Artist: Ol’ Dirty Bastard
Best Album: Return to the 36 Chambers
Best Song: Shimmy Shimmy Ya
This Letter Could Have Been About: No one. Absolutely no one.

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: I don’t know how to write about ODB.  The brother was an insane, drug-addicted, criminal hiphop genius.  There’s three videos attached to this post– the first for his best solo song, Shimmy Shimmy Ya, the second a few clips from an episode of Yo! MTV Raps where he was famously blasted out of his mind but that kinda shows some of the crazed energy that the man had with him pretty much at all times, and the third is actually a Rhymefest song from well after he died that I still really enjoy listening to from time to time.  ODB died of a drug overdose in 2004, just short of his 36th birthday, and spent most of his career getting arrested and locked up for dumb shit.  I have no idea what he could have been had he gotten clean, and he may well have been one of those artists who wouldn’t have been able to function if he had ever gotten clean.  But … shit, the man was a lunatic genius as it was.  Genius.  There’s not a single track on Return to the 36 Chambers that isn’t amazing in one way or another, and I’ve written all of this without even mentioning the Wu-Tang Clan.  RIP, Big Baby Jesus.

Have a video!:

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