Yesterday marked the fourth year anniversary of rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s untimely passing. On a day that should be devoted to celebrating the life of her son, Cherry Jones found herself speaking out on the unfortunate controversies surrounding his death.
“For the past four years I have sat back and watched certain individuals try and tarnish my son’s beliefs,” Jones said in a letter delivered through her son’s manager to media including HipHopDX. “My son loved every single one of his children and every single one of their mothers and provided for them all the best he could when he was alive. My son was an extremely generous soul.”
According to Jones, who still mourns the loss of her son whom she called Rusty, most of ODB’s 13 children have been neglected financially by widow and mother of three of his children, Icelene Jones. After his death, Icelene was granted ownership of ODB’s estate.
In addition to her outrage over what she feels is her daughter-in-law’s poor money handling, Cherry Jones is also requesting that fans boycott the upcoming biography of her son’s life, written by author Jaime Lowe, and titled Digging for Dirt: The Life and Death of ODB [click to read]. As HipHopDX reported on Wednesday, the book questions the rapper’s mental stability via his former attorney, Robert Shapiro.
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“I am asking all of Dirty‘s fans to boycott this book as none of the proceeds are going to the children and this author’s motives and intentions seems to be in the vein of disgracing my son’s legacy,” Jones stated. “Quotes from Robert Shapiro in [Wednesday’s] newspaper are shameful that an attorney who represented my son for less then a minute and has been out of the spotlight would comment and speculate on my son’s health in order for a mention of his name in print.”
Before his death, ODB planned to put out his third solo album on Roc-A-Fella Records. Cherry Jones is working to have the album released, finally, by next year. The earnings from the album sales would go to ODB’s estate, and would then be dispersed among his children.
“I hope next year my son’s final album will be released for the fifth anniversary of his passing.”
Reported by Salima Koroma.
