November 14, 2004
Big Baby Jesus Will Rise on the Third Day
I couldn't tell whether it would be better to treat this respectfully or not. On the one hand, I'm genuinely devastated by the fact that Old Dirty Bastard is dead at 35. On the other hand, he was genuinely crazier than a shithouse rat, and perhaps it would be best to memorialize him appropriately.
The thing is, and this may sound like hyperbole to those whose dedication to the Wu is less than laser-focused, Dirt was a f'in genius, and one of a kind. There were a few crazy fucks in rap, but none quite like Russell. And the really amazing thing is that his greatness wasn't because of his instability - there was a great rapper in there, under the borderline dementia, and when the two coincided, it was a beautiful thing - and then he'd go back to singing the theme from "Taxi" or something.
I'm sure more obscure stuff will be popping up in the next couple of days (and incidentally, the one upside to this is that, finally, the new album will get released), but I thought I'd "hit you off" with some "classic raw ish." This one's a bit more on the demented end of the spectrum: "I came out of my momma's pussy, I'm on welfare/ 26 years old, still on welfare."
For anyone who cares, I'm deeply offended that they're quoting Damon Dash in the article. What, like RZA's got something better to do?
UPDATE: Cocaine Blunts keeps it real with a rarity.
Y Mas: Check out my Roundup of Crazy Rappers.
This does really suck.