Novel.

This is how we do it from Brooklyn.

It's 1991 and O DB is still unknown to the world. But his cousin Jizza is signed to Cold Chillin Records as the genius and has a slap lot on Video Music Box. Of course, Dirty is right there at Jizz's side. He's beatboxing as Jizza starts to rap. It's raw, intelligent and aggressive by setting.

Up a match, a fair one, meaning no strings attached, and bang.

All of this is happening in the middle of a crowded bathroom full of people tuffy. The Video Music Box host bumps his head and the brothers laugh. This was hip hop in New York, a culture bringing people together by the power of a beat and a rhyme. This was one of the earliest appearances of the Wu on TV, and you could see the seeds of the phenomenon that they were to become. But there's another moment in the clip that stands out for me.

One more thing.

I'd like to congratulate my physical cousin, Ace Sean, for his newborn baby daughter.

Yeah, it was all there in that clip, you know what I'm saying? Just brothers being brothers. Because as Wu Tang used to say, this is a hobby that we picked up in the lobby. So hip hop in its essence is something that took place in the staircases, you know what I'm saying, in the projects. And it wasn't no microphones, it wasn't no audience. It was just brothers just being themselves, trying to express their own originality. I know Jizza personally a lot. Just and Just is a very kind, gentle person. You could tell he's just proud, you know. I'm saying that his cousin became a father and he's shouting him know, the babies are the best part and they need to be protected and respected. And the fact that this person just became a father is a milestone in his own Quran. You know what I'm saying? We refer to our lives as Qurans. Every man has his own book of life, which is his own Quran. Ralph McDaniels, the creator of Video Music Box was there that day too. He remembers reviewing the footage later that night and recognizing the warmth between the two cousins.

It just shows you the sensitive and the human side of black men in hip hop. You listen to their conversation. Old Dirty saying that I just had a child, and Genius making sure that he took the time. I'm pretty sure old Dirty probably told you, Yo, yo, make sure you say this. And so Jizzle was, yeah, I gotta congratulate him on the birth of his child. ODB and Jizzle were always keeping it real with each other. Dirty was proud to be a father and wanted the world to know. But the world was more interested in ODB. As a spectacle. That's the side of him that ended up in the spotlight. And as Dirty leaned into it with stunts that kept his name in the headlines. He was starting to lose his grip from USG. Audio novel and talk house. This is ODB, a son unique episode five Fantasy. Today, nearly 60% of all black children are born out of wedlock. Timothy said his children are not his responsibility. Back in the 80s, news reports like this one from CBS were spreading harmful stereotypes of the black community onto the airwaves. Journalists would make statements like this with little nuance, but they almost never talked about the root cause of these conditions.

Did you assume that you could turn to welfare for help after the baby came?

Yeah, but I didn't have just to collect welfare.

Growing up, that's the kind of stuff you'd hear and see on the news. American media has a poor history of harmful stereotypes and images of black people in black culture. We all grew up in this country watching TV, and we all take in those messages. Welfare was all over the news. Throughout the dirty had a plan to bring a picture of poverty in America to the masses.

I was a writer for MTV News.

It was all about hip hop. This is the journalist and author Torre. As a producer at MTV News, torre was reporting stories about black culture for the dominant music channel.

I wanted to cover it in a way that was more nuanced and deeper and didn't see them as aliens from a whole other world, but understood. These are my brothers and sisters and they live down the street from me. And they're not weird, they're not alien. They're very much like me.

ODB knew what it was like to need help. When he first left home, he and his wife, Isoline Jones, used welfare assistance. At times, Dirty was struggling so much he couldn't make rent. And he got by by moving between friends'homes. Just as his album was gearing up to drop, dirty came to Torrey with an explosive concept, something that would bring his album's provocative cover to life.

He's going, So here's what I want to do. I'm going to go to the check cashing place and give him the card and get money.

That was his plan. ODB wanted to go to the welfare office and bring MTV to film it.

His debut album's, the hottest thing in.

