MTV is unearthing a bunch of old, obscure interviews with fixtures in New York hip-hop from the late ‘90s and posting them on Genius. First up is one from the Ol’ Dirty Bastard (RIP), where he talks about his kids, his wife, and his struggles with sobriety. It’s very frank and, to be honest, a little bit sad.

At the time this piece was filmed, ODB says he had been sober for about two months. Unfortunately, his struggles would not end there—he died in November 2004 of a drug overdose. This interview is great in that it’s a glimpse of the rapper being pretty turned down and candid, although he is very much still Dirt McGirt. The interview’s just north of 30 minutes, and if you can’t make it through the whole thing, here are a few highlights:

On his 13 kids:

The kids—how many kids do I have? Well, all the kids in the world is mine, so I can’t count how many kids I’ve got. All the children in the universe is mine, everywhere, you know what I mean?

On being arrested for owing child support:

Well, one I was signing autographs, and I got picked up by the cops. Two, well, I love my—-all my, I love my wife, yes, I love her dearly. Of course I pay child support, you know what I mean? [...] And no, Dirty don’t have a lot of money, you know what I mean? Dirty is so busy giving out things ... Money don’t really mean nothing to me, but I’ve got to have it for the children, of course. That’s why I’m getting this together.

On sobriety:

When I heard really that Otis Redding had crashed into that sea, that’s my main man— nah, just bullshitting. It was just—you know what I’m saying, I ain’t gonna say that, you know, it’s just—I learned that it’s not the move, you know what I mean? That ain’t the move where it’s time to have a straight point, straight ahead.

When I’m onstage, something about that red wine, man. You know, it just bring the brilliance. I mean. But I ain’t doing it in a while, though, that’s what’s bugging me the hell out, you know what I mean? I ain’t one to lie, man, you know? I mean, we all do our things and everything, you know what I mean? Ya’ll know me for being raw, so I gotta keep it raw. If I’m onstage, and it’s a good show and a lot of people, I might take a sip or two, you know what I mean? That’s what brings the energy, you know?

On his relationship with the rest of the Wu Tang Clan:

No, I don’t really speak too much nowadays, you know what I’m saying? Basically, I ain’t really trying to talk on the results, you know what I mean? I just want to show and prove it, you know what I mean? Right now, the Clan, I don’t know. Well, check it out: Dirty is here, Dirty is here to stay, word. And we are going to make these albums, and we are going to get this money, and we are going to take care of these kids and all my children across the universe.

On condoms:

I use condoms. Oh man, oh baby, I like it raw. Yeah, condoms – yeah, I use condoms, yeah. Birth control, yes, birth control. Birth control. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, birth control. Do some birth control. Look, Dirty, yeah, birth control. Man, I was just speaking about birth control. Look, I love you all. Birth control. I love you all, and birth control is good, and if you don’t want to have no babies like that and you don’t want to run into them problems, boy—I mean, babies all over the universe. Boy, if you don’t want to run into no problems, you better listen to that TV, baby. That’s real. Oh boy, you better listen.

On Mariah Carey:

That’s my heartbeat. My sugar plum, word. One of the sweetest women I have met. I have met a lot of sweet women—well, my mama is the sweetest woman I ever met, and my grandmamma too, and a couple other women too. But Mariah got especially genuine, she ain’t got to say nothing, love. You know what I mean? She’s got like a glow, a weird glow. I can’t really explain it, you know? She’s just straight up beautiful, word. I mean, it’s shown and proved by all the fans she got, you know what I mean?

See me, I’m a big fan of Mariah, word. Doing something with her, I always want to do some backup with her; when I was young, I love Mariah. I mean, not young, you know what I mean, before I was out. She just beautiful, you know? She keeps it real. She does what she feel at heart. And usually people, when they do what they feel at heart, you’ve got good and bad in the situation. It means everything that she do is good, so I know she is a naturally good woman.

This interview is apparently the first of many; you can look forward to future interviews from the likes of Cam’ron, DMX, LL Cool J, Method Man, and Redman. But today, we remember that Wu Tang is for the children. [Genius via Complex]