When Wu-Tang Clan — the Staten Island hip-hop collective boasting a range of rappers including Method Man and Ghostface Killah — takes over Terminal 5 for two shows on Saturday and Sunday, there will be one member whom everyone will still be missing: Ol’ Dirty Bastard, the loose cannon who died from an accidental drug overdose in 2004.
“We lost one of our brothers — that was a hard situation. That’s all I can say, man,” says U-God, the original Wu-Tang emcee born Lamont Hawkins.
But the spirit of ODB will live on in his first-born son, Young Dirty Bastard (real name: Barson Jones), who will hit the stage with Wu-Tang. “I’m just happy that his son can come in and represent him . . . with that aura and that energy,” says U-God, 48.
The Terminal 5 concerts will be a hometown celebration of the silver anniversary of the group’s landmark debut, “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),” which came out Nov. 9, 1993. In honor of the 25-year milestone, Staten Island proclaimed that Nov. 9 will henceforth be known as Wu-Tang Clan Day.
“Those 25 years went so fast. It’s unbelievable . . . Time flies,” says U-God. “We were babies, we were little children when we did that first album.”
“Enter the Wu-Tang,” which features the classic single “C.R.E.A.M.,” is largely regarded as one of the best rap albums of all time. But U-God didn’t think they were onto anything special. “Nah, nah, nah,” he says “We just did things sporadically. For some kind of reason, it just stuck. I don’t understand [how it happened], I don’t get it.”
Still, U-God recognizes that the album was a game-changer. “We were the starters of all that street rap,” he says. “We were the first group that really came from the streets and made a success for ourselves. At the time, you know, we really touched the streets. We weren’t manufactured by a corporation and all that stuff, we were really manufactured in the streets of New York City. We were born and raised in it, so we kind of translated it into the music.”
After their Terminal 5 shows, Wu-Tang Clan will have “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men” — their upcoming four-part Showtime docuseries — premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
But U-God has another big goal in mind.
“I want to get in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. That right there will put us in a place . . . with all the immortals,” he says. “I’m putting it out in the world, ’cause that would be kinda hot. My mother would be proud of me.”