Music, not just in hip hop.

He had the fire. First single Brooklyn Zoo. So everybody's on the edge of their.

Seat waiting for this album.

So it was nothing for me to go to my boss and be like.

Yo, we got to do a package.

On Old Dirty Bastard. And that was the fastest, probably the fastest yes I ever got at MTV. Of course. Go do that shit.

On March 30, just two days after return to the 36th chambers hit shelves, MTV News ran a segment called Old Dirty Bastard Gets Paid. How did Asan get the idea for the welfare segment?

I didn't know. I didn't know. I just know that he called me saying, Yo, I'm coming to pick you.

Up in a limo.

We got in a limo and I'm holding the kids.

Buddha Monk wasn't just Dirty's collaborator, he was a close friend watching out for him, too. I mean, some people actually mistook him for Dirty's bodyguard. But Ronald with ODB. That day was a little more complicated than usual. The segment starts with ODB. Singing in the park, holding an MTV News mic like he's a reporter on the scene. He's saying wild shit. It's playful. You don't really know where it's going. Then he starts to talk about welfare.

I'm on welfare right now, for real.

It seems like Dirty is toying with the audience in that moment, owning his experience with pride. He uses food stamps. So what? In the next sequence, ODB. His wife, and their three children sit in the back of a stretch limousine. The kids are smiling, and Dirty is playing it up for the camera. Torre was just behind the camera in that limo.

We started the day at the check cashing place. That was the first location. So they pull up in the limousine. He was wearing a bulletproof vest, him and his kids. They're all dressed in their Sunday best, like they're about to go to church. And he and his wife get out, and his wife puts in the card, and I'm like, okay. I think there was two cameras right there in the check cashing place with them. And she gets about $600 of food stamps. She hands it to him, and he fans it out for the cameras. And then he put it in his pocket, and he got in the limousine, and they're like, Come on, let's go to the next location. I assumed that he would get it for the cameras and then give it back because he wasn't really supposed to be on the rolls at that point. I remember not feeling anything when he flashed the money to us. But then somewhere in the realm of putting it in his pocket and walking out the door and getting in the limo in there, I was like, Wait, what?

Wait.

You're not returning money. You have a record deal. Like, you just released your soul album. You're touring. Like, what?

You're not giving it back?

What is happening right now? Dirty was putting on a show, no doubt, but he was also poking fun at the system and in some kind of way, making a statement. That's how dirty's brother Ramsey took it.

I know he did it because he was kind of being facetious at the time. They had the albums out and getting the notoriety, but the money wasn't coming in. So he had to do what he had to do, take care of his family.

Maybe he didn't need government assistance at the time of the segment, but the message was more important. And to me, he's given a window into his life.

I waited, like, an hour or two because we were together, like, the whole day. And he's like, of course. Why wouldn't you want to get free money?

You owe me 40 acres in a mule anyway. Oh, my God. Border was waiting in the car when Dirty and Isoline returned.

When he came back out, I was like, Dirty, I don't think you should did that. He's like, Why not, guys? I was like, Nah, listen what I'm saying. You still collecting, but at the same time, you know this Old Dirty Bastard from Wu Tang Clan. They gonna come at you about this sooner or later. Maybe not today, but you gonna hear about this.

I didn't say on the screen, this is welfare fraud, but, like, in a video, it would have been hysterical in an MTV News package. It was like, what just happened?

When Dirty first saw the segment, he was traveling in Europe for a show with Buddha when they got a call from the clan's manager, John Gibbons, who goes by the name of MOOC MOOC.

And them called us and told us to turn on the TV in Germany. They was talking about us. As soon as we turned on, they showing Dirty and everything, he's like, that looked dope, right? And then the president came on behind it.

Today, we are taking an historic chance.

To make welfare what it was meant.

To be a second chance, not a way of life.

Bill Clinton had been elected president in 1992 on a platform that included welfare reform. MTV News spliced the footage of Clinton's 94 speech in the segment between provocative takes of Dirty recording the piece. It made Dirty look like the poster boy for welfare misuse.

