Novel.

So, Durry, we've heard a lot about changes that you've made in your life over the past couple of months. It's 1997. Odb is at the MTV offices in Times Square. He's sitting with the journalist and talking about the struggles that he's had. You've had problems in the past with alcohol, drugs. At what point did you realize you can't do that anymore?

That ain't the move of the world because his life is serious, you know what I mean?

Dirty's voice is subdued, completely different from the character that we typically see him as on MTV.

Ic alcohol and drug stuff. I advise you all not to mess with it.

In the interview, Dirty is trying to reinvent himself for his family, his fans, and for his own good. He's showing restraint, like how he might have moved around Brothers in the Nation as a song. At this time, hip hop was facing scrutiny as well. The violence of gangster rap circles was elevating. Radio was banned in certain songs, and media pundits were using air time to dog the whole genre. Dirty was getting lumped in with all of this as a threat to America, and that wasn't really a fair account on who he was. Dirty experienced violence himself in the streets and through harassment from the cops. On top of all of that, key relationships in his life were starting to deteriorate while substances tried to fill the void. Life is serious, and he understood that his choices had an effect on his own self, his own health, and the people around him that loved him. He wanted to deal with life straight on, you know what I'm saying? From a sober mentality. He recognizing his responsibilities to his children and to his fans and even to his own health. It was something that he was striving towards, you know what I'm saying?

Just to get clean so that he could be a better man. I think in that interview with MTV News, Gordy was announcing a wake-up call. From USG Audio, novel and talk-house, this is ODB, a son unique. Episode 6, OSIRIS. It wasn't just Dirty who found himself on a dangerous path. Just when hip hop was taking over the world, the culture fell into the East Coast, West Coast rivalry. And during the Source Awards in 1995, you can feel that hostility in the air. Wait, the East Coast don't love Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. We let it.

Be known then.

We know you all East Coast. We know.

Where we at. That was Snoop Dogg taking aim at the entire East Coast, airing his paranoia and sowing the seeds of fear in others. Words like his were building up the bad blood that was making being a rapper a dangerous occupation. His writer and producer, Skis Fernando.

The media tried to play it up like this big East Coast, West Coast thing, which I really don't think it was like that. Because we gave Snoop and Dre and all these guys, we gave them so much love in New York. There's always beefs and rap. It's like, I'm better than you. But that was taking it way too far. When people start getting killed.

Over it. The coastal rap wars were more than competition. The tensions were boiling over into real violence. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, ODB was trying to stay above it. In a billboard interview, Dirty avoided picking sides. When he was asked about which scene his music represented, he said, I wouldn't say my shit is New York. I wouldn't say it's West Coast. I just say it's Old Dirty. Dirty wasn't into the gangster elements seeping into hip hop, but the violence was edging closer anyway. A year before the infamous Source Awards show in November of '94, ODB was acquired studios in Times Square. He was busy working on this album with Budle Monk. That night, the Brooklyn legend Biggie Smalls stopped by to see him. Sometime after Biggie had left their session, shots were fired down in the building lobby. We had.

To the top floor. We was upstairs when the shooting took place. We had heard that Biggie had got shot, but it was Tupac.

The L. A. Rap star Tupac Shakur was getting on the elevator to KwaZ Studios for a recording session with the rapper Little Sean when he was ambushed and shot in the building's lobby. The whole.

Place is locked down. We couldn't even get off the elevator to go down, and we couldn't use the emergency exits. They had police standing outside the studio doors. We came out and I had never seen so many police in one spot in my life. The whole street that we was on was flooded from beginning to the end. They made everybody leave all the studios for that night. The next day we started hearing like, Yo, this shit is going to turn into some other shit. When that moment happened, that was like, This is bad. The rappers were on rappers over this rap shit. Like, we don't want rap to go to that next level of, Oh, you got to be a tough nigger who took a bullet of a gun and had a gun in the studio and waved it around to everybody and all that.

