The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #12

 

The final gift of The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 is the following write-up, which is for a relatively recent Wu-related project that would up sounding much better than it had any right to, especially in 2022. I remember sitting in a hotel room in Chicago jotting down my notes this past summer (my wife was attending a conference and I was taking advantage of some of that rare “quiet time” that never seems to occur on my vacations), and I found myself enjoying this project so much that I was tempted to break my own self-imposed rule and run the review right then and there. Obviously I got over that sentiment pretty quickly, but that just means I had something I couldn’t wait to share with you two over this holiday season. Enjoy!

My Gut Reaction: Method Man - Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab (May 5, 2022) 

The Meth Lab, a series of projects released by Clifford “Method Man” Smith, has fascinated me for several years now, but likely not for the reasons anyone’s hoping for. Since the first volume, 2015’s simply-titled The Meth Lab, broke the man’s nearly decade-long hiatus from solo efforts, the man who also refers to himself as Johnny Blaze has made it abundantly clear that, while he still lives and breathes hip hop, his actual life, which is busier than ever thanks to Hollywood, is something he finds much more fulfilling at the moment, so he’s come across as a late addition to his own projects. The first time around it didn’t really matter, since The Meth Lab was marketed as an excuse for our host to round up a bunch of unknown artists from the Staten Island underground and give them each a shot at fame, while plugging what gaps that remained with some of his more famous friends.

2018’s follow-up, Meth Lab Season 2: The Lithium, largely abandoned that concept but kept the guest list lengthy, with Clifford calling in favors from a bunch of his boys instead, ensuring that nearly every track was a posse cut where he didn’t have to carry the full weight of the song on his shoulder. The subject of today’s post, Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab, splits the difference, chopping the number of guests in half while calling on lesser-known Wu-Tang affiliates to fill the various roles of “up-and-comer”. What all three entries have in common, however, is Method Man appears on each song, even though he’s sharing the stage almost every single time. Given the fact that the man is deadly with a cameo, especially over the past few years as he’s seemingly honed his craft into the sharpest tool known to mankind, it’s interesting to me that he consistently chooses to not be the main focus on tracks, not even those attributed to him as the star attraction. It seems that the man has never truly gotten over the attention he received early in his career as the Wu-Tang Clan’s Grammy-winning breakout star.

Like the other two entries, Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab, technically our host’s seventh full-length album, was released through Meth’s friend Hanz On’s imprint, Hanz On Entertainment, a turn of events I couldn’t have predicted back when Hanz was merely a part of Raekwon’s Ice Water crew. Unlike the previous albums, Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab only consists of twelve tracks, eschewing any and all skits and interludes in favor of a much tighter package overall. Meth kindly offers a platform to both U-God’s son iNTeLL and his own kin, PXWER, helping to lend credence to the 2nd Generation Wu movement (that group is comprised of the sons of many Clan members, if you weren’t aware), while the usual suspects such as Cappadonna, Carlton Fisk, and Hanz On make requisite appearances (although there is one prominent name missing from the proceedings, which concerns me a great deal – we’ll get to that, though, don’t worry). As for artists outside of the camp, of course Meth convinces Reggie Noble to contribute (although Redman’s quasi-membership in the Wu means he doesn’t really count in this category), while newcomer RJ Payne, rap veteran Jadakiss, and hip hop god KRS-One help fill out the ranks. Production is handled by a mostly unknown beatmakers, specifically one guy whose name you’ll see a lot below, and then also Erick Sermon and Rockwilder, both names that you’d think would belong on a Redman project before a Method Man one, but this is the world we live in.

1. STOP CRYING (FEAT. CAPPADONNA & ELAINE KRISTA)
Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab appears to have abandoned the narrative structure that was prevalent throughout the previous two entries in the series, which is why it isn’t as overstuffed as those projects were. This could be a good sign, you two. The album opener “Stop Crying” also wasn’t a bad way to kick things off: producer Pascale Zumaque supplies an instrumental that feels very low-key, allowing Method Man and guest rapper Cappadonna not just room to breathe, but adequate space for their bars to land, and as a result both performances are solid. “Still spending g’s from The Wire, boy,” Meth offers during his verse, during which he sounds as good as ever, his flow having evolved from exciting to stale to refreshing throughout his career without ever really changing. He remains the Wu-Tang Clan’s secret weapon, but Cappa isn’t slouching on “Stop Crying”, reciting his boasts and threats in a serious voice with an eye for detail. The only note that rings false here is guest crooner Elaine Krista, whose hook sounds fairly flat, but her contribution still wasn’t bad enough to negate the track as a whole. Not bad, guys.

