AS rock’n’roll has grown respectable and lost its ability to shock, rap music has proved only too ready to take over the outlaw role. From his provocative stage name to his drug-fuelled, self-destructive lifestyle, Russell Jones — Ol’ Dirty Bastard, as he was known — played the part with a conviction that was often alarming.

His offstage behaviour frequently overshadowed his music and obscured the fact that, as a member of the nine-strong Wu-Tang Clan, he was one of the most influential figures in hip-hop. Between spells on the run from the law, twice being shot, and a prison term, he also made a series of solo albums. Yet posterity is likely to remember his notoriety rather better than his music, as he joins a growing list of prominent rap casualties that also includes Tupac Shakur, Notorious B. I. G. and Jam Master Jay of Run DMC.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard was born Russell Tyrone Jones in Brooklyn, New York, in 1968. His early life followed a pattern characteristic of many rappers. He never knew his father, and his mother lived on welfare payments, while he spent his time skipping school and listening to the earliest hip-hop acts who hit America in the early 1980s, such as the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash.

By the end of the decade he had taken the name ODB and formed All In Together Now with his cousins Robert Diggs (who took the name RZA or Prince Rakeem) and Gary Grice (Genius or GZA). With the addition of further members Raekwon (Corey Woods), Method Man (Clifford Smith), Ghostface Killah (Dennis Coles), Inspectah Deck (Jason Hunter), U-God (Lamont Hawkins) and Masta Killa (Elgin Turner), they became the rap collective Wu-Tang Clan, releasing their first single in 1992. Their debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), released in 1993, was jointly inspired by a love of kung fu films and the gritty reality of the ghetto around them.

The record sold only moderately. But after a series of solo albums by group members, including ODB’s release Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (1995), the Clan’s second album Wu-Tang Forever reached No 1 in both the British and American charts in 1997.

The group exploited its high profile with a video game, a Wu-Tang Beer and even a chain of beauty parlours called Wu Nails. ODB launched his own clothing line, My Dirty Wear, and became an in-demand rapper, working with Pras Michel of the Fugees and Mya on the hit Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are), and Sharleen Spiteri, the lead singer of Texas, on the Top 5 hit Say What You Want (All Day Every Day). He was even invited to appear on a Mariah Carey record.

But his personal life was spiralling out of control. In 1993 he had been convicted of assault, and the next year he was shot in the stomach after a street argument with another rapper. Money and celebrity only exacerbated his problems. In 1997, with the Clan’s album at No 1, he was arrested for failing to pay child support to his estranged wife Icelene and their three children. His response was to assault her, and a court protection order was issued against him.

In 1998 he was again shot during an attempted robbery in Brooklyn. As soon as he was released from hospital, he was arrested again for walking out of a shop wearing a $50 pair of shoes he had not paid for. He was hustled off stage at the 1998 Grammy Awards after staging a one man protest at Puff Daddy beating Wu-Tang Clan for the best rap album award. He was arrested again for threatening security guards at a Des’ree concert in Los Angeles and once again for threatening to murder a former girlfriend.

Somehow he found time to work with his protégés D. R. U. G. (Dirty Rotten Underground Grimies) and made the American Top 10 with his 1999 solo album Nigga Please, which featured his biggest hit, the Neptunes-produced Got Your Money. But his problems continued to mount. He was twice arrested for possession of crack cocaine in 1999, and on the order of a court he checked into a rehabilitation centre. It failed to help and in early 2000 he fell asleep during another court hearing in New York and was recommitted to six months in a rehab facility.

He soon absconded and spent a month as a fugitive, during which time he hardly made it difficult for the police to find him. He turned up on stage with Wu-Tang Clan at a New York concert and at a party to launch the group’s third album, The W, to which he had contributed the track Conditioner. He was eventually apprehended signing autographs for a crowd in Philadelphia. In April 2001, he received a prison sentence for cocaine possession.

His various record companies capitalised on his notoriety, releasing the albums Dirty Story: The Best of Ol’ Dirty Bastard and The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones, a collection of tracks recorded while on the run.

On his release from prison, he claimed to be drug free and reunited with Wu-Tang Clan for a concert performance that was released in September 2004 as the live album Disciples of the 36 Chambers. He had also begun making a new solo record under the name Dirt McGirt.

He died after collapsing at Wu-Tang Clan’s New York studio after complaining of chest pains.

He is survived by 13 children by a number of different mothers.

Russell Jones (Ol’ Dirty Bastard), rapper, was born on November 15, 1968. He died on November 13, 2004, aged 35.