The A&E documentary Ol’ Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys revisits an oft-told tragedy. Ghostface Killah calls him “the soul of Wu-Tang Clan,” but one can’t help but notice that he and Raekwon are the only members of the group to appear on camera. RZA’s absence is palpable – he and Dirty’s widow, Icelene Jones, have had a contentious relationship since the rapper’s death in 2004. Mariah Carey shows up with her considerable star power to describe how she and Dirty made the classic single “Sweet Fantasy.” Damon Dash, who is far removed from his Roc-a-Fella glory years, bravely addresses why he signed Dirty to a million-dollar deal despite the rapper displaying troubling signs of schizophrenia while in prison, and clearly needing therapy upon release. There’s a lot of great camcorder home videos from Icelene that gives the documentary a poignant intimacy. But too much of Dirty’s work after Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version is cast in a negative light. An Elektra Records executive claims that his second album, 1999’s Nigga Please, sold poorly because of his increasing drug use. That’s clearly wrong: it earned a RIAA gold certification and yielded a major club hit in the Neptunes-produced “Got Your Money.” A Tale of Two Dirtys strains to show us that Dirty was a creative musician, not a holy fool. Unfortunately, A&E doesn’t do artistry. It specializes in celebrity dirt. There’s endless scenes of Dirty wandering some anonymous hallway, presumably in a drug-induced daze. Under such conditions, one doesn’t know if they should take commentator’s Byronn Bain’s comment that “this country has had a love affair with Black pain and suffering since its beginning” as an ironic or a cautionary statement. A Tale of Two Dirtys was directed by Jason and Sam Pollard. Four Screens, Pulse Films, and the Ol’ Dirty Bastard Estate produced it.
Blu & Exile, Love (the) Ominous World
Love (the) Ominous World is Blu’s third album in 2024. In March, he released Out of the Blue with Shafiq Husayn, a sequel to their 2018 album The Blueprint. A pairing with Evidence, Los Angeles, dropped in July. These projects revolve around familiar concerns: fulfilling his hip-hop ambitions, honoring without falling prey to neighborhood (gang) customs, and trying to find spiritual sustenance. “I be rewriting my records like I’m trying to perfect this,” he raps on “Chucks.” It’s the nature of musicianship. Eventually, an artist defines his territory. To his credit, Blu has put out some very good work after completing a pioneering run of lo-fi rap projects (Her Favorite Colo(u)r and Jesus), reuniting with producer Exile for Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them, and embarking on what could be described as a post-Below the Heavens career of easygoing, lyrically engaging backpack rap. Bad Neighbor, his 2015 venture with MED and Madlib, remains a fan favorite. As for Ominous World? It suffers from too many guest spots. Georgia Anne Muldrow dominates “Hello L.A.” and Kurupt takes command of “Chucks” with a fiery cameo. The unfortunately titled “Suge Knight” finds Blu taking a label meeting with the notorious boss during Death Row’s ill-fated “new and untouchable” era in the mid-Aughts. “A Song Called Precipitation” reprises Below the Heavens gem “Dancing in the Rain,” albeit with an environmental twist. On “Smack,” he shares the mic with another blog era star, Fashawn. They’re both onetime prospects who crafted solid indie careers for themselves yet arguably deserved much more. Exile released Love (the) Ominous World on his Dirty Science imprint.