2. BUTTERFLY EFFECT (FEAT. RJ PAYNE)
Always the Wu-Tang Clan member known for playing well with others, “others” in this instance being artists outside of the group’s vast orbit, Method Man teams up with battle rap sensation RJ Payne for “Butterfly Effect”, using an engaging Zumaque beat to his advantage. Our host’s delivery is confident, assured, and comes with a hint of menace on the side, which is commendable for a dude who’s been doing this shit professionally for at least thirty years at this point. (And I’m not just saying that because he refers to himself as a “menace” during the unnecessary hook, either.) Payne’s vocals sound as though they were recorded by a different engineer in another universe, as his higher pitch lords above the instrumental whereas Method Man’s feels right in the pocket, but his contribution is more entertaining than distracting. “Every bar’s fucking majestic,” RJ Payne clarifies, and while he isn’t technically correct (there’s a play on Method Man’s real name here that sounds extremely fanboy-ish), he’s on the right track. Enjoyed this one quite a bit.

3. BLACK OPS (FEAT. HANZ ON)
The first outright weak effort of the evening is “Black Ops”, a two-hander featuring Method Man and his generous benefactor, Hanz On. Taking place over a low-energy Zumaque instrumental that aims for grimy but is forced to accept that it’s just bland and its life is meaningless, Meth and his invited guest-slash-label boss each unleash twenty bars of boasts and threats, neither man willing to admit that this exercise in futility just wasn’t worth it to begin with. Hanz On turns in a performance with weird dad jokes and insinuations of violent acts that fail to connect with the listener, while our host recites a horrible video game reference as the “hook”, a chorus that is not salvaged by an out-of-left-field reference to the X-Clan. Fuck this song.

4. GUILLOTINE
The name Rockwilder isn’t one you expect to see pop up on a rap album in 2022, but here he is on Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab, lacing Method Man with the solo effort “Guillotine”. To his credit, the instrumental sounds absolutely nothing like his stuttering synth club bangers of the early part of the millennium. However, what it does sound like is a slightly indecipherable wall of noise, one which particularly works as our host tears through two meaty verses as though he hadn’t eaten in fucking months. “Guillotine”, a word never mentioned during the track itself even though it could have been cool, is comprised simply of boasts-n-bullshit from Clifford Smith, who spits as though he still has something to prove even though everybody already knows what he’s capable of. He’s fucking good here, though, elevating the music as opposed to the other way around. Give this one a spin as soon as possible, you two.

5. LIVE FROM THE METH LAB (FEAT. JOJO PELLEGRINO, REDMAN, & KRS-ONE)
The second track I saw released from Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab is “Live From the Meth Lab”, a posse cut that will almost certainly pique your interest thanks to the artists involved. Producer Adam McLeer provides an instrumental that samples from Boogie Down Productions’ “I‘m Still #1”, a road guest star Reggie Noble had already traveled on his own KRS-One homage from the Def Jam’s How to Be a Player soundtrack, but this is Method Man’s song, not Redman’s, so it’s fine. The beat is fine, energetic enough to coerce good performances out of the participants while never overshadowing anybody. Method Man, Redman, and super special guest KRS-One himself all deliver pummeling verses in an effort to outdo each other, with the Blastmaster managing to land the most punches by way of owning the final verse. Redman is, oddly, not great on “Live From the Meth Lab”, but he’s still entertaining enough to listen to, but both Meth and KRS kill it. (Method Man: “Pay me the homage these rappers couldn’t afford” – that’s a pretty good opening line.) The weakest link here is rapper JoJo Pellegrino, who only laces the hook, and yet said hook is corny as shit, shoehorning in the title of the album series for no apparent reason, because it doesn’t even manage to work within the context of a sentence. Ugh. Thankfully, his appearances are relatively brief.

