Ol’ Dirty Bastard, center, with Damon Dash, CEO of Roc-A-Fella Records, and his mother Cherry Jones in 2003. (Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images)
When Rock the Bells stops in D.C. for two days of performances this September, the majority of the performers will be alive, with their actual physical bodies in attendance. Two, however, will be there in Tupac-style hologram form only.
Russell Tyrone Jones, the late Wu-Tang Clan member better known as Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and N.W.A. rapper Eazy-E will both make “virtual” appearances, according to organizers.
While seeing a version of O.D.B. that would be at home in a “Star Wars” film may make some fans happy, the rapper’s widow isn’t too happy at the moment.
As HipHopDX reported, Icelene Jones said she filed a cease-and-desist order against the Rock the Bells organizers, saying she is the only executor of her late husband’s estate and was never contacted about the use of his image.
However, she did say in a press release, “I am looking forward to talking to Wu-Tang about this matter and coming up with a positive solution in order to bring my husband to the stage once again.”
Chang Weisber, the head of Guerilla Union, the company putting on the festival, told Radio.com he never received a cease-and-desist letter, and that he’s working with the family to ensure a virtual ODB can perform:
We are going to work with the entire ODB family, including [Mitchell “Divine” Diggs] and Cherry [Jones], ODB’s mother. It involves quite a few people actually. We want to do the right thing. We’re having all the right discussions. We’ll be speaking with all the right people. You can best believe that at the wishes of RZA and Divine from Wu-Tang Clan, as long as this looks and feels the way they want it to go down, it’s absolutely going to happen.
Indeed, promoters were still hyping the virtual performance in a recent press release.
Interested in seeing Wu-Tang Clan reunite in a sci-fi sort of way? Tickets for the D.C. Rock the Bells stop, held September 28 and 29 at RFK Stadium, go on sale Saturday.
