It’s safe to say that for virtually every moment from the time that Wu-Tang Clan became prominent around 1993 until his sad death in 2004, Ol’ Dirty Bastard—“Russell Jones” to the law enforcement community—was in some kind of legal trouble. He was convicted of second degree assault in 1993 and was arrested for failure to pay child support in 1997. A year later, he pleaded guilty to attempted assault on his wife and was also arrested for shoplifting. It goes on from there. In 2000 he was assigned to a court-mandated drug treatment facility but escaped—as a fugitive he met up with RZA and spent some time in the studio. In Philadelphia he was eventually captured. (DM previously reported on his endlessly interesting FBI file, released in 2012.)

After spending the next two and a half years in prison in New York, he was released on parole on May 1, 2003. Sensing an opportunity, ODB’s manager, Jarred Weisfeld, arranged for VH1 to have a crew follow ODB around for his release and the first few weeks out of jail. The end result was “Inside Out,” which can be viewed below. Actually, it’s a little unclear what this video is—IMDb.com lists the running time as 60 minutes over two episodes. This video isn’t that long, however. What I think this is is episode 1 of “Inside Out”—not sure there was an episode 2—followed by a brief remembrance section that likely doesn’t have anything to do with VH1. In any case, it’s wildly entertaining.
 

 
The life of a mentally troubled rap star is as crazy as anything you’re likely to find. A stretch limo filled with family, friends, and business associates (of course these lines overlap) is there to meet him upon his release. He is immediately presented with a gift of 500 condoms. As the father of 13 children by multiple women, ODB sniffs out the subtext: “They don’t want me makin’ no more babies!” At his press conference the same day as his release, who shows up to take part? Of course, Mariah Carey.

Eventually ODB’s interest in the ladies alienates his sort-of ladyfriend Raquel, who promptly flees back to LA. Within days he’s photographing a silicone-enhanced Playboy model and hitting on women in the street. Meanwhile his new relationship with Roc-A-Fella records is proceeding with the usual complications. We see a few cordial encounters with RZA as well.

The special presents a glimpse of actual parole life that’s not often available on TV. We see ODB successfully pass a drug test and we’re told that, as messy as his life was, he was able to adhere to the 9pm curfew imposed on him. When he signs the paperwork before his release, he’s told that he’s agreeing that parole officers can visit his home more or less anytime, and sure enough, we get to see such a visit. All goes well, except for ODB’s lingering paranoia after the fact.

ODB never really got the psychological help he needed, but nobody could say that he lived an unfulfilled life. “Inside Out” is excellent evidence of both parts of that equation.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Ol’ Dirty Bastard memorialized by The Clapper
Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s FBI file in its entirety

 
This is one of those weird by-ways of entertainment culture that will probably never be cleared up entirely. In 2005 an mp3, apparently of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s audition tape for the role of a rebooted TV series of Mister Ed, surfaced on the essential “Beware of the Blog” run by the great free-form Hoboken, New Jersey, radio station WFMU.

Mister Ed, of course, is part of the grand tradition of ridiculous TV shows from the early 1960s, when people would watch anything, it seems. Mister Ed was a CBS sitcom about a talking horse that ran for nearly five years, just like My Mother the Car was about a talking car. What’s for sure is that there was such a reboot in the works around 2004. It was the project of Drake Sather, a standup comedian whom I vaguely remember who tragically committed suicide not long after Ol’ Dirty Bastard died of an overdose. The series was in the pipeline at FOX—Sherman Hemsley beat out ODB for the role of the equine rapscallion (assuming ODB ever tried out for the part).

So what is this, exactly? We can only hope that it’s what it appears to be, an authentic audition by Ol’ Dirty Bastard for the role of Mister Ed. If it is, we can only applaud Sather and company for thinking out of the box—if only this series existed! Alternately, there are two other possibilities—either ODB and his crew were messing around, having fun or else it’s someone else. If it’s someone else, then that person gets the genius points, whoever he is.

ODB’s down-tempo, basso profundo approach to the part is inspired, He appears to flub a line, replacing “hoof” for “boot,” which makes it all the more amusing. I’m going to have these lines in my head all day: “Lawman, what we donna do about Dakota? ... Dude, I read the emails…. Let’s not get all familiar on the first date…. I seen WNBA teams with more game, than that….”

I think, I hope, I pray it’s legit—I think it’s ODB.
 

 
Via The World’s Best Ever

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s FBI file in its entirety
The day Ol’ Dirty Bastard helped save a little girl who was trapped under a car

 
Ol’ Dirty Bastard (born Russell Tyrone Jones) wasn’t just the most colorful member of Wu-Tang Clan, on at least one occasion, he was the most heroic…

In February 1998, ODB was at work in the studio with his cousin, 12 O’Clock, when he looked out the window and witnessed a car accident on the street outside. A 1996 Ford Mustang had run into a four-year-girl, who had then gotten trapped underneath the car. ODB ran to the scene of the accident and organized a group of about a dozen onlookers to lift the car off of the little girl, who was then taken to the hospital with second- and third-degree burns.

For several days Ol’ Dirty Bastard visited the girl in the hospital using a false name until the media sussed out the secret. Here’s the MTV News report on the incident at the time.

It’s a good thing that ODB didn’t have to resort to his Plan B, which was to tell the girl to “Shimmy Shimmy Ya.”
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Ol’ Dirty Bastard memorialized by The Clapper
Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s FBI file in its entirety

 
I think this has been around for some time, but I’ve never seen it before: A tee-shirt recreating Norman Rockwell’s 1960 “Triple Self-Portrait” with Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

You can buy it on eBay for $19.98.

h/t Chris LaCoe!

 
Rich Jones, of Gun.Io, says one of his hobbies is “liberating government documents using Freedom of Information Act requests.”

He’s done just that, by obtaining the full FBI profile of Wu-Tang Clan member Russell Tyreese Jones aka Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

From Gun.Io:

Some gems include:

• “The WTC is heavily involved in the sale of drugs, illegal guns, weapons possession, murder, carjacking and other types of violent crime.” [p5]
• Connections to the murder of Robert “Pooh” Johnson and Jerome “Boo Boo” Estrella. [p6]
• Connection to murder of Ishamael “Hoody” Kourma. [p13]
• A shoot-out with the NYPD. [p15]
• Arrest for felony possession of body armour. [p16]
• Connections to the Bloods Gang. [p17]
• Found in possession of large bags full of paper currency. [p40]
• Details of his being robbed and shot while staying in the Kingston projects. [p45]

 
The best kinds of mashups are the ones that make you go “what the fuck?!” This is one of those kinds of mashups.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Shimmy Shimmy Ya meets Wesley Willis’s Suck My Dog’s Dick.
 

 
“Clap on, clap off.” Remember those late night TV ads for ‘The Clapper’? If not, let me explain. It was a device you’d hook up to the electric lights in your room that you could activate with hand claps. Clap twice and the lights would go on or off. Zachs used ‘The Clapper’ in a very innovative way to create a lo-fi lightshow in memory of Ol Dirty Bastard and his song ‘Got Your Money”. Very cool.
 
Via worldsbestever