Ol' Dirty Bastard

The great thing about the Wu-Tang Clan's ODB wasn't that he smoked crack, fathered a dozen children, or had an arrest record thicker than a Russian novel. Listening to the Wu-Tang's finest was like riding the world's most dangerous roller coaster blindfolded: From line to line, you never knew what was coming next. This is a man who once proclaimed himself the "cunt-breath asshole eater" and declared that he "got the government lost on Gilligan's Island." But unfortunately, those moments of inspiration have long since passed, and Osirus finds ODB wallowing in sadly predictable self-parody. While there are glimmers of the oldDirty Bastard here -- most notably on the DJ Premier-produced "Pop Shots" -- songs such as "Dirty Dirty" and "Pussy Calls" are the aural equivalent of a supermarket gumball machine that spits out the misogynistic braggadocio of a shattered soul. Ol' Dirty will always have a place in my heart, but this CD belongs in the trash.