Park survived, but rumors were spreading that it was Biggie who set him up. If the rumors were true, it would mean the East Coast, West Coast, Rap Wars had gone from fighting words to actual bloodshed.

This is a crazy impact for hip hop right now. We don't need this. This is going to dump shit for a minute. And it did. It messed a lot of things up in the industry. We didn't want that to be a part of what hip hop really was about. It did something to Dirty Dirty didn't like that whole feeling when it was happening. It disturbed him for a minute.

In the early 90s, during one of the first televised woo interviews on YomTV raps, Dirtysays he had told Fair Fire Freddie how the group were moving. You can see in his expression that he was not a violent guy.

And this crazy, crazy, crazy bus wild on the street is a straight bullet. So what was really about?

He really just trying to just.

Bring it back, just represent.

Ain't no thanks to pulling out no guns and all that thing. As hip hop endured more violence and lost, fear set in. Dirty was having trouble sleeping. He was convinced the world was out to get him. Hesays he would even call voodoo Monk late at night stressed out.

It was another sleepless night. Sometimes, man, you wake up in cold sweats, man. I just don't feel like sleeping at night. Let's just go to the studio. I'm like, Nah, God, get some rest. Just like, Nah, God, man. You ever lay in the bed, man, you just feel like the whole world coming at you? I feel like I got to stay ahead of them because I don't never know when they coming from me.

Just like Dirty, Tupac spoke out against the danger and destruction that faced black people on the streets of America. But Tupac's story also shows us that just because you can see the traps doesn't mean you won't fall victim to them. Tupac's mother was a Fini Shakur, a revolutionary activist and black Panther. With the rigorous political education and an act for poetry, PAC became a rap icon, humanizing street life while criticizing the flaws within it. In the seas of his radical artistry had been apparent since high school.

Now if we do want to live a thug life and the gangster life, okay, let's have a revolution. But we don't want to do that. Dude just want to live a character.

As violence and hip hop was coinciding with the crack epidemic and poverty, all these things weighed down black people as a whole. As an answer to these crises, on October 16th, 1995, the nation of Islam led a gathering of over 400,000 black men to, quote, convey to the world a vastly different picture of the black male.

This is about respect, unity, and love for the brothers, and we're trying to get something out of this, out of life. We're tired of being behind everything. We want to unify, and that's what this is about.

Men like that were expressing a desire to act and break the cycle of self-sabotage. They had an urgent sense that something had to change. Although the issues were complex and bigger than any one politician, these men were trying to take charge against the larger forces at work. We responded to a call.

And looked at what is present here today. We have.

Here those brothers with means and those who have no means. Leading the movement was Minister Louis Faricon, the head of the nation of Islam, who came up with the idea for the Million Man March. The minister was a divisive figure. He's known for his fiery rhetoric advocating for black liberation at all costs. There's a.

New.

Black man in.

America.

Today. A new black woman in.

America today.

The Honorable Minister, Louis Farricane, is like a father figure within the hip hop community, and he wanted us to stop killing each other. People are really afraid of black power, but black power is what hip hop is in its essence anyway. It was power of the youth, you know what I'm saying? People who were made to be so powerless were finding their power through their voices. The Minister's message was reaching people of influence like ODB. Dirty was disturbed by the violence and trying to avoid self-destruction. Black leaders across the culture were calling for change, but it still wasn't enough to save the life of one of hip hop's greatest artists. In '96, just two years after Tupac was shot at and only one year after the Million Man March, Tupac would be fatally gunned down in Las Vegas. Bbc reported the news, making the point that hip hop was partly to blame.

Rap star Tupac Shakur died last night after a brief life in a rough business. He was 25.

