[ConYoungBlack]

I agree. I am ranting. I will add a qualifyer. In cases where the person in general wasn't an obvious assh&*le or someone that caused harm to others.

Is that better?

Or is it still open game on ODB simply because he was a rapper?

[flashbunny]

Don't know enough about him to make a comment. So I don't.

However, if another rapper, like, say, eminem were to meet with some unfortuante circumstancess, then I would have something to say.

[lavrenti]

I ragged on ODB because he was a psycho and often hurtful to others. I also got to see some of his antics up close and personal, and that influences my judgment. While I'm glad Wu-Tang did give back to the north shore community in Staten Island, ODB was an embarrassment.

Has nothing to do with the music, his race or inventive orthodontry. ODB was a crazy jerk who stumbled through life with an army of enablers and left behind more than his fair share of personal wreckage.

[jimfrommaine]

Don't know anything about ODB but God bless his soul. As for artists killing themselves on drugs, it seems to be a universal form of demise for musicians. That and plane crashes.
I would wager however that country singers are the most self-destrective. Keith Whitley, Hank Williams killed themselves with booze. Johnny Cash battled drugs all his life.

[conservative in nyc]

While I pray for O.D.B. and (especially) his family in their time of sorrow, it's no secret that he wasn't exactly a model citizen.

O.D.B. fathered 13 children out of wedlock and generally lived the gangster lifestyle. He was arrested numerous times for numerous crimes, including failure to pay child support. He's been in prison as recently as 2003. And he famously was shown on MTV going down to the welfare office in a limo to pick up food stamps during the height of his Wu-Tang popularity, when he should have been taking personal responsibility for his kids own welfare. He's no role model.

[oceanperch]

Never heard of the guy but then I only listen to female R and B with rap back up, Miya, Lil Ms Dynamite ect....

Love listening to my music but don't know squat about these artists and don't care to.

However I did roll my eyes when Miya felt the need to do a concert in the nude for some lib cause.

[squidward]

"Or is it still open game on ODB simply because he was a rapper?"

ODB also had charges of robbery and assault besides his drug charges. Maybe you are so quick to forgive him (and not eminem who I also despise) is because of their skin tone?