More than three years after the latest effort, Method Man releases what is regarded as the sixth studio album in his discography, sequel to "Meth Lab". The production is mainly done by Dame Grease in the first part and by Daez in the second part, as well as a dozen amateur beatmakers. Among the guests of the record, there are Raekwon, Cappadonna and Masta Killa of Wu-Tang Clan, affiliates Redman, Streetlife, Intell and Lounge Lo, and several Wu-external members, including Snoop Dogg, NORE, Heltah Skeltah, Sheek Louch and Hanz On, main guest of the album, as in the previous edition.
Intro that recalls the previous tape, then Wu-Tang cut with Raekwon: messy and heavy boom bap made by Dame Grease, looks like bad rap rock, Meth delivers decently, Hanz On's ridiculous hook, then, it closes Lex Diamonds, here cumbersome and slow. Not a good track. And there are two official Wu-Tang Clan rappers. Competent MCs. It's a clear symptom that the disc will not be better than the previous one. "Eastside" presents a production created by Hanz On and Patrice Newbold: boom bap with dry and slow drum, poor, oriental sample, poor sound. iNTeLL's infinite hook, then his verse, chanted, decent. Meth revives the piece with honest flow and competent lyrics, it closes Snoop Dogg, with his usual style. There are one of the best MCs ever on the East Coast and one of the best MCs ever on the West Coast. And an emerging hungry young MC: nonetheless, somehow the cut is totally forgettable. Second skit, then track number five: Method Man on his second solo choice in the last three years, spitting bars on a snare drum. Everyone's dream, but certainly not mine: the production of Dame Grease is generic and tasteless, cheap, disappointing.
Another skit, then comes "Drunk Tunes": the production is made, for the third time in four tracks, by Dame Grease, who provides a cheap musical carpet, with a messy and shoddy drum combined with annoying random samples. The end result is some generic and extravagant noise on which five different performers are present: intro and hook are interpreted by both a male voice, which I assume is of one between Mall G and Joe Young, and by the voice of Jessica Lee Lamberti. Then NORE, Method Man and Joe Young spit bars on getting drunk, smoking, dope, etc. Basically, it's an episode of NORE's "Drink Champs" podcast. Nobody impresses, Meth spits inspired and energetic, hardcore, but he doesn't save the cut from a truly horrible production. Young Joe delivers decent, hardcore, looking inspired in this choice that is supposed to be the easy banger of the edition. Jessica Lee Lamberti's rnb killer-hook definitely lifts the track. Third skit in five tracks, the guy went too far here. Even for a mixtape it doesn't make sense to put all these skits on: it feels like you're still on "Wu-Tang Chamber Music" ten years later and without RZA.
Out of nowhere, comes a fulminating highlights thanks to Redman, in "Wild Cats": tense boom bap produced by Adam Mcleer, with light-hearted drum and squeaky sample looped so tight it's annoying. Over this bad and inadequate soundscape, Method Man stabs the track by pulling out a tense, raw, rapid, and flowing stanza. Then comes Hanz On: I don't know what happened to him, but he sounds much better here than the rest of this record and the entire previous chapter. He spits bars with a raw, smooth, hardcore delivery style and his lyrics appear solid and thoughtful. Providential chorus performed by multiple people, because it'd have been much more evident that the next rapper wiped out everyone in this four-minute posse: Redman comes in and kills the cut with a velvet, crisp, clean, excellent, dope delivery despite the shoddy rhythm sound. Street Life offers an inspired verse, but the best is clearly Red here. After embracing what comes close to being the second Wu-track, the record inevitably collapses again.
Track number ten features a cheap and generic trap rhythm, performed by Nate Gold Did-It, there's a verse each for Spank and Meth. Ron Brown is the author of the following beat, a poor boom bap with poor drum and annoying sample, Johnny Blaze and Rock of Heltah Skeltah deliver a verse each, interspersed with a long hook by Kash Varrazano. "Back Blockz" is a posse track with Freak, Cardi Express, Youngin (performing the hook) and Method Man, in a sort of battle rap on a horrible trap production, created by Dame Grease, who in this tape continues to surprise in the negative. "Ronin's" is the latest Wu-Tang cut: Leonardo Como's scarce bouncy boom bap, decent sample, weak drum, Johnny Blaze's decent slow delivery, Don Cappachino storms the beat with his wacky syncopated style. He doesn't sound good or bad, it follows Masta Killa, devoid of personality, bland, decent. Hanz On closes the piece with an energetic and hardcore style, he seems better than at least the previous two. As the following piece approaches, I am trying to understand why this should be featured in the highlights, I don't think it's a good track and I don't think it stands out from the others, even though the performers are Wu-Tang.
Skit, then Method Man's last solo cut: two out of twenty-two songs. Rap rock production created by Daez, hardcore boom bap consisting of a very heavy guitar lick, dark, raw, rapid delivery of Method Man, which opens by saying "I'm underrated". Yeh. The beat is almost too heavy overpowering his delivery, mediocre mixing. The sixth skit inaugurates the final part of the disc. Daez and Alfredo Rivera produce "SI vs. Everybody", Staten Island vs Everybody: decent production, poor bouncy drum machine, mediocre sample, hardcore delivery by Apocalipps, then Iron Mike's hook, Johnny Blaze inspired verse, it closes the final Iron Mike hardcore verse. The title track is produced by Daez, at his third consecutive soundscape, which is also the last: decent boom bap, crazy and poor bouncy drum, decent sample, Method Man honest delivery, Hanz On runs average, LOX's Sheek Louch at the last verse with decent hardcore style.
