Today, November 15, 2026, would have been Ol' Dirty Bastard's 58th birthday. Born Russell Tyrone Jones on November 15, 1968, in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, New York, he was one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, formed in 1992 with his cousins RZA and GZA and six other members.
The group's debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), arrived in 1993 and announced the Clan as a force in hip-hop. ODB's solo career began in 1995 with Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, which spawned the hit singles "Brooklyn Zoo" and "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" and went platinum. That same year, he collaborated with Mariah Carey on the remix of her single "Fantasy."
His second album, Nigga Please, followed in 1999 and included the worldwide hit "Got Your Money," featuring Kelis. Across both records, ODB's unfiltered delivery and unpredictable energy made him one of the most distinctive voices of his era — impossible to imitate and impossible to ignore.
He died on November 13, 2004, at age 35, of an accidental drug overdose, two days before his 36th birthday. The 22nd anniversary of his death passed just two days ago, making this birthday a moment of remembrance as much as celebration.
His legacy in New York has only grown since. In 2023, the New York City Council designated November 15, his birthday, as Ol' Dirty Bastard Day, and in July 2026 a section of Putnam Avenue in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood was officially co-named ODB Jones Way in his honor.
The birthday falls the morning after the Wu-Tang Clan's induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on November 14, 2026, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles — the group's first nomination, closing a weekend that put the Clan's legacy front and center. The induction kept the focus on the group ODB helped start, and his birthday, arriving the very next morning, kept it there.
Read more: Ol' Dirty Bastard on Wikipedia · NME on the Brooklyn street naming · Off The Corner on the Wu-Tang Clan's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction
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