Yeah, that was definitely my idea. I mean, I was in the edit room shaping the package after the welfare fraud conversation. We'll have Bill Clinton talking about welfare fraud. Maybe that was a little heavy handed, but I mean, I've always been interested in both music culture and politics, and where I can combine the two, I'm.

Going to do that.

I was in the edit, so I watched this thing being built, and then we probably ran it down, watched the whole thing, like, three, four times when we had it all together.

MTV wanted the ratings boost that came with controversy, so they reported that his music earnings made him ineligible for the money. So is old Dirty Bastard a welfare cheat?

Leave that question to higher authorities.

MTV put Dirty on blast as he closed out the segment. Dirty might have been in the wrong, but MTV News played a part in creating the spectacle with him.

They use dirty. The media exploits everybody. This is a good interview, but I'm going to be exploited on this too, some way or another. You're being exploited no matter how you look at it.

Someone like Old Dirty Bastard who's doing stuff that is troubling to a whole lot of folks, including family, thought that.

It was just too much.

But old Dirty Bastard could argue he.

Is living his truth, right?

That he is consistent with the demand for truth. Because there is no difference between what he raps and how he lives.

This is truth. Dr. Anthony Pin has spent decades researching black religion and groups like the 5% Nation. He sees the MTV segment as an extension of Dirty self belief.

Nobody else could tell him what to do. He did what he wanted to do, why he's God?

I think it goes back to him just being authentic and enigmatic and representing who he is and what he knows. And he had been on welfare, and so he was like, this is the reality of where my lyricism, my voice, what I represent, is coming from that's.

Jamie Lowe, a writer and ODB's biographer.

He was like, this is who I am. He contains multitudes, and so this is who I am in a limo. The story he tells has many, many different layers, many intersections of society and life that are worth thinking about and examining.

Dirty didn't put himself in a box. He allowed his essence to manifest in its full power.

Old Dirty Bastard is not concerned with what other folks think about his behavior. Fuck that. For him, the question is, is he living consistently right? Is there a link between what he says in his lyrics and how he lives? For him, if there is that consistency, it's good.

Dirty was so raw, he wasn't playing any role. You know what I'm saying? This was a man that was so multifaceted and multilayered that he couldn't be limited at all. He was an unlimited person. Whether or not you believe that what he had to say had a deeper meaning, ODB did make an impact. The package was one of the most viral moments in rap history.

The culture is like, Yo, did you see the old Dirty Bastard package? Like, I'm going out to events, I'm out in the street, I'm out of clubs, whatever. And you could tell 100 people came up to me like, Yo, I saw that thing. It was funny. I mean, like, you had to kind of know that it was mine because I don't appear in it and my name does not appear on it. I can't say I saw all the things that MTV did regards with covering him, but I mean, I think in general, we tried to be fair. I know the things that I did that involved Dirty tried to be fair, tried to be thoughtful, tried to approach him as a human being and not some like, wow, this weirdo from the hood did some weird like, no, he's a regular person in a lot of ways.

For ODB's. A r Dante. It was hard to see ODB. Presented in that light.

I hadn't seen it before it ran. I don't think any of us did. And I remember thinking that it was fucked up. I thought it portrayed him as a buffoon a little bit. And I question people's concern for the after effects of when I question people's understanding of the situation they put him in with Social Services. I didn't think that was cool. And I felt a little bit and this is OD. To say because I'm white, that they had him looking like a minstrel, like a coon, like they had him out there looking stupid, and he's not stupid to me, that's my man. But no one twisted his arm. He did it on his own volition. So it is what it is.

Dirty's authenticity came from a good place. But as a black man in America, that can come at a cost. A year after the segment aired, president Clinton and Congress passed welfare reform legislation that created barriers for people to receive government assistance. ODB. Was playing into the shock value, but he would learn that there were limits to provocation.

