Russell Jones aka Ol' Dirty Bastard might be the realest keeping of keeping it real humans ever.
Everything he did was Dirty being Dirty. His exploits on tv have been well documented from taking MTV cameras with him to cash his welfare check (in a stretch limo no less) to hijacking Shawn Colvin's Grammy speech (wu-tang loves the babies) the guy said and did whatever popped into his head. It wasn't a manufactured crazy like Lady Gaga or someone who did it for the attention. This dude was just nuts. Compared to the current state of hip hop where one of the most popular rappers is a former corrections officer who pretends to have been a more successful version of Pablo Escobar, it's nice to see how ODB was genuinely himself at all times. Even the hiphop definition of "real" which usually means how closely your lyrics mirror your actual street experiences is an act for the most part. With few exception, rappers do not live their lyrics. Just by doing a boat load of drugs and being absurd, ODB was the realest rapper who ever lived.
Ol' Dirty Bastard: Inaugural PTU Keepin' it real Hall of Fame inductee.
I'm not sure about this one. Keeping it real may involve a little irony at some point. If you're a minority from the projects and you have a drug addiction it may be more of a sad reality. If you can't help but keep it real and your reality sucks, does that still count? Don't you have to work at it?
ReplyDeleteI just meant he didn't put up any fronts, and he was true to himself even if his true self was a drug addict who eventually died young. You can't work at keeping it real. Plus, his music was great and he somehow became a household name and a rich rapper.
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