that recalls Return‘s bugged, slapdash funk almost out of desperation.
Continue Reading “But Ol’ Dirty never left the funk behind; he just found it in a new, surprising source: Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo.”
A Son Unique going digital?
Before I go all Charles Bronson on this, it has been some time that we first heard about Ol’ Dirty Bastards Roc album, A Son Unique. The last Dirty piece got delayed every full moon by a couple of months. Most of the time because of money. In the mean time it has been leaked, and the people heard it.
Recent news has Dame Dash talking about his new website and putting the tribute album “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” on it.
Although there aren’t any current plans to release the album conventionally in stores, the duo have posted the project up on their Web site.
“We felt like we might as well, why not?” Dame shrugged. “I don’t know, I’m living more on the virtual/digital side.”
Interesting. Where do they go from there?
But as far as music goes, it’s still up in the air how many more albums Biggs and Dash will put out. They don’t see the biz being lucrative anymore.
“We got heat. Nicole Wray’s album [Lovechild] is hot, ODB’s album [A Son Unique] is hot,” Dash said of the label’s two LPs, which have been kicking around for quite some time but haven’t been officially released. “Everybody acts like they doing us a favor by putting it out.
“We got deals everywhere,” he added when asked about a recent deal he struck with Koch Records to distribute his music. “It’s not about the deal, it’s about the frustration and hassle. We turned into real business men. We’re here to make money, and it seems like the money ain’t there.”
It is by no means a clear answer. He has a new deal with Koch. He likes it digital, though that’s mostly because he can then put it exclusively on his own website. Both scenarios leave ODB’s legacy was past it’s prime. It would be a mircale if they would make any money of this mediocre album. Yes I have heard it and was not impressed. More saddened. Like we were all when Dirty inked the deal with Roc. Hov didn’t even think it was okay.
The Clan should include the cd as a tribute on the first pressing of their album. And people shoudl stop all the bullshit about the money. I haven’t witnessed a more shamefull way of dealing with a musical legacy than this.