Point of order: I think you''re getting O.D.B. mixed up with Lil'' Jon.

Boy... 35 years old. That''s not good.

Too bad I managed to bring up my kid in such a way that he is still not familiar with the ""d''oeuvre"" of this... ""artist"". This prevents me from making an example out of his cultute and his lifestyle to my son.

P.S. Pushkin was a poet and a writer. Not a singer. And you better keep him out of this!

Man, I can''t see the WU as ever being the same. RZA is a genius, no doubt, but ODB was their ace in the hole.

One less ""gansta"", more air for me

I''m not gonna sit here and say that ODB was a magnate of the hip-hop world and that his talents are thousandfold, but damn guys, the dude just died at 35. Show some respect.

The Wu-Tang were one of the biggest groups in rap. Where others have failed to actually be a cohesive unit (um, Da Band, anyone?) and yet still stand out as individuals, the Wu-Tang succeeded. ODB was offensive and brash, but the Wu-Tang Clan made music that a generation listened to and emulated. Just look at the Kung Fu revitalization of the past few years. Don''t think Wu-Tang had anything to do with that? Maybe he won''t be missed by the majority of the people here, but he will be missed, nonetheless.

Hardly a ""gansta"" as you so put it...

He was a pretty smart and clever lyricists that couldnt get his act cleaned up and got messed up with drugs..

Shame too...his solo album was very good and certainly not like the commercial rap garbage thats pumped out by the studios today.

WuTang and RZA and all the Wu-Family groups are some of the best rap music during a really crappy era of music in general.

All 3 Killarmy albums are classics that should be listened to by everyone.

Some of RZA''s best work as a Producer and Exec. Producer.

ODB was very intelligent, and his style will probably never be duplicated.

I wish his family well, and the scene will never be the same without him.

We could go back and forth on who is a hero, who deserves respect, and all of that. Suffice it to say that beauty is always in the eye of the beholder, and one mans'' trash is another mans treasure.

/random

At the risk of getting this moved to P&C, it seems to me that blanket dismissals of rap as not being a worthwhile artform are somewhat racist. There is quite a bit of talent in the world of hip-hop music, and lumping all rap artists into the same ''gansta'' rubric is quite unfair.

I like some rap. Most rappers suck, because they are untalented slobs. I say that objectively. They don''t need to carry a tune like a real singer, so their art is even easier than music (and don''t get started about ""needing to speak in rhythm;"" like actual singers can just hit notes but don''t need to also hit them in rhythm). Yet if you''ve ever listened to about 80% of them live, they can''t even do their one damn job, which is to rhyme along with a beat (man, listen to some of these VH1 or MTV awards sometime, and listen to how horribly offbeat these guys are).

Again, I''m not trashing the whole genre. Guys like Snoop, Eminem, and Dre actually have some talent. Likewise, the music industry can make any slob off the street sound good on a CD right now based on studio equipment and production magic (but don''t ask that person to perform live).

But rap has moved into a ""flavor of the week"" type of genre where every two bit hack from a ghetto gets one song to make a video and shuffle about leering at large breasted and assed women, with very little artistic content other than that. Sadly enough, what used to be urban expressionism has turned even more grossly commercial than vanilla pop.

And I''m getting sick of the great performer label being applied so often. Oooooh Biggy was a huge talent and loss. Ooooooh, Tupac was a huge talent and loss. Ooooooh, Jam Master J was a huge talent and loss. Look, there can only be so many ""amazing talents and artists of the century types out there.""

EDIT: On further thought, Tupac was a huge talent and loss, I liked his work, so he''s another exception.

What now is currently passed off as RAP music is so far removed from what rap music is and should still be...

But the true rap artists have no gone pretty much deep underground...

occasionally one will move to some commercialism but thats usually followed quickly by the absorbtion into the traditionally white controlled corporate labels.

Hows this any different than any other genre of music.. its filled with no talent clowns..

A true lyricist and talented poet is far harder than singing a few verses and a chorus over and over.. listen to some old school stuff.. try Chino XL, Souls of Mischief, Heiro..

Good lyrics...good music.. thats all that counts.

Not at all. There are rap performers who get their message across without resorting to that trash. I might concede that it might be poetry or an art form in that instance. But what this guy did, no way. Just regular street talk put to a thumping beat. Nothing revolutionary there...

Wow, I''m glad to see that any form of music in this overmarketed, overhyped, oversaturated age still gets people riled.

I don''t like country. Should I call them all sh**kickers and rednecks? Probably not. There are some great things being done in country, non-commercial country, where I go, damn, that''s good.

Same thing happens when I hear underground rap. Luckily we have WERS here in Boston, which has a underground radio show that plays this stuff.

You don''t have to go far to find something poignant, relevant, real: common, mos-def, talib kwali, and there is a burgeoning UK rap scene that is real interesting (streets, dizzie rascal). Not to mention Chino XL that GG mentioned, and the roots, Wu-Tang, etc.

The point is, open your ears a little, and seek out the good stuff. You will be rewarded.

Don''t hate the play, Gorrilla, hate the game.

WTFTM.