knighttomourning's Almostopster: Ol’ Dirty Bastard - N☆☆★A PLeASe

k2m tries to get the vortex canceled

Before having heard this album, I bought a CD copy of it at a Goodwill for $1. Given that I was a fan of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s first album, and a Wu-Tang fan in general, I figured this was well worth the asking price. I listened to it for the first time in my car while driving around Madison, Wisconsin, and I had a pang in my brain that I have only had a few times in my life: “Is this my new favorite album?”

The first track, Recognize, presents almost too much information to handle. Gone is the RZA production of old; instead replaced by the sleeker, newer Neptunes. Chris Rock and Pharrell Williams both make vocal appearances here, and provide excellent interplay with the man himself: the Ol' Dirty Bastard. His first lyrics here set the record straight: “This ain’t no commercial song”, it is a song meant to blow your freakin’ brains out. Every bar is a matter of life and death, hardly following a set cadence or style; all the while being presented over a nauseatingly repetitive beat. 

This then becomes the dominant style for the majority of the album. Through I Can’t Wait, a Pollock painting of vocal screeches and high-pitched synths; Cold Blooded, the closest he can get to a sensual song with his disgusting lyrics and demeanor; and Got Your Money, a sleeper hit that I have heard on bar jukeboxes a whole two times. With these first few tracks, Mr. Bastard proves himself to be one of the best vocalists in hip hop, and maybe one of my favorites in general. His style is perhaps even more reminiscent of Meredith Monk or Silencer than it is to Slick Rick (this is mainly a joke for the peanut gallery, but there is certainly some truth to it). 

The album then quickly nosedives through a tangent of homophobia and, even worse, boredom. Every track on this album will push your mind, ears, and body; but some will only test your patience rather than your resolve. You Don’t Want to Fuck With Me has maybe the hype-est beat on the album but still ends up lethargic (even though the vocals try their hardest to push the song to be something more). The title track marks the return of RZA’s production and has some of the best lyrical quips found on the album: “Kill all the government microchips in my body/I’m the paranoid n☆☆★a at your party”.

The album is more or less out of surprises at this point, and has been for several tracks. The disorientation is accomplished and the only thing that remains is survival until the album finishes. But then, out of nowhere, a shooting star of sentimentality arrives. Good Morning Heartache is probably not the best track on the album (I would give that to I Can’t Wait), but it is perhaps the most special. It provides the album with what it desperately needed - an ace-in-the-hole. One last twist of the knife to prove the full range of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s abilities and break up the monotony of the previous tracks (and treat the listener to one of the best vocal performances on the album, beautifully duetted with Lil’ Mo).   

By the end of my first listen, this was not my new favorite album. There are times I listen to this album where I end up liking it less and less. And other times where I am convinced it has a secret masterpiece-like quality to it - hence why it is not on my top 25 and probably never will be. But I still cannot help being enamored by it. Very few albums have as much vitality as this one, and it puts every ounce it has into its music; even if it is not enough to last through the whole runtime. 

Verdict? 

8/10