ODB is easily in the top 10 MC's of all time. The fact that people scoff at the very idea of that assertion and feel the need to invoke Canibus or some bullshit golden age progenitor (What had Big Daddy Kane done for me LATELY? Masta Ace>Big Daddy Kane. Real talk.) and make reactionary lists of the greatest MC's of all time (usually its just a matter of whether they put 2Pac's overrated ashes at the top spot or number two), further reinforces that for me. (Peep Nigga Please, and the first Wu-Tang record.)
There's an allhiphop.com thread on the most original MC's ever and it makes me wonder about how many banal rappers are put on a pedestal. How much clamoring for Saigon and Canibus and Papoose goes on when you have guys like Del, Busdriver, Ghostface, and Kool Keith still around. The only happy medium, is Lil' Wayne, whose only selling point his weird ass transformation in the last four years into this immensely likable and strange Codeined out troll.
I repeat, that motherfucker is an orc. He's a walking MC Chris song. (BTW, fuck MC Chris for stealing my rap name).
But essentially, this post is inspired by finding an ODB documentary on youtube:
Haven't watched it yet, since I'm operating in a weird 20-year-old college commuter nexus where I have no fucking idea what I'm doing or how to manage my time, so I neither practiced guitar nor finished two easy papers and have nothing to show for the day. Except two blog posts, so hey, that's something. Point is, ODB is my 10th favorite MC of all time. The other nine will come later, but his life, personality, and career are enough for me, plus about 2:57 into "You Don't Want To Fuck With Me", probably one of the best tracks laid to wax, no irony, honestly. I only find five recent rappers funny: Redman, Cam'Ron, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and ODB.
EDIT: Watched all four parts, insightful in a bittersweet way. Dude was coked out for half of it, a lot like that famous Richard Pryor clip on youtube, and when he wasn't high (just like in the Beanie "Don't Stop" video) he looked sullen as fuck. Gotta add, that the documentary was lazy and just taped shit and inserted Clerks-esuqe bumps to describe the following clips, but the ODB footage itself makes it amazing. I remember thinking it was cruel to even bother having two bars of ODB on "9 Milli Bros."...it felt like a taunt, more than anything. A cruel reminder of what was gone. Maybe if it was four bars rather than two...
I think the third anniversary of his death is in November, so here's a pre-emptive RIP for Ason Unique.
"Ladies don't love shit. Ladies just act like they love. You understand what I'm sayin'? It's an act when it comes to Ol Dirty Bastard. They ACT like they love Ol Dirty - ladies don't love Ol Dirty Bastard because ... Ol Dirty Bastard is busy lovin' them. They might like Ol Dirty Bastard, know what I'm sayin? They might listen to his music or something, but really they don't pay no mind. They pay nothing no mind, nothing is paid a mind to, really, on this earth. It's just living, and dying. The world is a big ball of fire and it's just burning with no feeling."- Dirt McGirt
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4 comments:
Dirty was either high as shit or just bat shit crazy in that interview. Hilarious. Either way, RIP ODB.
For real. On another window, I was watching "Brooklyn Zoo" and both missed the crazy griminess and scariness of early 90's rap (remember when you actually could say "Nas looked scary in that Mobb Deep video...". Everyone was mean mugging and bugging out. Good times.
Then I watching the documentary, I got sad because in ODB, you can see how unhappy he was. its in his eyes right after he got out. Even when he smiled those eyes looked like he had given up and was going through the motions.
Oh, I gotta say the Masta Ace post you did was great, cuz I pirated A Long Hot Summer and Disposable Arts and they're both great albums and his style is very likable. Although, listening to him makes my opinion of pre-Eminem Show Eminem go down a bit. A lot of swagger jacking there.
I actually would say that there was some mutual "borrowing" from both Eminem and Masta Ace. "Don't Understand" off Disposable Arts pays homage to Em as well. Don't get completely down on Eminem in those days, lots of emcees borrow other rappers flows.
Oh, I can't shit on him, its the only era of him I like. Haha.
Didn't know about the mutual borrowing, but I did wonder about it when hearing the Ace records, and wanted to check some pre-Slim Shady LP Ace records to see if the flow was the same.
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