In this episode of People’s Party, Talib Kweli and Jasmin Leigh sit down with rapper, actor, producer, founding member of legendary super-group Wu-Tang Clan, and one of the most recognizable figures in hip-hop — Method Man.
When we have an industry giant like Mr. Mef bless us with an interview we almost always get more than we could’ve asked for. All the Wu-Heads surely won’t be disappointed as we get rich insight and great backstories about a man and his group that forever changed the hip-hop landscape. Topics include where Meth gets his incredible drive from being such a prolific artist. They also go on to discuss his love of Marvel and his dream of landing a role as a superhero someday, when he became a fitness buff, his competitive nature as an emcee, they dig deep into how the Wu-Tang classic ‘M.E.T.H.O.D. Man’ song came to fruition, Meth reflects on the historic rivalry of the Park Hill and Stapleton neighborhoods as depicted in the ‘Wu-Tang: An American Saga.’, tells how he feels about Dave East’s portrayal of him in the series, goes into playing Lacrosse in high school and meeting racism while on the road, the lack of black history in school books, Meth being inspired by the youth of today, the trio discusses alternate strategies of pushing social movements forward, speaking the hard truths of racism to children early-on, and the need for black unity.
Next, the conversation moves back to Wu-Tang and the enormous success of the members branching out as solo artists. Meth depicts how he landed his deal on Def Jam, with a helping hand of Fredro Starr from the group Onyx, and also outlines the intent behind the concept for his hood-love classic ‘All I Need’. Meth also reflects on what it was like seeing a young Biggie Smalls perform ‘Party & Bullshit’ in the early days full of hunger before he hit fame, he talks about sneaking out to collaborate on ‘The What’ which would become one of the highlights on BIG’s iconic album ‘Ready To Die’. Meth also gets into some real detail about what led to him linking up with Tupac to collaborate on ‘Got My Mind Made Up’ appearing on the album ‘All Eyez On Me’. All this occurring during the height of the East/West beef media hype. The trio goes on to discuss Meth’s most underrated collabs, recent releases on Meth’s radar, and he expresses how he feels about potentially working with some of the youngsters in the game.
Later Meth speaks on the Trump presidency and how he’s handling the social unrest. Meth is also asked about how the Method Man & Redman dynamic duo manifested following their first collab with 1995’s “How High”. He talks about how the friendship formed and how naturally funny Red is. Meth also digs into his experiences as an actor working in the movie ‘Belly’, the hit series ‘The Wire’, and touches on what it was like filming the comedy ‘How High’ while high. Meth also tells us who his favorite female emcee is in the game right now, describes what it was like being on the road with Redman, Jay-Z, and DMX during the Hard Knock Tour of ’99, Meth is asked about the responsibility of celebs speaking out regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, people trolling celebs and shaming them for not doing more, and the hypocrisy of the police with snitching. The interview concludes with Meth revealing what he has in-store for us musically, and gives a shout-out of encouragement to all the female emcees in the game.