Return to The 36 Chambers: Dirty Version in Bloomington, MN

As a member of
the Wu-Tang Clan
,
Ol' Dirty Bastard
's bizarre, free-form rants added both comic relief and a dangerous unpredictability to the group's chemistry.
ODB
's
RZA
-produced solo debut
Return to the 36 Chambers
stretches his schtick over a full album, which if anything makes him sound even more unbalanced. Long before the album ends, it's clear that
has emptied his bag of tricks -- loose, off-the-beat raps that sometimes don't even rhyme, unbelievably graphic vulgarity, gonzo off-key warbling (which sounds a little like
Biz Markie
as a mental patient), and general goofing off. Yet within that role as hardcore rap's clown prince of psychosis,
is pretty damned entertaining. His leaps in association are often as disturbing as they are funny, whether they're couched in scatological detail or not; they certainly don't make his widely publicized erratic behavior seem at all surprising. And, despite the unstructured feel dominating most of the album, there are a fair share of hooks, and two absolutely killer singles in
"Shimmy Shimmy Ya"
and
"Brooklyn Zoo."
Certainly, there's no reason for the album to be as long as it is, considering the dull filler toward the end. But, even though
might not be the most earth-shattering piece of
the Wu-Tang
puzzle, it's an infectious party record which proves that, despite his limitations,
has the charisma to carry an album on his own. ~ Steve Huey