Pac's message and lyrics were about spreading unity in the black community. This should have been his legacy as part of a long life and career. But PAC also had a dark side drawn into the same infighting and self-destruction that he called out as a high school kid. That strain of self-destruction that Farricombe was arguing against ultimately caused Pac's life. Tupac's death would prompt the nation of Islam to plan another convening. Conrad Muhammad, a leader of the NOI, known as the hip hop minister, would gather some of hip hop's biggest names to stop the violence. It was called the Hippop Day of Atonement. Africa Bambada and DJ Kool-Herk, Dougie Fresh, Fad Joe, Q-Tib of a tribe called Quest, and more attended the event in Harlem. Actor Mylik Yoba was there too.

I was invited because at the time I was doing New York Undercover. New York Undercover at the time was the most significant television as far as urban culture is concerned. It's the only show other than Live in Color that was featuring hip hop. Faracon still had a lot of influence on the culture at that time. We just had all done The Million Man March and everybody and their mother showed up. And there was this definite sense of, I am my brother's keeper. It was love, man. People are feeling like, we got to love each other more. We can't keep killing each other.

Dr. Anthony Penn, an expert on black religion in America, explains that the nation was trying to help hip hop recognize its influence.

For the nation of Islam, this is an opportunity to help hip hop culture rethink its moral and ethical compass to take a certain responsibility for the community. This is on the heels of death, to rethink its obligation to community, and to do that in a way that was consistent with a moral and ethical vision of life that was much more disciplined. And hip hop artists are recognizing that something has to happen, that death is overwhelming. Sunday's hip.

Hop summit in New York has led to a new attitude and a new name. A rapper who calls himself Old.

Dirty, bastard.

Says the Spirit of atonement has caused him to change his name. With the rappers dying tragically young, ODB felt like it was time to announce another transformation. It even got the media's attention as an example of the shift at work at the event. Dirty was holding himself accountable. In the interview with MTV, Dirty unpacked his multitudes and explained the struggle inside of himself.

I didn't really change my name. I just added on to my name. That's only the way this is going to balance out the universe, my universe within myself and shit. My name is OSIRIS. That's just a positive side of me. We got old dirty bas just negative side of me.

At the hip hop of Atonement, Mylik Yoba heard ODB express his personal shift. Yoba wondered how Dirty was coping with a persona that carried a lot of baggage.

Feeling his energy, this outsized personality, and you create this persona. But when all that's gone, who are you? How do you really feel, black man? Are you okay? Because you're walking around the world saying your name is Old Dirty bastard. Like, why? What is the real inspiration of that? But I'm glad when he did come to that realization that maybe I should vibrate on another frequency.

This is an opportunity for him to re-envision himself that no more Old, Dirty, bastard. Osiris, the God who moves between death and life, and that is significant. Old, Dirty, bastard says I move between them. I control both. I work in the context of both. They are already and always connected. This is what that summit was meant to address. Osiris amplifies that connection. In amplifying that connection, it seems to me he's saying hip hop recognizes this relationship, this intimate connection between life and death.

There was a struggling side of between his positive and negative impulses. That day, the God was taking charge of his own destiny. But tragically, the Day of Atonement still wasn't enough to prevent even more loss of life. While in L. A. For the Soul Train Awards, Biggie Smalls was leaving an after-party on March eighth, 1997. He was struck four times in a drive-by shooting. He would die later that night at the hospital. Within six months, two giants in the game were taken from us. Far too soon. For writer and author, Hanif Abdirakib, these deaths were a major wake-up call.

I wasactually, even the source were asking these questions like, How long can hip hop survive like this? Or, What's going to happen now? There's a level of parano and anxiety around hip hop. I think some of that paranoia was existing in a very real space with black media and black people. But you also saw it in the way that certain rappers were moving. O. D. B. Got more paranoid and anxious. And so when you get these murders, these back-to-back murders, and this increasing relationship with violence and it hitting closer to home, perhaps, that kicks up some fears, some anxieties, some paranoia.

It seemed like nobody was safe. And according to Buddha, O. D. B. Was sure there was a bigger culprit behind all of it. He just.

Felt like it was more so the government doing something to make that issue happen right there to what had Biggie and Tupac war on each other. With the.

