On this date 27 years ago, September 14, 1999, the late great Ol’ Dirty Bastard of the Wu-Tang Clan released his second studio album, N***a Please, through Elektra Records.
Four years removed from his classic solo debut, Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, ODB returned with an album every bit as unpredictable as the man himself.
Before settling on its now-infamous title, Dirty reportedly considered several names for the project, including God Made Dirt and Dirt Don’t Hurt and The Black Man Is God, White Man Is the Devil. At another point, he floated Dirty’s World as a possible title. Ultimately, N***a Please became the name attached to what would be the final studio album released during his lifetime.
The 13-track project featured production from RZA, The Neptunes, Irv Gotti, True Master, Buddha Monk and others, allowing ODB to stretch his famously unorthodox style across everything from grimy Wu-Tang production to funk, soul and increasingly polished late-’90s sounds.
Its biggest record was the Neptunes-produced “Got Your Money,” featuring a then-emerging Kelis on the unforgettable hook. The single became one of ODB’s most commercially successful songs, reaching No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helping introduce Kelis to a much wider audience before the release of her own debut album.
Elsewhere, Dirty turned Rick James’ “Cold Blooded” into his own warped remake, while songs such as “Recognize,” “I Can’t Wait” and “All in Together Now” captured the humor, singing, shouting and completely unpredictable delivery that made it virtually impossible to confuse ODB with another MC.
And unpredictability was certainly the theme of his life during the years between his first and second albums.
Dirty had already become one of Hip Hop’s most notorious personalities. He famously traveled by limousine with his children to collect welfare benefits while MTV cameras followed him, and at the 1998 Grammy Awards he unexpectedly walked onto the stage during Shawn Colvin’s acceptance speech after Wu-Tang Forever lost Best Rap Album to Puff Daddy’s No Way Out.
That interruption produced one of Hip Hop’s most enduring declarations: Wu-Tang was “for the children.”
The chaos surrounding ODB, however, wasn’t always funny. He endured arrests, court cases and even being shot during a 1998 robbery at his girlfriend’s Brooklyn home. In January 1999, NYPD officers fired multiple shots at him after claiming he had fired at them during a confrontation in Brooklyn. ODB denied ever having a weapon, and a grand jury ultimately declined to indict him.
Somehow, amid all of that turmoil, Dirty still delivered another successful album.
N***a Please debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 and reached No. 2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart before earning a gold certification.
The album would sadly become ODB’s final proper studio release before his death on November 13, 2004, just two days before what would have been his 36th birthday.
Twenty-seven years later, N***a Please remains one of the clearest examples of what made Ol’ Dirty Bastard impossible to duplicate. He could be hilarious, disturbing, soulful, reckless and strangely brilliant—sometimes during the same record.
There was truly no father to his style.
Salute to the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard and everyone involved in N***a Please on the 27th anniversary of the album’s release.