Dirty started, like, realizing certain things ain't meant for us to say or do some of the shit. You got to keep it in, even though you want to be real with the world.

Maybe ODB stunt played a role in the political machine that targeted welfare assistance. It's hard to know, but it did take his persona to the forefront in hip hop, and eventually the biggest stars would come calling to get a piece of him. Dirty approached fame like nobody else in the industry. Nothing he did was predictable. Video music box innovator and rap aficionado Ralph McDaniels was a first hand witness to Dirty's magnetic ways. I'd be like, Come on, Dirty, don't do that to myself. When I'd be in some situation and you see 20,000 people saying the lyrics to his song and you'd be like, Maybe I'm crazy. Ain't nothing wrong with him, because this is working. Whatever he's doing is working. As ODB. Rode the buzz and excitement around him, the industry started to see him as a valuable commodity.

A lot of people look at her like she's the pop princess. But Mariah is very in tune to music, all different genres of music, but especially hip hop music. No matter where we went, she had, like, her little boombox with her, and all she would bump was things like that, especially ODB. She loved ODB.

Corey Rooney was Mariah Carey's, a r guy like Dante. With Dirty, Corey was helping Mariah grow into one of the biggest names in music. On the strength of her perilous voice and Billboard smile, mariah and her team were making a remix for her hit song Fantasy. They had hired Puffy Combs, who was one of the hottest producers in hip hop and wanted a guest rapper to bring the song a new edge.

When it came time for her to do a remix for her song, there was only one rapper and one rapper only that she wanted to put on that record, and that was ODB.

ODB. Embodied the streets he was relatable and real. In her book, The Meaning of Mariah, she describes how working with Dirty was a chance to connect with a different audience. It wasn't easy, as the label wanted her to play it safe.

Everyone thought, oh, she's just this white girl from no, no, she's a lot more than that. She's half black, half white, little Venezuelan, and she wanted to be accepted by.

Every part rather than just the one part. At the time, Mariah was married to the head of her label at Sony, tommy Matola. Matola and others at Sony didn't want Mariah anywhere near Dirty.

Tommy thought of the ODB mariah collaboration like Beauty and the Beast. Like, why would we put a guy like that anywhere in the vicinity of someone like Mariah Carey, who was like, America's princess?

For Dirty, this was another opportunity to shine his light to the world.

He was already big. He was as big as they come. It was big for them to do something with somebody that grimy without making Mariah seem like she was grimy within herself.

Jamie Lowe saw that Dirty was hyped about the possibilities of the Collab.

I think ODB was like, yeah, let's do it. I see this as a win for me, and I think that something that defined what a hip hop R B duet could be.

Getting Dirty on board was the easy part. Getting him in the studio to finish the job will require a whole lot of effort and patience.

I reach out to him. First of all, he had already said, Look, I'll do it, but you guys got to give me $15,000 to do it. Approved. No problem. Boom, boom, boom, we're good. He's supposed to show up at the studio one night, 08:00 session. He doesn't show up till about one right 01:00 a.m..

He was very late on the phone.

As soon as he gets there and he's screaming to the top of his lungs at some woman for the first 45 minutes of him walking in. We didn't even say hello. Then he comes out, yo, pardon me. Yo, pardon me. This bitch get more fucking whatever. Yo, I'm going to need somebody to go give me some mo. I'm like, Bro, it's after midnight. We're not going to find anything where you can go get some Moet.

At this time, the poor runner kept.

Coming back and was like, there's no stores. There's no stores. He starts yelling at the dude. He called him a white devil. He said, you motherfuckers don't ever want black people to have shit. I was like, I can't believe this guy. But at this point, the night is going. He's tired. We're all tired. So he's like, Yo, let me hit a record. So he hears the record, and he starts to go to work, right? He goes in, and this is no exaggeration. He ain't writing nothing down. It's off top of his head. So he hears the record.

He gets.

