The Dirty Version: On Stage, in the Studio, and in the Streets with Ol’ Dirty Bastard

In this memoir, emcee and producer Buddha Monk (with English professor Mickey Hess) recounts his long friendship with hip-hop’s holy fool. Dubbed Ol’ Dirty Bastard, because, “there ain’t no father to his style,” Russell Tyrone Jones grew up in the rough Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Along with two cousins, RZA and GZA, ODB cofounded legendary hip-hop collective, the Wu-Tang Clan. The breakout success of Wu-Tang’s first album and ODB’s outrageous behavior (he once showed up to collect his welfare check in a limousine) brought the performer wealth and notoriety. ODB’s run-ins with both police and criminals, as well as massive cocaine use, stoked his paranoia. After a short stint in prison, ODB dropped dead of a heart attack in a recording studio two days short of his 36th birthday. Monk is a genial narrator and provides an authentic look at the N.Y.C. hip-hop scene. The narrative seems as if it were cobbled together from transcripts; still, for fans of ODB, aka Ason Unique, aka Big Baby Jesus, aka Osiris, this book provides a unique perspective on the troubled life of an intriguing artist. (Nov.)