The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2024 - Day #4

After dropping a project from the most charismatic member of the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA's next step was turning to his cousin, Russell "Ol' Dirty Bastard" Jones. His handful of appearances on Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (he only spits six verses on the album, five if you discount "Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber - Part II", which was just a remix) made quite the impression on our chosen culture at the time, his hyperactive, deranged flow acting as a counterargument to the hardcore braggadocio and threats the rest of his brethren were unloading onto RZA's dusty boom bap. It was that, and the fact that he dared call himself "Ol' Dirty Bastard" in the first place, which led to Jones becoming the then-unlikely, but today seen as inevitable, second artist out of the camp to try his hand at a solo career.

Dirty landed a deal with Elektra Records and began work on his debut, which would eventually become Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, almost immediately. The process took him a few years, as RZA was working on multiple projects simultaneously, but even with a disjointed recording schedule, the final product is a cohesive fever dream, a bonkers outing that suited the man's aura perfectly. RZA replaced the dark, grimy beats he gave Method Man with a haunted carnival's worth of aural backdrops, some of which were funky as hell, others bleak and downright terrifying, every one of them unmistakably ODB in nature. Even with many of his fellow Clan members (along with various members of his Brooklyn Zu team and even the mainstream debut of prolific Wu-affiliate Killah Priest) hitching a ride for their friend, Ol' Dirty Bastard shines through the most, his signature song, "Brooklyn Zoo", still ringing bells to this day. Ironically, Jones would almost immediately become the second most commercial artist in the Wu-Tang camp thanks to a well-received and downright insane cameo on the remix to Mariah Carey's "Fantasy", so maybe Prince Rakeem saw something in his cousin that we all just didn't at the time.

(It should be noted that this was the first project of the five-year plan that didn't feature wall-to-wall RZA beats, although he did produce the vast majority of it.)

Let's discuss some Ol' Dirty Bastard, shall we? 

RZA's Five-Year Plan #3: Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (March 28, 1995)

Link to original write-up

Link to a Reader Review (written by Banksta)

-Max