To mark the anniversary of a late, great hip hop icon whose very name inspires controversy, XXL Magazine asked former members of the legendary rap group Wu-Tang to remember their friend, Russell Tyrone Jones, known otherwise as Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Lyricist Raekwon recalled the following anecdote:
My memories go back to us being in his house in Harlem. We used to listen to a lot of slow music, a lot of songs that we liked, that we grew up on, from the O’Jays to The Whispers. I remember sitting in the house singing “Olivia” drunk on muthafuckin’ Bacardi…
That about sums it up. The Whispers released the silky smooth and beautifully-harmonized ballad, “Olivia” in 1978, but its lament for a wayward “slave” girl is no less affecting today. Add to that its influence on epochal artists of the hip hop movement, and the song demands our attention.
