at a press conference for an exclusive device that comes with the new Wu Tang Clan album, the Abbott speaks to The Source on ODB ten years after his untimely demise

Today marks 10 years since the sudden death of Russell Jones aka Ol’ Dirty Bastard, the eccentric co-founder of the legendary Wu Tang Clan. Many people will be mourning his passing, while others will be celebrating the gift of his music that he left before he died just two days shy of his 36th birthday. Ironically, the WTC’s debut Enter The 36 Chambers LP recently turned 21 years old and now the new Wu album, A Better Tomorrow, can be found exclusively on the Boombotix Rex, a digital music device that comes with the new LP.

When asked about ODB and how his death impacts the Clan, the Ruler Zig Zag Zig Allah says, “When Mustafa was coming up with the release date for Boombot Rex and Zumi said November 15th, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s ODB’s birthday!’” He went on to say, “To me it’s an auspicious day to launch this product and kind of celebrate it in another way. He’s not here to see this happen. He’s not here to see how far our music has traveled. Me and him started with no recorder. Just in the hallways doing the beatbox…rapping. Now, here we are in a digital age inside of our own speaker.”

As far as Ason’s presence on A Better Tomorrow, what would a Wu album be without a little ODB? RZA explains:

“As far as the album, I was able to get some vocal samples of his voice embedded in the album so you can hear that. I made sure that he had some presence on this record. I pulled up some accapellas, some of his wordings and sounds to some of the music so we can still feel that ODB energy. We miss him drastically and immensely. Of course it’s never going to be the same without him, but we carrying that W. Wu forever, you know, until the last man standing.”

-Sha Be Allah(@KingPenStatus)