Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Son Unique : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

At the time of his fatal 2004 drug overdose, Ol' Dirty Bastard was working on a comeback album that he hoped would restore him to the glory days of "Brooklyn Zoo." A Son Unique attempts to re-introduce the ghetto superstar as a Tupac-style posthumous franchise. The star-studded cast includes old Wu-Tang comrades such as the RZA, plus Clipse and the Neptunes. His coke-ravaged voice is shot, so for the most part the album plays him for laughs, as in the Elton John remake "ODB Don't Go Breaking My Heart," with Macy Gray. Missy Elliott joins in for "Lift Ya Skirt," and DJ Premier contributes "Pop Shots," but the obvious pick is "Back in the Air," an incongruously perky duet with Ghostface. When ODB calls himself "Wu-Tang's new John Coltrane," you have to concede he has more musical right to the comparison than Christina Aguilera. It doesn't sound like Ol' Dirty Bastard had regained his creative fire, but he had gotten back some of his lust for attention -- and for ODB, those were pretty much the same thing.