When ODB crashed three cars in one night
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, in 2014, Wu-Tang Clan producer-turned-director RZA sat down with Lamar ‘Bloxilla’ Valentine for his YouTube series No Judgement Zone to speak about his days as a child on Staten Island and recalled some stories about his late cousin Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
He first set the scene by recalling the formation of Wu-Tang, telling the host, “Raekwon, I mean, we’ve been friends since…we started off in the third grade together. Ol’ Dity is my cousin, and GZA’s my cousin but they didn’t know the other guys.” He continued, “You look at Ghostface [Killah] we became friends back in Stapleton projects at the age of 14. I was that common denominator between all of us and I knew of each and everybody’s talent.”
Speaking about some of the standout memories from that period, after a mention of the “Wu Mansion” in Jersey, RZA told Valentine about the time when ODB hijacked and crashed three cars in one night.
Recalling the story, RZA told the host, “I’ll never forget the day Ol’ Dirty came by with a brand new Lexus. The driveway was long and you’re not supposed to speed down the driveway. On the way out he speeds and crashes his Lexus against one of those trees.”
Laughing to himself at the tale’s absurdity, RZA continued, “He goes back in borrows another car from someone else. Crashes it! He’s like, ‘I gotta get out of here!’ because the Wu house was in the woods, and he had to get back to Manhattan. I let him borrow my car he made it out, made it to Manhattan and crashed on the way home!”
Despite it all being rather crazy, Jones’ substance abuse was well-known in the industry, and it was thought to have affected his erratic behaviour over the years. In 2004, the Brooklyn emcee died of an overdose and a legend was lost.