It was confirmed last week that actor Micheal K. Williams has been slated to star as Wu-Tang wild man ‘Ol Dirty Bastard, in the new film entitled “Dirty White Boy”. (There have also been rumors of Eddie Griffin and Tracy Morgan possibly representing ODB in different projects.)
Williams has already established himself as a hip-hop fan favorite as homo-thug Omar in HBO’s The Wire, since the completion of the series he has kept busy playing a Black bootlegger in the 1920’s era show Boardwalk Empire on HBO.
The movie will follow the relationship between ODB, and Jarred Weisfeld, a 22-year-old VH1 production assistant who eventually hustled his way into becoming the rapper’s manager. Their real life relationship had heads scratching when they linked after Dirty’s prison bid in the early 2000’s, and many people second guessed Weisfeld’s intentions in managing the superstar rapper.
As more info about the film surfaces the cyber streets have been talking and heads are wondering if this film will pay tribute to a fallen star from a legendary hip-hop crew or if it will be another story portraying black people being saved by white counterparts who seem to be the only ones that can help them in their times of trouble (I’m betting on the latter). If you’ve blindly ignored the presence of this ideal in Hollywood just think: Hurricane (Deborah Kara Unger), Amistad (Matthew McConaughey), Glory (Matthew Broderick), Dangerous Minds (Michelle Pheifer), To Kill a Mocking Bird (Evan Nisenson), and most recently The Help (Emma Stone). I could probably go on but I guess you can see that this underlining theme isn’t anything new to the US film industry, but this is the first time that I can remember that this theme has been included and represented through hip-hop culture.
As a hip-hop head who was rooting for the triumphant return of ODB and all the crazy ???? that came along with him into the hip-hop limelight I’ve always wandered what the hell was going on with him and who else was behind it, guess we should get some answers from “Dirty White Boy”. Back when he got out of jail in 2003 all we really got was a VH1 special about his release from prison (produced by Weisfeld) and a few sporadic guest features before his untimely death in ’04. No matter what happened in ’03 I just hope that Hollywood would show hip-hop a little love and actually pay homage to Dirt McGirt the real star, rather than continue to perpetuate the age old Hollywood stereotype of saving darkies. All real Wu-tang heads click here!
