Ol' Dirty Bastard Had 'Legitimate Concern' About Government Surveillance Before Reveal of FBI File on Wu-Tang Clan

Mar. 15, 2025

Ol' Dirty Bastard and Wu-Tang Clan photographed in New York City in April 1994.Photo:Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

A new documentary on the life of rapperOl' Dirty Bastardhighlights his mistrust of the government in the ’90s — years before it was revealed that the FBI was keeping tabs on both him and his groupWu-Tang Clanfor five years.

“He would literally come to my record company office twice a week with a record out, not a record out, so he could just relax. I don’t know if that was the drugs, drinking, the pressure of his life…. I thought it was the paranoia, but he was really having some real issues,” music executive Steve Rifkind says of ODB in the documentary. “I called some people, and that’s when I realized, the cops, they were definitely looking at him.”

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As noted in the documentary, the New York Police Department’sEnterprise Operations Unit(referred to in the film as the “hip-hop police”) was known to keep tabs on local influential rappers, and as the doc highlights, the NYPD would pull over someone like ODB as he left his home to attend concerts.

“Dirt was one of those guys like, ‘Yo, the government is on us.’ They gon' try to kill me like this, they gon' try to kill me like that,'” Wu-Tang’s Ghostface Killah recalls in the film.

As it turned out, ODB’s suspicion that the government was after him was “correct,” journalist S. H. Fernando Jr. confirms in the documentary. “People think that Dirty was crazy or drugs were making him paranoid or whatever,” Fernando says. “But he actually did have a legitimate concern that the feds were after him. He knew that he was on the radar of law enforcement.”

“They had been following Wu-Tang for years,” he adds.

Ol' Dirty Bastard photographed in New York City in April 1997.Bob Berg/Getty

Bob Berg/Getty

While ODB died of a drug overdose in November 2004 at age 35, the extent of the FBI’s five-year (1999-2004) file on Wu-Tang Clan wasn’t unveiled until eight years later. VICE noted in 2016 that the file included “inflammatory allegations” related to racketeering. No charges were ever filed against the legendary hip-hop group.

A Tale of Two Dirtyscovers the rise of Wu-Tang, ODB’s solo success, thetime he rescued a 4-year-old girl from under a car, his iconic “Fantasy” team-up withMariah Careyand his untimely overdose death. Also featured in the documentary are Carey, members of ODB’s immediate family, Ghostface Killah and their fellow Wu-Tang memberRaekwon.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtyspremieres Sunday, Aug. 25, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on A&E.

source: people.com