Redman a Brief History
The doctor is in. The funk doc, that is. But this
time he's got a serious case of Malpractice against
him. As Newark, New Jersey's #1 candidate, Redman
has put it down for almost ten straight years, delivering
a smash each time out.
Redman four solo albums (Whut? Thee Album, Dare
Iz a Darkside, Muddy Waters, Doc's Da Name 2000)
and two collaboration joints (Blackout! w/Method
Man, and El Nino w/Def Squad) have placed the rapper
in a hip-hop hall of fame, because only a few artists
have managed to be that consistent. Redman is one
of them.
Though Redman upholds his reputation in hip-hop
by remaining true to his formula of funk-driven
beats and unconventional rhymes, Redman intends
to stretch his own boundaries with his fifth solo
album, Malpractice. Redman explains, "When
a doctor operates and does something he's not supposed
to do, they call it malpractice. That's what this
album is, I'm going to be breaking all the rules,
stepping it up and doing things that I wouldn't
normally do."
Method Man, Hip Hop Gawd
Method Man was the first -- and biggest -- solo star
to emerge from the groundbreaking Wu-Tang Clan. Method
Man's mush-mouthed, sandpaper-rough bellow (at times
recalling EPMD's Erick Sermon) and imaginative rhymes
easily made Method Man one of the most recognizable,
unpredictable MCs in the group, yet his flow was more
deliberate and laid-back than the Wu's resident loose
cannon, Ol' Dirty Bastard.
On Method Man's solo records, Method Man developed
a persona that swung from offhand, understated menace
to raucous stoner humor. Toward the end of the '90s,
Method Man's frequent team-ups with Redman produced
not only a terrific musical chemistry, but an eventual
big-screen comedy team as well.
It was the latter locale where he met his future
Wu-Tang cohorts RZA, Genius/GZA, and Ol' Dirty Bastard;
when they set about forming a hip-hop collective
in the early '90s, Method Man was one of the first
to sign on. Meth was heavily featured on the group's
classic late-1993 debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),
even getting his own showcase track with "Method
Man," which certainly put him out front in
terms of name recognition.
Thanks to the Wu's innovative contract -- which
allowed individual members to sign solo deals with
whatever label they chose -- Method Man inked a
contract with Def Jam, and in 1994, approximately
one year after.
Method Man began making numerous guest appearances
on other artists' records and in the summer of 1995,
his one-off single with Mary J. Blige, "I'll
Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By,"
soared into the pop Top Five, giving Meth his first
major mainstream exposure. Shortly thereafter, another
duet -- this time with Def Jam labelmate Redman
-- on the compilation track "How High"
climbed into the pop Top 20.
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