A new documentary covering the career of legendary rapper and founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, is on the horizon.
Born Russell Tyrone Jones, Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s life is a tale of triumph, transcendent genius and tragedy. “Ol’ Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys,” premieres on A&E TV on Aug. 25 and will be available to stream the next day.
Directed by father-and-son duo Sam and Jason Pollard, the documentary features interviews with some of the rapper’s immediate family, members of the Wu-Tang Clan and other musical collaborators including Mariah Carey. Executive arts editor and The Culture Show host Jared Bowen sat down with Jason Pollard to discuss the meteoric rise and fall of one of hip-hop history’s most unforgettable characters.
Pollard described working on this film as “a dream come true.”
“As a 90s hip-hop fan, as a big Wu-Tang Clan fan, as a big ODB fan, it was a project I really wanted to do because... he had such an operatic life, all these tremendous highs and these really dramatic lows,” said Pollard. “Russell Jones lived a very, very, very complicated life, like most great artists... he had demons, and those demons chased him down, unfortunately, from the peak of his success.”
ODB’s career was sparked by a strong musical foundation among his family and peers.
“He got struck by the hip-hop bug, like a lot of young people from that era... once they heard that music, it was so transformative, he just had to be a part of the industry,” said Pollard. “He had a musical background, his dad was a musician, his mother sung, his brother’s a drummer... so I think even without hip-hop, he still would have been a musician or an artist in some way... That’s what he was, I think, fated to be attracted to.”
Jones’ adopted identity of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, a bombastic and eccentric performer on and off the stage, made him one of the most memorable figures of the East Coast hip-hop boom of the early 1990s.
“The Ol’ Dirty Bastard is the id, the main manifestation of the human ego, the Incredible Hulk,” said Pollard. “Just pure energy, pure chaos, pure excitement, no holds barred. That’s ODB.”
Pollard saw it necessary to show the dark side of ODB in his documentary, from his frequent run-ins with the law to his drug addiction and fatal overdose.
“Unfortunately, the trappings of fame and fortune got to him. It was a tremendous amount of money, a tremendous amount of attention... and what happens to a lot of people, music artists especially, is that when you finally reach the dream and get everything you ever wanted, it has a negative effect on you,” explained Pollard. “You get caught up in the limelight. It’s a flame that burns bright, but it burns, it burns quickly and it burns itself out... the man and the image combined into one, and unfortunately the image took over.”
Outside of the complications stemming from his larger-than-life alter ego, Jones was a devoted family man, and archival home videos from his personal life feature prominently in the documentary.
“We were lucky enough to work in partnership with the ODB estate, his wife and three of his children,” said Pollard. “[In] the home video... you see a person with a family who likes to hang out with his kids and his wife, you see a guy who’s really fiercely loyal to his friends and family. Those are the two sides that you see... you see all these different wonderful things that make up this man.”
To hear more from Jason Pollard, listen to the full interview above. Listen to The Culture Show daily at 2 p.m. on 89.7.
