August 3, 2012 · 2 min read

I got Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s FBI files

One of my hobbies is liberating government documents using Freedom of Information Act requests. To do this, I use the service MuckRock, which allows users to submit FOIA requests online. Using MuckRock, I have been able to obtain the FBI profile of Wu-Tang Clan member “Ol’ Dirty Bastard,” best known for his dirty rhymes and interruping the Grammy’s.

Freedom of Information

The FBI’s FOIA policy allows you to get the file of anybody who is deceased, so I filed a request to get all documents mentioning Russell Tyreese Jones, aka Ol’ Dirty Bastard, aka ODB, aka Big Baby Jesus, member of the Wu-Tang Clan hip hop collective, who died in 2004 of an accidental drug overdose, a lethal mixture of cocaine and the prescription drug Tramadol, a synthetic opiate.

The FBI responded with 94 pages of police reports, court proceedings and news clippings, which cover an assortment of crimes perpetrated by and against ODB. The document is embedded below and you can read my FOIA request here.

The File

Jones-part-01-of-01 Download

Selections

Some gems include:

“The WTC is heavily involved in the sale of drugs, illegal guns, weapons possession, murder, carjacking and other types of violent crime.” [p5]
Connections to the murder of Robert “Pooh” Johnson and Jerome “Boo Boo” Estrella. [p6]
Connection to murder of Ishamael “Hoody” Kourma. [p13]
A shoot-out with the NYPD. [p15]
Arrest for felony possession of body armour. [p16]
Connections to the Bloods Gang. [p17]
Found in possession of large bags full of paper currency. [p40]
Details of his being robbed and shot while staying in the Kingston projects. [p45]

Crowdsource it!

I’m sure there are plenty of more interesting factoids in here, if you find any, leave them in the comments below! It’s quite tough to read because the document is so heavily redacted and written in police jargon.

There’s also a lot of information which could be integrated into his Wikipedia page, if anybody is into that.

And there you have it! Are there any other dead rappers or rock stars worth FOIA’ing?