True to his reputation for following his own drummer, Wu-Tang Clan rapper

Ol' Dirty Bastard unexpectedly walked out of a Brooklyn, N.Y., hospital shortly

after midnight Wednesday (July 1), after being treated for gunshot wounds to the arm and back that he

sustained during a "push-in" robbery at his apartment late Tuesday afternoon.

"He didn't check out -- he just walked out the emergency room entrance,"

said Lars Larmon, spokesman for Interfaith Medical Center/St. John's

Hospital. "A nurse stopped him and asked him why he was out of his bed.

He said he was leaving, got in his van and drove off."

The 29-year-old rapper (born Russell Jones) was in apartment 1B at 254

Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn at 5:32 p.m. EDT when two unidentified black men

opened the unlocked front door and displayed a gun, said New York City

Police Department spokeswoman Theresa Farello. After taking an

undetermined amount of jewelry and money, the perpetrators shot ODB and

fled the scene.

As of Wednesday morning (July 1), no arrests had been made in the incident,

according to police spokesman Charles Larken. Larken

had no information concerning possible suspects or whether the assailants

knew the identity of their victim.

"An investigation has been opened," Farello said Tuesday.

Precisely how many times ODB was shot is unknown. "There was a bullet that

apparently entered his back and went out his left arm, but there is some

question whether there was one or two bullets," Larmon said.

The gruff-voiced rapper, heard most recently on "Ghetto Supastar" (RealAudio excerpt) from the

Bulworth soundtrack, incurred only

"superficial" wounds from the attack, Larmon said. After being taken to

St. John's by family members, ODB was X-rayed to check for lung injuries.

He was later admitted to the hospital and put on an oxygen monitor to

further assure doctors that there was no damage.

During his brief stay, ODB was visited by both family and friends, although

Larmon could not say whether other Wu-Tang members stopped by. "He did

have an entourage of young ladies out front," Larmon said.

In the five years since the Wu-Tang Clan released their debut, Enter the

Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Ol' Dirty Bastard has cultivated a reputation as

the most iconoclastic of the nine-member, Staten Island, N.Y.-based collective.

The rapper, who also goes by the names Osirus and Big Baby Jesus, plans to

launch a two-week club tour this month, marking the first time that a

Wu-Tang Clan member has toured solo.

Janna Fleischman, spokeswoman for Elektra Records (for which ODB records as

a solo artist), said Wednesday that the label had no comment on the

shooting or its possible effect on the summer tour. The outing is slated

to kick off on July 23 at the Fenix Underground in Seattle.

However, according to Michael Wood, the man who booked the tour for Frontier Booking International, ODB's summer outing is still a-go. "The tour is on and everything is cool," Wood said Wednesday morning. "We talked to him last night and everything is fine."

Last summer, ODB missed several dates on an ill-fated tour with Rage

Against The Machine and Atari Teenage Riot. After performing 16 of 30

scheduled concerts, the Clan withdrew, citing internal conflicts, including

the alleged band beating of a Loud Records employee.

Following their cancellation from that tour and a New York judge's order

that ODB pay child support, the rapper told SonicNet Music News that

his battle with alcohol contributed to his professional and personal problems.

"Put it this way: My thoughts wasn't really on point, you know what I

mean?" he said. "Now they're getting on point. I've left a lot of things

alone."

In recent months, ODB has continued to do things his way.

During a Grammy Awards ceremony last February, the rapper stunned the

audience by interrupting the Song of the Year presentation to Shawn

Colvin to speak about the injustice he perceived when the Wu-Tang Clan lost

the Best Rap Album Grammy to another superstar rapper, Puff Daddy & the

Family.

"I went and bought me an outfit today that cost me a lot of money, because

I figured that Wu-Tang was gonna win," ODB said. "I don't know how you all

see it, but when it comes to the children, Wu-Tang is for the children. We

teach the children. Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best. I want you all

to know that this is ODB, and I love you all. Peace."

The Wu-Tang Clan are one of the most popular and influential hip-hop

outfits of the 1990s. Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993) and

its follow-up, Wu-Tang Forever (1997), have sold millions of copies.

Ol' Dirty Bastard's solo album, Return To the 36 Chambers: The Dirty

Version (1995), went gold (500,000 copies sold), and a second solo

album is expected later this year.

One of the clubs anxious to have ODB in the house this summer is the

Roseland Theatre in Portland, Ore. Still, Adam Zacks, the club's general

manager, expressed concern that the rapper might not show up.

"We've booked him for a Friday night, so if he cancels, we are sort-of left

in the lurch on a weekend night," Zacks explained. "We weighed the

potential costs and decided that, right now, he's pretty happening, so we

went ahead and booked him."