From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: Ol' Dirty Bastard Felled By Cocaine, Pills

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Ol' Dirty Bastard Felled By Cocaine, Pills

January 13, 2005

When the "loveable," "unpredictable" and "goofy" rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard - ex of the Wu Tang Clan - died suddenly in the recording studio last November the MSM encomniums were numerous, glowing, and of a piece. A typical example of the coverage comes in this earlier post of mine which links to a Boston Globe profile.

Smiley faces for his jokey welfare-cheat stunt pulled with admiring MTV cameras in tow.

Painstaking avoidance any comment beyond bare facts regarding his fathering of as many as 12 (according to The Globe) children by several different women.

Faint amusement recalling his impromptu, uninvited, apparently drug-addled ambush of award-winner Shawn Colvin's acceptance speech at the 1998 Grammys ("Wu-Tang is for the children," ODB declared into the podium mike to a puzzled audience).

The cause of death for ODB (real name Russell Jones) wasn't known. And MSM follow-up has been nil, except for a New York Post report in early December he died with small bags of cocaine in his stomach (abridged summary from archives here).

While The Post (a shameless tabloid unbound by PC strictures) got that scoop, it is the online music press that further reported the details (although it's still not clear why ODB would swallow cocaine bags, unless he feared a sudden in-studio bust). And it is the online music press that dared to register commentary. After The New York Medical Examiner's Office reported ODB OD'd on cocaine and a prescription painkiller, mp3's "Rolls Off The Tongue: The Weekly News As Is" said what someone in the MSM should have, especially given all the pre-autopsy MSM speculation on whether drugs were involved:

The news of the cause of death is unfortunately not shocking. ODB was no stranger to drug abuse. In 2000, his well-documented usage landed him in a drug rehabilitation facility, which he escaped from two months after admittance, and then prison. Upon his release in May 2003, ODB made several public announcements regarding his being drug-free. Sadly, his death proves his profession of sobriety a falsity.

There's more distressing post-autopsy news. ODB's mother, and the first four of his seven confirmed children have been left out in the cold in the estate settlement. So his mother Cherry Jones and her partner Jared Weisfeld (who is also ODB's former business manager) have formed a new music label to produce an ODB tribute CD, and they're hoping to cash in.

"Dirty's legacy will continue though this album, his music, his DVD and his clothing line for all eternity," Weisfeld said in a statement.

Funny thing, Jared, I'd have thought his legacy might have something to do with his children. As opposed to his clothing line. And I imagine his "legacy" will not quite be for all of eternity, but rather a part of it. A very small part, actually.