I don't believe in reincarnation, but I sure do believe that the tortured soul of bluesman Robert Johnson lived inside the Wu-Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard. "Crossroads," Johnson's best-known song, shows him falling to his knees at the juncture of sin and salvation and praying for strength in his losing battle against earthly temptations. ODB's work shows a man a mile or two farther down the road to hell, but battling updated versions of the same ghosts and monsters.

Had Johnson lived in a world choking on popular culture, perhaps he'd have suffered the same humiliation that reduced ODB to a cartoon figure whose artistic profile was measured by his rap sheet – one bizarre arrest after another. But give The Definitive Ol' Dirty Bastard Story a serious listen, and you'll find a modern-day "sufferer" singing the blues as surely as Johnson or Jimmy Cliff's Ivan in The Harder They Come.

The package includes of the full range of ODB flavas – a kind of randomly amplified sampling of the human condition – and there's no denying the shit is good. My playlist begins with the fabulously funky "Got Your Money" (produced by the Neptunes) and goes on to the included "Brooklyn Zoo," "Shimmy Shimmy Ya," and "Cold Blooded." But give a listen to "Good Morning Heartache," on which, for real, ODB gives Lady Day a run for her money in his own soul-scraping fashion.

Definitive also offers a DVD that includes a track innocuously titled "Box Talk Interview," and it's not a bad place to begin listening because it captures ODB at his raw, raving best. At one point, while positioning himself in the Wu-Tang hierarchy, he breaks off into a "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" riff, which evolves into a vision of salamanders and piranhas so bent that even his Clan homies, standing behind him, can barely contain themselves. Ultimately, the world couldn't contain the man, and last November ODB slipped off into the night at age 35. He did a lot of living in a short while (he left behind a small army of children as well as his music). This isn't a bad way to remember him. (J.H. Tompkins)