Once upon a time, when I was a DJ on my college radio station, I came across the sophomore album of Ol’ Dirty Bastard. From first glance of the album cover aptly entitled Nigga Please, I just knew it was going to be the typical Dirt McGurt hot mess offerings of chitterlings on rye crisp common for him at the time. The controversial rap lyricist from Wu Tang Clan, who with this solo offering christened himself Big Baby Jesus well before Kanye thought of having his own religious interpretation name moment, stood proudly on his album cover as if he could do no wrong. Fully adorned in a washed up Jheri curl reject wig from a long forgotten Soul Glo campaign while stylishly posing in a Mr. Furley inspired yellow and white onesy to match, the album scared the absolute hell out of our station manager.
A side eye here and there and Got Your Money got heavy rotation. And that was all.
While sitting in on the hip-hop show on the fateful night the DJ planned to premier another single from the album, everybody was nervous wondering what should be the next cut. There was no lead in from the record company to say which was the B-side or the next single, since it was clear after Got Your Money that Elektra Records wasn’t investing in the brand or any further album promotion after that. What finally aired was Ol ’Dirty Bastard’s unnecessary spirited remake of Rick James’ Cold Blooded, which was so terrible from the first syllable that the station manager came flying into the room yelling and screaming to fade the song out immediately by the chorus.
Ol’ Dirty Bastard was not allowed to be played on our station after that.
For those of you not hip to the antics of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, 1999 was a hot year for him – he was constantly on television ducking and running from law enforcement for a host of different charges, knee deep in a serious drug addiction, and, according to his appearance on MTV, getting food stamps and medical care for his sexually transmitted diseases. How he had time to write and record Nigga Please with all that going on is a mystery, but the quality of the album is a good comparison to all the drama he had constantly going on reflects the turmoil of his career. Compared to his debut album Return To The 36 Chambers, Nigga Please is a cry for help on the hip-hop hotline that goes straight to a dial tone.
Twenty-five years later, Nigga Please is like a hot sauce enema burning on all ends.
Don’t let the success of Got Your Money featuring Kelis fool you – this album is all over the place with nowhere to go but the gutter. Chris Rock’s terrible hype man that the album’s not commercial and attempt at rapping on Recognize are more cognitive than Big Baby Jesus’s off rhythmic rant and growl singing in between Pharell’s contributions. I Can’t Wait is a completely incoherent unintelligible track that features a poorly mixed sample of a 1980s news station special report theme that completely drowns out Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s verses. The interpretive singing covers of Cold Blooded and Good Morning Heartache are unnecessary and out of place alongside every vain attempt of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s karaokesque singing. While many cape for the album because The Neptunes meet Wu Tang Clan, this hodgepodge of unhinged rant based songs circles between comically terrible and commercially experimental to the extent that its lost in translation.
What’s so crazy about Nigga Please is that almost all the songs make you say that with conviction.
Granted, Ol’ Dirty Bastard has always been messy. That’s his schtick. He was Orlando Brown talking crazy ish before it was fashionable. On this album that point got away from him and made Nigga Please consistently inconsistent. There are several cuts like Rollin’ With You, Nigga Please, and You Don’t Want To Fuck With Me that stand on militant points about racism and how it has affected Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s economic relationships in business and his personal life but then halfway through deviate into left field into uncharted topics off subject that rattle on like a crackhead tangent that struggle to make sense within the context of the song. Big Baby Jesus flips the script after five tracks reading white people the riot act with the pro-white cut All In Together Now, which exhibits his militancy takes a holiday when rump shaking and partying are at his center of attention. It does not help that in many of these cuts he graces us with his post-Five Heartbeats Eddie Kane off beat crooning like in I Want Pussy that is more smoke on the water than fire on the mic.
If nothing else Nigga Please is the only hip-hop album that plays with cause and effect.
On the beats side the album is littered between commercially viable hip-hop instrument beds and dirty third tier Wu Tang Clan melodies which do little outside of Got Your Money to be memorable and timeless. Nigga Please has not aged well, coming across as a found demo erring on the terrible side. The saturated commercial and underground hip-hop throwaway tracks sound as if the producers gave up on their vision before completion. Tragically, Nigga Please was not effectively marketed as an album for its quirkiness but for one single that was its most commercial, non-offensive, most sober recorded song. Don’t get it twisted, the potential of Nigga Please is there on the surface. You want to like it, but common sense kicks in and you just can’t help but say Nigga Please. Ol’ Dirty Bastard left behind a lot of faults, including this album, but within the chaos is a highly misunderstood savant that has left us listeners struggling to understand exactly the message in the madness.
End of the day, Nigga Please is the most aptly deserved title of a hip-hop album ever.
