Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version
This was the second solo album in the first wave of Wu-Tang solo albums (the first being Tical, or the real first being Words From The Genius). As such, it is produced almost entirely by RZA and certainly retains that early Wu-Tang lo-fi, creepy sound that made Enter The Wu-Tang so compelling. Indeed several tracks here could fit pretty well on Enter - "Snakes" being the most obvious. But what really makes Return set itself apart from the group effort - even when there are plenty of guests to boast - is none other than Russell T. Jones. Not for a moment will he let you forget that this is his show. And really, the album is better for that somewhat spastic hand taking the reins. While it does sound like Wu-Tang, it pretty much always sounds like ODB's version of Wu-Tang. Which means a long, drawn out intro about venereal disease. It also means that between bouts of incredible rapping ("Brooklyn Zoo" being the obvious overground example here) he'll also be seeing how long you can make a throaty sound, using words that seriously are not even words, or trying his hand at singing "New Jack Swing" style ballads that his father learned from your nana ("which is good!"). While it's not a perfect record, and while some of the choices that ODB makes lyrically and vocally fall in line with some of the more surreal output that Kool Keith would be known for a few years later, repeated listens reveal that this album is just plain fun, and ultimately that thematic consistency makes for a surprisingly solid whole.