Credit: Spotify

Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB) was an eccentric character, to say the least, and as one of the most outlandish members of Wu-Tang Clan with his quirky voices, unique cadence and unusual way of twisting words, he was one of the most recognisable New York MCs of the 1990s.

That said, he was an unorthodox character both on and off the microphone. ODB brought dark humour, dynamism and a vigorous edge to hip-hop with his distinctive half-rapped, half-sung delivery. His vocals were always loud, and, as a cultural figure, he was undoubtedly a raucous character and he routinely proved it with swathes of stories surfacing after his untimely death about his erratic behaviour.

As such, there are many crazy stories about the lyricist, some enthralling and others quite worrying. Whether it’s Dante Ross’ recollection of ODB getting arrested and hospitalised in one night after breaking into someone’s house or the tale of the musician urinating on an LL Cool J plaque at Chung King Studios, the anecdotes about the rapper can verge on the insane.

With that in mind, during a conversation with DJ Vlad on Vlad TV, Wu-Tang Clan member Inspectah Deck spoke about his fond memories of ODB and recalled him ruining concerts on multiple occasions. He began by explaining his relationship with the late rapper, stating, “ODB used to duck me. That’s my brother. I love him, but I was the one that was always like, ‘Yo man, what are you doin’ daw?! Chill! Relax or calm down!’

He continued, “Dirty didn’t wanna hear that a lot at times. He wanted a dude that was like, ‘Yo man, I’m about to go knock off this armoured truck!’ [But] I’m always thinking ahead two or three steps, so I tried to get him to chill a lot of times, and he was like, ‘Oh here come Deack with his preaching!'” 

However, Inspectah Deck did admit they had a certain friendship, unveiling, “Our relationship was unique because we were night and day like heads and tails of the same coin. I’m the laidback, trying to keep my calm at all times… he was always on flipmode!”

When thinking about some of the funniest Ol’ Dirty Bastard stories, Inspectah Deck had quite a few. One was at The Ark nightclub. Recalling the night, Deck told DJ Vlad, “We was at The Ark in Brooklyn, we had a show with Capleton, the reggae artists and a couple of other cats, and I remember Ralph McDaniels was there hosting it. We had to wait for Capleton and his crew to finish they set, but the crowd was screaming, ‘Wu-Tang!'”

He detailed, “Dirty[y] couldn’t wait. He didn’t wanna wait no more so he goes out in the middle of Caplton’s show, takes the mic, starts screaming, and says ‘Ya’ll don’t wanna hear no fucking Capleton! Ya’ll wanna hear Wu-Tang!’ Got the crowd all riled up.”

However, it was during a Method Man and Redman performance that ODB decided to get really rowdy and, comically remembering the incident, Inspectah Deck revealed, “He ran up on Method Man and Redman’s set mad because he couldn’t get any shine in between them and threw the turntables over man!”