1995 Elektra Entertainment

1995 Elektra Entertainment

Twenty-six years ago, Ol’ Dirty Bastard kicked off his solo rollout with the off-the-wall single “Brooklyn Zoo.”

Long live Ol’ Dirty Bastard, one of the many legendary emcees to represent the Wu-Tang movement. And around this very day in 1995, ODB came through to deliver his debut solo single “Brooklyn Zoo,” a track that has been widely immortalized as a classic. Stemming from his acclaimed album Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (the second solo album to emerge from the Wu-Tang camp after Method Man‘s Tical), the grimy and gritty single featured Ol’ Dirty at his most unrestrained, highlighting his truly unique style as an emcee.

“I’m the one-man army, Ason, I never been tooken out, I keep MC’s looking out,” he raps, his feral energy exploding over the boom-bap production. “I drop science like Cosby dropping babies / Enough to make a ni*ga go crazy.” Structurally, ODB opts to simply let fly bar after bar, an approach that should please any longtime hip-hop-head. Especially those already familiar with Ol’ Dirty, those that still consider the New York rapper to stand among the most original lost ones the game has ever seen. Show some love to “Brooklyn Zoo,” released twenty-six years ago and still going strong.

RIP ODB!

QUOTABLE LYRICS

Ni**a wanna get too close to the utmost
But I got stacks that’ll attack any wack host
Introducing – yo fuck that ni**a’s name
My hip-hop drops on your head like rain
And when it rains it pours, cause my rhymes hardcore
That’s why I give you more of the raw

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