Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s widow filed a seven-figure breach of contract lawsuit in New York on Tuesday. It accuses the Wu-Tang Clan’s production company of “willfully” refusing to pay ODB’s estate its fair share of record royalties and publishing income over the last decade.
In her 10-page filing obtained by Rolling Stone, Icelene Jones, administrator of her late husband’s estate, is demanding damages of at least $1 million, plus interest.
The complaint describes ODB — real name Russell Tyrone Jones — as “a world-renowned rapper, producer, and songwriter at the time of his untimely death in 2004 at the age of 35.” It says ODB co-founded the Wu-Tang Clan in Staten Island, N.Y., in 1992 alongside fellow members including Dennis “Ghost Face Killer” Coles, Corey “Raekwon” Woods, and Gary “GZA” Grice.
The paperwork claims the four named members entered into an exclusive 1992 recording agreement with defendant Wu-Tang Productions, owned by Jones’ cousin Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, popularly known as “RZA,” that promised the artists a 50 percent share of net royalties and advances related to their sound recordings.
According to the lawsuit, ODB also granted Wu-Tang Productions permission to exploit his co-publishing rights and “name, portraits, pictures, likeness and biographical material” for merchandise sales and videos in exchange for a 50 percent cut of earnings on his copyrights and image.
“Despite its repeated efforts and requests, the estate has been unable to obtain payments and accountings from defendant under the Recording Agreement for the sale of Wu-Tang Clan Recordings and ODB recordings since at least 2011,” the new filing in Manhattan Supreme Court alleges.
The suit claims Diggs sent Icelene Jones a check for $130,000 on July 6, 2021, but did so without any “detailed accounting.”
A rep for Wu-Tang Clan did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
The complaint lists the highlights of ODB’s career, starting with The Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), which featured ODB on all but two tracks and went triple-platinum, selling more than three million copies. During his later solo endeavors, ODB released the hit single “Got Your Money”, as well as a greatest hits album, The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones.
ODB spent several years in and out of jail before November 2004, when he died of a drug overdose at RZA’s recording studio in New York. He had missed several of the group’s performances over several months before his death.