6. SWITCH SIDES (FEAT. PXWER, EDDY I, & JADAKISS)
The only reason the hook exists on “Switch Sides” appears to be so that there was an opportunity for guest Eddy I to actively recite the phrase, because that chorus is fucking useless otherwise, as Eddy I is nowhere near the level of the actual participants on the song, at least not as exhibited on here. Otherwise, “Switch Sides” is another posse cut that is flames, Zumaque’s loop contributing nicely to a cypher-type environment where our host and his guest Jadakiss (of The Lox, but you knew that already) deliver stellar bars. (Meth’s son PXWER, who opens the track, is no slouch behind the microphone either, providing a fantastic verse, but if we’re being honest, all you two are going to remember from this one are Meth and Kiss.) Jada flows in the same way as he did post-Verzuz, talking mad shit in a guttural growl (“I do what I want, you do what they allow you”), while Method Man sounds like he’s fucking starving, an odd description considering that most parents’ natural instinct would be to let their son or daughter shine instead, but still accurate nonetheless, all of the scenery chewed up in his wake. Of course, all you two will care about here is how Johnny Blaze refers to the combination of himself and Jadakiss as “Wu-Block”, planting the seed into rap nerds’ brains, and I’ll admit I’d welcome such a project even though it will never actually happen. We’ll always have “Switch Sides”, though.

7. ACT UP (FEAT. PXWER)
If we’re never getting an Erick Sermon / Redman full-length collaboration again, which all signs seem to point to “correct” (not because of any animosity from either party, unless I’m just out of the loop, but because Reggie’s simply moved on at this point), the next best thing would be for the Green-Eyed Bandit to team up with Method Man, as he does here for “Act Up”. With Sermon behind the boards and his son PXWER returning to spit a hook, our host unloads two verses filled with boasts, bullshit, and dad jokes (“In hindsight, I made loud records for Def Jam”), and he sounds good, if a tad bit weary without anybody around to challenge him. Sermon’s instrumental isn’t the greatest, but I found it to be an entertaining loop, and our host sounded pretty good over it, which is all one can ask for these days. It is a little weird that Meth would force his son into the thankless role of “hook duties” when the man just spit a solid verse on the previous track, but I have to assume our host (or, more accurately, Hanz On) had a vision he was reaching for, if such a thing could even be said about a project such as this. Anyway, “Act Up” was fine, if not perfect, and that’s okay! Not all art is required to be flawless.

8. TRAINING DAY (FEAT. CORTEZ)
During Meth’s current run as the Wu-Tang Clan’s secret cameo weapon, his bars typically come across as effortless, the man himself boasting and bullshitting with a sarcastic mouth and a healthy dose of elitism, traits the man has certainly earned by this point. One thing you usually don’t hear from him, however, is aggression. Method Man’s hardly ever hyper-aggressive behind the microphone. Well, whether it’s due to a decrease in weed intake coupled with an increase of time spent in the gym or something else entirely, “Training Day” presents just that: an antagonistic Clifford Smith that sounds like he wants to beat your ass with his lyrics. He still comes across as affable enough over the instrumental, but there’s some frustration found here, and it’s still oddly fascinating. Rapper Cortez provides the chorus, which was unnecessary although it was nice that our host was still willing to offer spits to lesser-known artists, you know, like the Meth Lab series was supposed to do in the first place. Not exactly the Method Man we all know and love, but “Training Day” was still alright.

9. KING OF NEW YORK (FEAT. CARLTON FISK & CHUCK BIZZA)
That Hulked-out Clifford Smith from the previous track appears here as well, which only makes sense, because whenever an artist claims to be the “King of New York”, they’re never trying to sound like a benevolent ruler. “These rappers choke under pressure, so I’m applying more,” Meth threatens over this Zumaque production, which was decent, if not exactly memorable. The fact that Carlton Fisk guests on “King of New York”, while nostalgic in its way, underlines the fact that there was apparently no room for Streetlife on Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab, which could be seen as a troublesome development for his planned joint project with our host that was announced several years back, but who knows, maybe it means absolutely nothing. Fisk sounded okay here, his distinctive voice triggering flashbacks to Tical, while Chuck Bizza also makes an appearance, which makes for two cameos too many on a song where our host is proclaiming hip hop dominance, one that should have thematically been a solo effort, but alas.

10. FIND GOD (FEAT. INTELL & IRON MIC)
An interesting exercise, although it feels a bit too long in my opinion. “Find God”, er, finds our host talking his shit, claiming his favorite emcee in the Wu is U-God possibly because his son iNTeLL appears on the track, or because he wanted to rile up the fanbase (I’m joking. I know the two were best friends from way back. Baby Uey is just a fun target to hit), and he sounded fine, but he gets quickly overshadowed by two things:

1) the Adam Mcleer instrumental, which utilizes the same drums as Cypress Hill’s “How I Could Just Kill a Man,” which is an awfully distracting choice overall, and

2) guest rapper Iron Mic, who receives a grand entrance even though his third verse comes after he had already appeared on the track during the chorus, and he raps his ass off.

