Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return To The 36 Chambers : The Dirty Version

1995 saw the release of this album, probably one of the most well known and commercially successful offshoots of the Wu-Tang empire. From then onwards, its creator, Ol' Dirty Bastard ( Tyrone Russell Jones to his mother) went on to have a fair few adventures :

Around this time, Jones gained notoriety when, as he was being profiled for an MTV biography, he took two of his thirteen children bylimousine to a New York State welfare office to pick up his welfare check; his latest album was still in the top ten of the US charts. The entire incident was filmed by an MTV camera crew and was broadcast nationwide.

In February 1998, Jones witnessed a car accident from the window of his Brooklyn recording studio. He and a friend ran to the accident scene and organized about a dozen onlookers who assisted in lifting the 1996 Ford Mustang—rescuing a 4-year-old girl from the wreckage. She was taken to a hospital with first and second degree burns. Using a false name, Jones visited the girl in the hospital frequently until he was spotted by members of the media

The evening following the traffic accident, Jones rushed on-stage unexpectedly as Shawn Colvin took the stage to give her acceptance speech for Song of the Year at the 1998 Grammy Awards, and announced that he had recently purchased expensive clothes in anticipation of winning the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album that he lost to Puff Daddy. As Colvin took the stage to a round of applause, he asked of the audience, "Please calm down, the music and everything. It's nice that I went and bought me an outfit today that costed a lot of money, you know what I mean? 'Cause I figured that Wu-Tang was gonna win. I don't know how you all see it, but when it comes to the children, Wu-Tang is for the children. We teach the children. You know what I mean? Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best, Okay? I want you all to know that this is ODB, and I love you all. Peace!" This incident was widely covered in the mainstream media.


In February 1999, he was arrested for driving without a license and for being a convicted felon wearing a bulletproof vest (the first person arrested for this infraction under a new California law). Back in New York weeks later, he was arrested for drug possession of crack cocaine and for traffic offences. With multiple cases in the past and present, he was arrested with marijuana and 20 vials of crack. After his arrest, Ol' Dirty Bastard reportedly asked the police to "make the rocks disappear". During a court hearing, he once called a female prosecutor a "sperm donor."


Its a top class album. It has that East Coast dissonance that RZA's production always lends. Alongside Liquid Swords its my favourite Wu offshoot.

Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return To The 36 Chambers

Henry Silva and RZA

"Fuck HQ, I'm doing this my own way!"

After the recent purchase of Enzo G Castellari's The Bronx Warriors Trilogy Box set, and during the watching of Escape From The Bronx I was reminded about the awesomeness of Henry Silva. Veteran TV, movie and character actor and often seen in the role of the villain/baddie/nemesis etc.
First time I came across this brooding maestro of the screen was in 80's Alligator-on-the-loose creature feature ....Alligator. In this classic he played the big game hunter brought in to bring down the creature of the title. His screen time is limited but more than anything stood out even to my inferior child's mind back then.



He has brooded alongside Steven Seagal and Burt Reynolds, voiced Bane in the Batman animated show and kicked more B-movie ass than I can actually list yet most people couldn't tell you his name.
He starred alongside Forest Whitaker in the Jim Jarmusch helmed Ghost Dog : The Way Of The Samurai back in 1999, which is the other point of this post. The soundtrack to this awesome flick was created from scratch by Wu-Tang patriarch RZA and alongside Liquid Swords is one of the better Wu off shoots. Below is the Japanese version of the soundtrack, which is the most definitive one going. I got this from the awesome Substix blog where you can read about it in a far more eloquent way than I could describe it. Simply put, its an awesome, atmospheric effort by RZA to accompany an equally awesome and atmospheric film that I can't recommend enough.

Ghost Dog OST : Part 1
Ghost Dog OST : Part 2

Here's to Henry Silva and RZA.