By Mike Winslow
The troubled life of rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard will hit the stores this month in a new biography titled Digging For Dirt.
The 288-page book was written by Jaime Lowe, who met with surviving members of the Wu-Tang Clan, ODB’s parents, business managers, neighbors, friends and fans, to put together the biography.
Digging For Dirt examines the rapper’s rise to fame, as well as his untimely death on November 13, 2004, due to a drug-induced heart attack.
Ol’ Dirty, born Russell Jones, was just 35 when he died, just two days before his 36th birthday.
Lowe, who has written articles for Interview, Radar and Sports Illustrated, covered ODB for the Village Voice, started the book shortly after ODB’s death.
The book also explores Ol’ Dirty’s mental illness, which she claims made him a “curio put on stage” for the amusement of white fans.
In one chapter, Robert Shapiro, who is most famous for defending O.J. Simpson is his infamous 1995 murder trail, details the seriousness of Dirty’s alleged mental disability.
“It's possible his behavior was a result of mental illness,” Shapiro noted in the book. “One time he had his hat on backward, had on two different shoes, and he stood with his back to the judge with his hat facing the judge as if he was looking at the judge."
Digging For Dirt is due in stores November 25, 2008 via Faber and Faber books.