Cloud of Death hanging over hip hop in the late 90s, ODB really felt like he was OSIRIS, the ancient Egyptian God of the afterlife, resurrection and more. He saw his own mortality and pock and biggie, and he was consumed by the fear that he would be next. Dirty was becoming more aware of his role in the culture, and he was embracing OSIRIS. But the NYPD and other agencies were still focused on police and hip hop. The police came to see hip hop as a dangerous force in American society, and the hip hop intel unit was set up. They set up files on everyone from Jay Z to Buster Roms, and they saw the Wutan Klan as a full-blown gang and criminal syndicate. Odb was trying to stay out of trouble, but street violence and intense police scrutiny made that almost impossible. Then Dirty experienced two acts of violence that ramped up his two years. The first was at home.

The 29-year-old's.

Latest mishap occurred last night. Odb was shot on the back. During an attempted robbery on the night of June 30th, 1998, ODB was shot in bed. A salings had entered through the unlocked front door and stole some jewelry before firing at dirty. It was the.

Second time ODB had been.

Shot in four years. Dirty would drive himself to the hospital for his wounds, but he left the following morning. All of this really shook him up. Dirty was worried the government was out to get him. He started needing jizzer and booted his stick by his side.

He not going nowhere without somebody being with him because the two times he went by himself, he got shot. Lightning don't strike in the same place twice. It only strikes once. But for him to get shot a second time, hell, yeah. I got shot twice as the government.

In 1998, ODB appears on MTV's TRL with Maya and Prize to perform their song, G ghetto Superstar. After the performance, ODB's sounding anxious in front of the young audience who doesn't really have a clue what he's going through.

To me, it's like everybody's scared of the government, you know what I'm saying? Because they killed Tupac and they killed Biggie Smalls. I don't care what you all say. That's my sin. Who cares?

Dirt bear's from one thing to the other. He's making claims about the government, but it's hard to tell how serious he is. And then on January 15th, 1999, Dirty's fears about the government and law enforcement came true. Odb was driving his SUV through Brooklyn with his cousin, 62nd Assassin, when a car starts to trail now. As the car approached, dirty hold off while the other car fired shots and pursued them to his aunt's house.

I did get the call that there was a shooting in Brooklyn and that he had been arrested for presumably pulling a gun out.

Peter Frankl was ODB's lawyer at the time of the incident. The shots fired had come from the NYPD in an unmarked car. That same year, they'd created an undercover unit to surveil rappers.

This was that day's version of the hip hop police. It was commonly referred to as anti-crime cops, which were cops that drove around in unmarked cars and playing clothes, just basically looking for criminal activity. So their claim was that he had pulled out a gun in the vehicle and that prompted them to shoot at the vehicle.

They thought that they were the suspects, and they wasn't even the ones they took them through them on the ground, had guns all in their face. When the cops tried to stick the gun in Asong's mouth, they were shooting at them like they robbed a jewelry store. Didn't ask no questions and then just start shooting the car.

I was horrified first because Dirty was scared of guns. Dirty had never wanted anything to do with guns. My initial reaction, as serious as it was, was like, This is a joke because this guy would never carry a gun. He didn't have it in him to carry a gun.

Franco arranged a news conference in his office and invited reporters to speak the dirty about the shooting.

We sent out some communications that we're going to have a press conference about the case. And this place, it was a zoo. Everybody, every agency came here. His mom was here. I was here, of course. He was here. And he just loved every minute of it. And look, I don't blame him because after what he had to suffer through, yeah, he should be allowed to get some pleasure out of speaking his mind and telling the world that everything that happened to him shouldn't have happened in the first place. A lot of the press conference was people asking him questions and him just going off about it in a way that a lot of people thought was funny, but to him, was actually serious.

Dirty, filled the questions with his usual flare. But he was strongly defending himself against the NYIPs, NYIPs and laws.

What do you.

Think of the police?

