ODB died from drug mix, says US coroner

Rapper ODB died accidentally from the combined effects of cocaine and a prescription painkiller, a US coroner has ruled.

ODB, whose real name was Russell Jones, died at a Manhattan recording studio last month “as a result of intoxication” by cocaine and the painkiller Tramadol, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner’s office.

“The manner of death is an accident,” she said.

ODB complained of chest pains before collapsing at the studio, and was dead by the time paramedics reached him. He was just days short of his 36th birthday.

The rapper, also known as Ol’ Dirty Bastard, was a founding member of the group the Wu-Tang Clan.

He had been working on a comeback album after finishing a prison sentence for drug possession and escaping a rehab clinic.

ODB was the latest in a string of rappers to meet an untimely death, among them Jam Master Jay of Run DMC, who was fatally shot in 2002, and Notorious BIG. and Tupac Shakur, who were both shot to death in the late 1990s. Those killings remain unsolved.