He never quite outdoes our host, but he still turns in a commendable performance, as was iNTeLL’s second stanza, which flies by. As a showcase for lesser-known Wu-Tang affiliates (Iron Mic having previously been a part of the group Ruthless Bastards), it was pretty interesting, although you won’t be shocked to learn that Wu stans will clearly get a lot more out of this one.

11. THE LAST 2 MINUTES (FEAT. IRON MIC)
Ostensibly the final entry in a series that includes “2 Minutes of Your Time” and “Two More Mins” (taken from the previous Meth Lab projects), “The Last 2 Minutes”, the first track I remember seeing pushed for the project, is a Method Man solo effort (apart from Iron Mic’s assist during the brief hook and outro) where he unleashes hell for two verses (or two minutes, I suppose), and while he’s just talking shit instead of giving the listener anything resembling substance or structure (I mean, he says his rhymes are “harder than rappers trying to fit in them tight jeans,” which is definitely something someone in their 50s would say), he sounds comfortable and secure, released from the pressure of having to prove anything to anybody. Not bad in the least. The worst I can say about this is that I wish it had lasted longer than the duration parameters set by the song title, but then again, if he makes a fourth Meth Lab album he isn’t not going to throw one of these on that bitch, so.

12. K.A.S.E. (FEAT. CARLTON FISK & HANZ ON)
Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab ends with a duet between Method Man and Carlton Fisk, with Hanz On serving up a chorus, an off show of restraint for an artist-slash-label owner who was all over the previous entries in this album series. Justin Trugman’s instrumental rides around with a prominent breakbeat that rappers can’t help but sound great over, and neither Meth nor “Carlo” (as our host keeps referring to him for some reason – is this new? Feels like I’ve never heard that nickname for Fisk before today) are exceptions to that rule. Fisk, in particular, steals the show on “K.A.S.E.” (an acronym that is hilariously never explained), delivering a performance that is both compelling and nostalgic, calling back to the Tical days when these guys were running off of hunger and pure spite. Not exactly the most obvious way to end an album, as there is most obvious way to end an album, as there is zero sense of closure here, but a solid goddamned track regardless.

THE LAST WORD: This may just be a textbook example of recency bias, but Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab is the best in the series for me. It’s just so much more concise and tight, what with Method Man eliminating any skits and/or semblance of a loose narrative, and the end result just flows so much better than the two previous entries. Don’t get me wrong, those overstuffed volumes each had some heat to them, although apart from the first entry’s “Another Winter”, I can’t name any of the more entertaining songs, and even that one is more because I put it on one of the holiday Wu-Mixes recently, but it also feels like Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab just has more interesting, entertaining songs going for it. I’m not certain if this was supposed to indicate the end of this flight of fancy for Clifford Smith, but if this winds up being the finale, Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab goes out with a bang.

What helps tremendously is that Meth opted not to rely on relative unknowns for this volume. Nothing against compilations featuring underground artists receiving their introduction into the mainstream, but with an artist as established as Method Man, especially since he’s gone out of his way to destroy any cameo handed to him over the past decade or so, you really just want to hear the man go off without distraction. He’s obviously not alone in this endeavor, but at least the guests he invited serve as either A-list treats for the older heads in the audience or Wu-tinted easter eggs for the stans, absolutely none of whom manage to outrap their host, as it should be. Method Man is the star of this show, and he proves it time and again on tracks such as “The Last Two Minutes”, “Guillotine”, or “Switch Sides”.

On the production side of things, while Pascale Zumaque, who handles the bulk of the equation, isn’t bad at what he does, his typically dependable, if forgettable, beats quickly overshadowed by those from the likes of Erick Sermon and Rockwilder. I get that Method Man likely didn’t have a ton of money in his budget to throw at producers, given that Hanz On Entertainment is an independent label, but while I’m not expecting to ever see The RZA behind the boards for any Wu-member’s effort ever again (I mean, I’m sure it’ll happen, but it isn’t something that I’m waiting around for anymore, a sad development for this Wu stan but a realistic one), but there are a metric ton of beatmakers in our chosen genre that would likely kill off their entire bloodlines for the opportunity to bless Johnny Blaze with a beat or two, and perhaps it’s time for our host to take them up on their respective offerings. If Method Man manages to sound this good over beats from unknown producers, it should follow that he’d sound even better if the instrumentals were a higher caliber, no? 

Anyway, Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab is worthy of a spin, much more so than either of its previous volumes. It isn’t the most memorable of rap albums and you likely won’t play it to death as 2023 marches along, but you’ll enjoy it for what it is, and that’s enough for now.

-Max

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