Ordinary Machines: Ghost Riding

Features | Pitchfork: “God created Ol’ Dirty Bastard,” the man himself declares in his signature warble. “His walk, his talk, his movement, his step, his feet, his everything.” This soliloquy is one of the most memorable moments in Rock the Bells, a documentary chronicling the hip-hop festival’s first show in 2004. It’s also Dirty’s only triumphant moment in the film; elsewhere he’s seen in a state of depressingly severe decline. The concert is billed as the first official Wu-Tang Clan reunion in almost a decade, but it almost doesn’t happen because Dirty is too high to make it out of his hotel room. He finally shows up at the last minute, only to spend most of the performance sitting down, uncharacteristically silent and nearly out-of-view. It would be the last time all core members of Wu-Tang performed together. Four months later, on November 13, 2004, ODB was dead.