O.D.B. laid to rest in Harlem

Troubled rapper O.D.B., in a coffin surrounded by red and white flowers, was remembered by family and friends at a Harlem church where the focus was on the positives in his life.

“He just loved life,” said his father, William Jones, a retired New York City Transit employee who now lives in Newport News, Va. He said he had last spoken to his son, born Russell Jones, about three weeks ago.

Jones, 35, collapsed and died Saturday inside a Manhattan recording studio. The cause of death remained undetermined, but the cofounder of the seminal rap group Wu-Tang Clan had struggled with drug and alcohol addictions. He had complained of chest pains before he died.

The coffin holding Jones’ body was half open, with a blanket of white flowers across its lower half. Other floral arrangements flanked the coffin in the front of the church, where mourners walked past the body.

“He was a true artist and he also dealt with a lot of pain in his life,” Roc-A-Fella founder Damon Dash said before entering the church Wednesday.