Me and Mariah go back like babies were pacifier. Old Dirk dog no liar, keep the fantasy hot like fire. And then he stops. He said, all right, let me hear that back. He listens to it back, and he's like, yo, let me just take a break for a minute. That break for a minute was like a 45 minutes nap. He woke up 45 minutes later. All right, let me hear what I got so far. You got two lines, bro.

Here you go.

And then that went on all night. Jump, jump. Let me see you do. If you listen to that performance, they're punches that happen 45 minutes in between each other, because he would just wake up, add another piece, go back to sleep. Wake up, add another piece. Go back to sleep. Well, finally we pieced it all together. We got through the night, and now it's daylight outside. He leaves. I'm happy with what we got. I play it for Tommy. And the worst thing I could have played was it started with, yo, New York in the house. It's Brooklyn, all of that stuff. Tommy's got a bright idea. Hey, get him back to the studio. I said, he just left 30 minutes ago. Get him to come back. Tell him to do a tag for every city. I said, you got to be fucking kidding me, bro. I reach out to him. He said, I'll come back if they give me another $15,000. So, okay, we gave you another $15,000. He shows up, and he does all of these tags and all this stuff, right? But even with that, now, he's falling asleep. At one point, he kicked off one shoe.

I swear to God, that one shoe off. God rest his soul. His foot smells so fucking bad. We had to wake him up and say, put your shoe back on, bro. He had, like, a Velour sweatshirt, and they were like, polo boots. We were like, please put that shit back on. And he was laughing at us because he told my boy, yo, you a real motherfucker. A lot of people would be just sitting there dealing with the shit smelling, and they ain't gonna say nothing. He said, yo, you a real motherfucker. I said, you goddamn right we real motherfuckers. We're not gonna go for that in here.

By the end of the session, dirty had managed to deliver a standout verse. Dirty's ad libs and spontaneity were everything mariah and her team were looking for in the remix. And the week after the session, Corey came back for more.

We want to shoot a video at Rye playland. We want ODB. To be in the video. We're gonna do the video to the remix version because it's so hot.

Mariah wanted to harness that energy that he brought. His role in the song was all about introducing himself to the world as her party loving sidekick. He was channeling the character of the old Dirty Bastard and helping to create a capsule of summertime in New York.

Me and Mariah go back like babies.

Were pacifiers old dirt dog no liar keep the fantasy hot like fire dirty's playful rendering of their relationship as a lifelong friendship was huge for Mariah. It gave her credibility, a sense of realness to her otherwise pristine image.

It was a hit because he was representing exactly where he was coming from. And it was so important that he was, whereas she was this dazzling princess who was engaging with this other person. And it was a fantasy.

With the success of the fantasy remix, ODB was getting more famous while staying true to his style. And the pop princess loved him for who he was.

I think it was transactional, as everything in the music industry is. I think they were using each other, and I think she was grateful for it. I don't think that she was not aware of how much it did for her. And that can lead to genuine feelings and friendship. I don't think that that's disingenuous when.

He said that the Old Dirty Bastard across the globe, he knew that Mariah's song was across the globe. And this was for a moment for him to embark on all his music across the globe. Because going on this song with Mariah was going to also bring all her millions of people to know who he was, as well as how many millions he had on this side. Know who Mariah Carey is. That don't listen to Mariah Carey. So it worked out for both of them.

For Mariah, this led to her music reaching new corners of New York.

There was one night in particular, we all decided that we were going to go up to Harlem to Sylvia's Restaurant for dinner. It's me, Matola, Mariah. We were driving through the boroughs in the limo. We were passing clubs. And from the clubs, blaring out of the clubs was fantasy. And I remember it brought a tear to Mariah's eye because this was the first time she felt her presence in the hood. And that means everything to her. She actually adored him. She just thought he was an amazing human being. And she did finally get to work with him because they did a Madison Square Garden. There was a network TV special.

ODB had experienced the bottom, and now he was going to be performing at the most revered concert venue in New York City, maybe the entire world. And Dirty's Realness had got him there.

