Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 - November 13, 2004) was an American rapper who used the stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard (often shortened to ODB). He was one of the founding members of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

Ol' Dirty Bastard simultaneously brought a measure of humor and a touch of the absurd to the Wu-Tang Clan. Often noted for his unusual microphone technique (critic Steve Huey writes of Jones' "outrageously profane, free-associative rhymes" delivered "in a distinctive half-rapped, half-sung style"[1]), Jones' stage name came from a 1980 kung fu film entitled Ol' Dirty & The Bastard, the relevance of which was articulated by Method Man's assertion that there was "no father" to Jones's style.[2]

After establishing the Wu-Tang Clan, Ol' Dirty Bastard went on to a successful solo career. However, his professional success was hampered by his erratic personal behavior and frequent legal troubles, including incarceration. He died in late 2004 of congestive heart failure as a result of a drug overdose.

Ol' Dirty Bastard takes his name from the 1980 film by Meng-Hwa Ho called An Old Kung Fu Master, known also as Mad Mad Kung Fu and Ol' Dirty & The Bastard. The movie features Yuen Siu Tien aka Simon Yuen who can also be found in other classics such as Drunken Master. Yuen Siu Tien often played a character of an old drunkard who had mastered the martial art of Drunken Boxing.

Ol' Dirty Bastard was born Russell Tyrone Jones in Brooklyn in 1968, and grew up in the neighborhood of Fort Greene. As he got older, he started hanging out more and more with his cousins Robert Diggs and Gary Grice; they all shared a taste for rap music and kung-fu movies. Diggs, later to be known as the RZA, Grice, later the GZA, and Jones formed Force Of The Imperial Master, which subsequently became known as the All in Together Now Crew after they had a successful underground single of that name. ' In 1990, Ol' Dirty became close friends with fellow "5 percenter," Freedom Shabazz Allah, aka "Slumlord Shabazz," while both were residing as roommates in Orlando, Florida. Shabazz, hailing from Plainfield, New Jersey, immediately became close friends with "Ason" after graduating from Job Corps in upstate New York along with The RZA's eldest brother. The two became inseparable and spent countless hours penning rhymes together and working a brief stint at the local Hardee's and at Universal Studios as laborers at the "Jaws" attraction.

The cousins soon added six more friends and associates to the Clan, and released their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993. 36 Chambers received enormous critical praise, and is now widely regarded as one of the best and most influential albums of any genre to be released in the 1990s, as well as one of the best hip hop albums of all time.[3]

While most of the group's members received individual praise from critics and fans, Jones became perhaps the best-known member of the group. Armed with a seemingly crazed, slurred, often off-beat, half-sung half-rapped delivery, bizarre lyrics and humorous antics that were unlike anything ever heard before in rap, he seemed to encapsulate and personify the raw, unadulterated and innovative style of the group.

Russell Jones collapsed at approximately 5:29 p.m. on November 13, 2004 (2 days before he turned 36) at Wu-Tang's recording studio (36 Records LLC on West 34th Street in New York City). He was pronounced dead less than an hour later. His funeral was held at Brooklyn's Christian Cultural Center. The cause of death remained unknown until December 15, 2004; although he reportedly complained of chest pains prior to collapsing, a heart attack was not listed as the cause of death. During the initial autopsy of the 35-year-old rapper, a doubled plastic bag containing cocaine was discovered in his stomach. Final results from an autopsy show he had a lethal mixture of the prescription painkiller Tramadol and high amounts of cocaine in his system at the time of his death, which was ruled an accidental overdose by the New York Medical Examiner's Office

Remember November 13th as ODB's day. Thank you!

ODB Fan Art: