Five years after his death, Ol' Dirty Bastard is still greatly missed by his Wu-Tang brethren, and being remembered as one of hip-hop's true legends.
"He was one of our greatest entertainers on the planet when it came to representing real hip-hop," Raekwon told Exclaim! in an interview on November 12, one day before the anniversary of ODB's death. "I looked at Dirty as being a hype man, a producer, an MC, an entertainer — everything. I just miss him, man."
Raekwon recently paid tribute to ODB on his long-anticipated and best of 2009 shoe-in, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. 2 with "Ason Jones," the J Dilla-produced track that features vocal clips from the fallen Wu member. And while the Chef says it's difficult to pin down a favourite memory of Dirt McGirt, he says most of them revolve around his sense of humour.
"He was just naturally funny," said Raekwon. "We'd be doing a recording at MTV, he'd come late and know everybody be mad and he didn't care, you know what I mean? He'd say shit like, 'I don't give a fuck about these muthafuckas in here!' Just the way he'd talk, like, you could tell everything he said was from the heart. He'd make us laugh."
Ol' Dirty Bastard — real name Russell Tyrone Jones — died November 13, 2004, of an accidental drug overdose. He was 35.
You can listen to a portion of Exclaim!'s interview with Raekwon in the video below.
"He was one of our greatest entertainers on the planet when it came to representing real hip-hop," Raekwon told Exclaim! in an interview on November 12, one day before the anniversary of ODB's death. "I looked at Dirty as being a hype man, a producer, an MC, an entertainer — everything. I just miss him, man."
Raekwon recently paid tribute to ODB on his long-anticipated and best of 2009 shoe-in, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. 2 with "Ason Jones," the J Dilla-produced track that features vocal clips from the fallen Wu member. And while the Chef says it's difficult to pin down a favourite memory of Dirt McGirt, he says most of them revolve around his sense of humour.
"He was just naturally funny," said Raekwon. "We'd be doing a recording at MTV, he'd come late and know everybody be mad and he didn't care, you know what I mean? He'd say shit like, 'I don't give a fuck about these muthafuckas in here!' Just the way he'd talk, like, you could tell everything he said was from the heart. He'd make us laugh."
Ol' Dirty Bastard — real name Russell Tyrone Jones — died November 13, 2004, of an accidental drug overdose. He was 35.
You can listen to a portion of Exclaim!'s interview with Raekwon in the video below.