We went to the Garden many times for basketball games and everything.

We're performing at the garden. Are you fucking crazy?

Yo, bro, we going to the Garden.

Buddha, Monk and ODB were going to make the most of their occasion. They ran up a check on the label's dime.

Mimi such and such time, we going shopping for the best outfits there is. All expenses paid. Sony paying for it. This nigga tommy Omitola, or whatever his name was, he was like, we paying for all that. Don't worry about that. They don't want y'all walking nowhere today and driving your own cars. They want a car service to pick y'all up from the time y'all wake up to the time to do the shit for Mariah. You and Dirty can't be late.

Buddha listen to us. And for this moment, dirty chose to bring his family for the career milestone.

This was a moment in history for Dirty and me. So we had to go get my mother, his mother, his aunts, and everybody. We had two limousines just for all of the women. We didn't take no guys. The only two guys went was just me and Dirty, and Twelve met us there. The limos pulled up into the Garden. We get in there, and it's the long walk of Shane.

To get to the stage this night.

He was really calculated because he knew the importance of this being a network special and how this could possibly take him to a whole different level in his career. So he was lit, but he was calculated.

That night, Dirty performed in a way only he could, shouting him out and making everybody feel recognized by calling out the New York boroughs. In ODB's journey to fame, his stunts had made noise, and his raw honesty broke through to pop royalty. But those same qualities that brought him to the Garden were also setting them up for a fall. His lawyer, Peter Frankel, was close by during those times. He remembers a mixture of emotions and burdens creeping in on Dirty.

Some people embrace it, some people run from it. And he loved being out on the street and stopping the car and talking to a woman on the sidewalk or seeing kids, and he loved that stuff. He loved that whole period of time. But as great as something like that was, there were some really bad times, too. He was down in the dumps and not wanting to go out, and afraid for his life and fearing for his safety.

As he climbed higher, ODB's life was starting to get real on a different level. He had all the attention that he could ever want. But dark clouds were gathering. Dirty's attention grabbing persona had some downsides. As ODB's star rose higher, dante saw his artist and friend navigate a string of close calls.

I saw bouncers want to choke him the fuck out numerous times, and he got shot in Brooklyn. Suppose they want his jewelry, but who knows? There are two instances where he did have bodily harm. He did get hospitalized. There definitely was a danger factor in what he did.

ODB was one of the great showmen in hip hop. The whole clan looked to him for inspiration, to be bold and fearless. But deep down, Dirty had a private battle with the lifestyle that he had signed up for. In interviews during this time. He was starting to voice elaborate conspiracies about being a target.

The government brainwashed our people with the mind control theory. They keep playing that same song. You start program with it, you start to get cloned with it then it just takes over the human body, it takes over the soul.

It's hard to tell where the persona ends and where the man begins. Dirty was eccentric, sure, but here his words seemed erratic and his criticism of the system seems more like paranoia. Old Dirty Bastard and everything that came with the name made him more vulnerable to the world from MTV to playing Madison Square Garden with Mariah his fame increased, but so did his insecurity.

Sometimes being too real with the world can swallow you in one hole. And that's what it seemed like because after that happened it just seemed like the police started us everywhere.

Here's Dr. Penn again.

There is the status of God that doesn't really allow for comfort with discomfort the dilemma of celebrity and then this paranoia that pointed to something real. We know now you've got a context in which he has these vulnerabilities. There are people pulling at him in a variety of ways and then the.

Government is after him.

There is no safe space, no place.

To catch his breath and like so.

Many others for him drug use and alcohol became a way to push against that.

Dirty was feeling like people were out to get him the government stick up kids and jealous rivals and it wasn't all in his head. There was always a threat on the street something Dirty's brother Ramsey was sharply aware of.

He was shot in Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Zoo. What kind of beef would he have because of that song? It just didn't make any sense to me. I always was afraid. I didn't want him to get killed for some stupid reason. There's so much of this jealousy and hatred among people and it happens all.

