Ol' Dirty Bastard

Ol' Dirty Bastard, born Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 – November 13, 2004), was an African American rapper and member of the Wu-Tang Clan. As well as being well-known as one of the most distinctive hip hop artis

Ol' Dirty Bastard, born Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 – November 13, 2004), was an African American rapper and member of the Wu-Tang Clan. As well as being well-known as one of the most distinctive hip hop artists of the 1990s, he became notorious for his problem-plagued private life and erratic public behavior.

Russell Jones founded the Wu-Tang Clan in 1992 with his cousins, the RZA, and the GZA (with whom he had previously comprised the underground trio Force Of The Imperial Master, which subsequently became known as the All in Together Now Crew after they had a successful underground single of that name). The cousins soon added six more friends and associates to the Clan, and released their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993 (1993 in music). Most of the members of the group received individual praise from critics and fans for their contributions to the album, but Ol' Dirty became perhaps the most well-known member of the group in the aftermath of its release. Armed with a seemingly crazed, slurred, often off-beat half-sung half-rapped delivery, bizarre lyrics and humorous antics that were unlike anything ever heard before in rap (his rap name comes from the claim that "he has no father to his style"), he encapsulated and came to personify the raw, unadulterated and innovative style of the group as a whole. The 36 Chambers album received enormous critical praise, and is now regarded as one of the best and most influential albums of any genre to be released in the 1990s, as well as one of the best hip hop albums of all time.