Well, I thought.

About the police.

It's good guys back in the days, you know what I'm saying? Until the motherfuckers started shooting guns and shit, I ain't really into guns.

They did a thorough investigation. And of course, it turned out that this item that they thought was a gun that he had was most likely a cell phone. There was no gun recovered. They did a complete and thorough search of the vehicle. And the only bullets they found were bullets that were fired by NYPD.

The case had been dismissed, but thoughts of the police and government conspiring against them still nagged at ODB. On the set of Bobby Digital, a superhero black exploitation film directed by Rizza, Ralph McDaniels was listening to ODB share all kinds of theories about the government targeting the woo.

His message was to all of the other woo members was that the FBI was following them, and they are watching us right now. They have drones or whatever in the air, and they are after him and after all of us and that you all better be aware of that. This is what's going on because they have information on us and they could kill us if we're not careful. I remember listening to him and I was like, Is this him being drunk or what is this?

The quote from the Day for Dirty would be, I teach the truth to the you. I say, Hey, you, here's the truth. Better go get yourself bulletproof just to help him write that wrong. But the thing was that was a reality for us.

In February of '99, one month after being shot at by the NYPD, Joe was driving to L. A. When he's pulled over for a parking violation. But there was a bigger problem. Odb was wearing a bulletproof vest bought by Rizza. Just one month earlier, California made it illegal for people with felonies to body armor. Durney was arrested and charged for violating the new law.

Robert Shapiro, the attorney in California, was the lead attorney on that case. I did go out there and I did appear with him.

This is ODB's lawyer again, Peter Frankl.

We've got nine, 10 months of intense scrutiny, incredible amounts of pressure, all sorts of stuff going on in his life. I was in touch with him, trying to reason with him and speak to him, and he became extremely frustrated. And I can't say I blame him. He didn't handle it well because he felt that everybody was against him. And for the most part, most people were against him back then. There were a lot of people that wanted to see bad things happen to him. There were a lot of people that thought that he was thumbing his nose at the criminal justice system, and he wasn't. He felt that he was being treated in ways that nobody else was being treated. And you know what? He was right.

Durdy's resilience was completely chipped away. Rapers were being killed. There were shootings and threats to his life, drugs and alcohol. During that infamous press conference, you could hear the fear in his answer to the reporters.

Is it true that you're wearing a bulletproof vest?

Hell.

Yeah. Yeah. Are you.

Scared on.

The street? I'm scared like a motherfucker.

You can't write this stuff. Odb was trying to protect himself, but everywhere he went, it was like the world was after him. Dirty was one of the first people to break the new state law, but he was spared hard time. Instead, he was put on three years probation, limiting his movements. But the judge also sentenced him to a year of rehab in Pasadena. Dirty would be thousands of miles away from his family and friends. Up next on ODB, a son unique. Odb enters the 36th chamber.

He calls me. He's like, You're a Buddha. I'm coming. I'm like, Dirty, don't you do that? Don't you do this shit to me right now? I said, Dirty, if you do that, every cop in New York City know you is. There's no way you're going to get away with this shit.

Odb, a Sun Unique, is produced by Novel and Talkhouse for USG Audio. The series is hosted by me, Collie Kala. The series was written by Taylor Jones and Muhammad Ahmed. The producer was Taylor Jones with additional production from Muhammad Ahmed. Production support from Lee Meyer. Our researcher is Zeyana Youssef. Our editor is Veronica Simmons. Our executive producers are Dante Ross and Budamunk, 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 Laolangi. Production management from Cherie Houston, and Charlotte Wolf. Now, our fact checker is Dania Suleiman. Willard Foxden is Creative Director of Development. Sound design and mixing by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson. Location and studio recordings by Michael Jeno. Original music composed by Tom Young. Special thanks to Sean Glenn. This is the USG Audio Podcast. For more information or to check out our other podcast, go to usgaudio. Com. For more from Novel, visit novel. Audio. Novel.