The time in the hood but there was also other kinds of dangers Dirty had to look out for. Derek Parker was a hip hop kid who grew up with the music and loved the culture it birthed. I used to go to all the parties back in the days, me and my brothers, we would walk for 30.

Blocks just to get to this club.

And we were like 1718 years old but we grew up listening to hip hop music. That was our thing. That same teenager would eventually become a leading law enforcement official in New York's. Hip hop police detective Derek Parker's job was to solve crimes in the rap scene and he knew that the police had their eyes on the Wu Tang Clan. Wu Tang was big. I know that there was a group of detectives that tried to do a.

Federal case with them.

I don't know how successful they were. These guys are not just in New York, they were all over the country.

So it was kind of hard to.

Pinpoint what they were doing. But this is where you had detectives.

Starting to look at now the hip.

Hop world, because now we're looking at Uten clan. Are they involved in any murders? And they were looking to do a big case on them. The authorities had their minds made up that Dirty and the rest of the clan were criminals.

You have to understand that the 90s were a very, very different time than.

We'Re living in right now.

Policing was much more aggressive. They looked at him as a bad.

Guy with a bad history who was.

A free spirit, and they wanted to try to corral that free spirit.

Ramsey remembers going to the scene of a troubling incident when the NYPD were treating Dirty like a suspect.

So when I got there, the first thing I noticed was my brother had handcuffs up to the bed. I asked the cop, why got my brother handcuffed to the bed? Oh, he's a risk. He's a flight risk. I'm like, he didn't do anything. He was under the influence, but why is he handcuffed? And then she made a Snyder remark, also, your brother's a celebrity. So I'm like, wow, I'm getting sarcastic from this cop. I didn't appreciate the treatment, so I knew down the line a lot of the law enforcement were just there to harass. And it's always been that way for people of color since slavery.

I mean, in my film, Field Niggers from 2015, that was the film that became a New York Times critic pick. That's one of my early films that put me on the map as a filmmaker. But I shot that film on the corner of 125th street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem, and there's not 5 seconds that go by before you see the heavy police presence that exist on that corner. They're there to keep people in line and also to keep their quotas filled and to keep making arrest. I'll just look at it like the government hating on black people, you know what I'm saying? For being so original, creative, artistic, and rising up in such a way that hip hop became the fire that keeps culture burning. Dirty's life started with the love for music and being with his family. By 95, he had become a star by being his real, authentic self. But through that dirty's, rawness, and irreverent persona was inviting real consequences.

It's just random, man. It seemed like every time we went somewhere was the wrong place at the wrong time. Our family was just getting picked on all the it's like, Yo, I only came out here to say what's up?

And say hello.

Y'all telling us we free, but are we really free? Because every time we step out on the corner, y'all trying to harass us, throw us to the ground, act like everybody over here is a criminal. And I just pulled up here for 2 seconds to say hello to some people I know, the more important we became. We couldn't really stay on the corner like that or stop on the corner.

Up next on ODB a Son Unique dirty's run ins with the police would soon turn into a fight for survival. ODB a song Unique is produced by Novel and Talkhouse for USG audio. The series is hosted by me, Khali Kala. The series was written by Taylor Jones and Mohammed Ahmed. The producer was Taylor Jones, with additional production from Mohammed Ahmed. Production support from Lee Meyer. Our researcher is Zayana Yusuf. Our editor is Veronica Simmons. Our executive producers are Dante Ross and Buddha Monk, georgia Moody and Max O'Brien for novel, josh Block for USG Audio and Ian Wheeler for Talkhouse production support for USG Audio by Josh Lalongi, production management from Cherie Houston and Charlote Wolf. Our fact checker is Dania suleiman. Willard Foxton is Creative Director of Development, sound Design and Nixon by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson location and Studio Recordings by Michael Jenno original music composed by Tom Young Special thanks to Sean Glynn. This is a USG audio podcast. More information or to check out our other podcasts, go to usgaudio.com. For more from Novel, visit novel. Audio.