Choice number nineteen is probably the one that disappoints the most, even more than "Kill Different": is the remix of "P.L.O.", a classic cut featured in Method Man's debut. For the remix, the rapper chooses to use a generic and weak beat trap made by Melks, and calls several affiliates of the Wu-Tang to rapping: Hanz On, Streetlife, Hue Hef and Lounge Lo. Ahahaha, I know, I know, these aren't the affiliates you expected, are they? Oh man, it doesn't matter, because they don't make the best Wu-Tang Clan performers regret. How nice it'd be if the previous sentence were even close to being true: getting serious, the cut is pretty bad. Battle rap in which perhaps Meth alone sounds good, but he arrives at the end of the piece, after several weak minutes, before Cappadonna's brother. Hanz On, Erick Coomes, Justin Truman and Tyler Coomes are all credited as producers of one of the worst rhythms of the edition, the very poor trap beat of "Killing the Game", track with Pretty Blanco. The latest choice of the edition is a posse with Hanz On, Streetlife on the hook and Apocalipps, in yet another battle rap over Chris Stylez's slow trap rhythm. Final outro announcing the imminent arrival of the third series.
Production is one of the great protagonists of this edition and completely suppresses the project. Dame Grease and Daez stand for the most time behind keyboards, with four and three rhythms, respectively. In addition to them, several amateur beatmakers show up: Adam Mcleer, Alfredo Rivera, Chris Stylez, Erick Coomes, Hanz On, Justin Truman, Leonardo Como, Melks, Nate Gold Did-It, Patrice Newbold, Ron Browz and Tyler Coomes. They disappoint everyone with a series of shoddy, mediocre and ridiculous productions. The music of this work doesn't take a clear direction: sometimes the rhythm falls on the boom bap, sometimes it recalls the sound of the trap, the only constants are the embarrassing and weak samples and the constantly absurd, too heavy and noisy drum machines. Compared to the last edition, Daez and Ron Browz are the only beatmakers to have been reconfirmed: here, as in the first chapter of the series, they deliver weak beats, however, the other producers are so scarce that the rhythms chosen by Daez sound like some of the best ones on the album. I don't remember a single rhythm that I liked. In 22 tracks. Of a Wu-Tang Clan album. Official studio album.
From the point of view of the lyrics, there's less material than what was extracted three years earlier: the effort revolves around "Breaking Bad", again, however, there are more references to the movie "Friday" than to the television series with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. The numerous performers play between the thug themes of a generic disc, violence, drugs, weapons, sex, all made secondary to braggadocio and representing Staten Island: numerous battle raps come out, so the rappers don't say anything for about an hour. Method Man manages to entertain the listener even in the worst moments and with the lowest rhythms of the record, thanks to an immortal flow and to somehow competent and decent lyrics, but the other guys aren't at this level, and the record ends up suffering a lot, more than in the past, torn apart by countless senseless skits that cover a third of the disc. It's a repeat of the same mixtape from three years earlier, with the same cover: change the color, still lively, and improve the "M" which is now understandable. Yes, maybe the cover is one of the few things that have improved since the debut.
It's marketed as an album, but it sounds just like another mixtape. Raekwon, Cappadonna and Masta Killa of Wu-Tang Clan participate, as well as affiliates Streetlife, Redman, Intell and Lounge Lo of Otherized FAM, however, for the second time in a row, Method Man offers a shiny showcase to friends, neighbors and relatives, and reserves a third of the project for himself: the other performers of this edition are Hanz On, Snoop Dogg, NORE, Joe Young, Mall G, Jessica Lee Lamberti, Spank, Kash Varrazano, Freak, Cardi Express, Youngin, Iron Mike, Sheek Louch, Hue Hef, Pretty Blanco and Apocalipps. The appearances of major guests Hanz On and Streetlife, are halved compared to "Meth Lab I", with six and three featuring respectively. Hanz On sounds more focused and better than usual, if I wake up well, I can think that here's even better than three years ago, while Streetlife adds little or nothing to the cuts, despite his performance being quite honest and decent.
You might expect professional rappers to keep afloat not say the album, but at least their own tracks, but no: both the Wu-external rappers Snoop, Noreaga, Rock and Sheek Louch, and the Wu-internal rappers Raekwon, Cappadonna and Masta Killa, sound uninspired, unconvinced, without desire and without energy, completely without confidence. Raekwon is cumbersome, it's like listening to Kool G Rap flowing in a cumbersome way, it's not something normal and pleasant. Cappa and Masta Killa seem to have almost been forced to spit out their own stanzas and so did the others. Intell should eat his cut with a hardcore performance, instead he prefers a smooth chanting style, similar to his father's in the mid-nineties: he's not evil, probably the beat doesn't reward his choice enough. Finally, Redman: best lyrics and performance in all of "Meth Lab II", but again, the soundscape chosen by the guys behind the keyboards is so obscene that it makes me think whether to place his track in the highlights of the record, which should be automatic. Yes, I don't think I'll put any highlights. There are no highlights here. There's that Redman verse, then it's emptiness. Meth sounds good in his second solo cut, "Two More Mins" (the other, "Grand Prix", leaves a lot to be desired), but something doesn't completely convince me, in any case, it should be the best and most accessible listening of this tape.
Distributed by Hanz On, unlike the previous one, this album achieves a limited commercial success, finishing far from the charts even among the independent releases (top 20). It's not even a flop record, it's a... something. Something wrong. While the lyricism is more or less the same as the previous tape, the production is markedly worse, and the D-series trap rhythms are hard to comment positively on. The sequel to one of his worst works is his worst album to date, on a par with the lower end of U-God and Cappadonna discographies: Method Man's catalog has never been great or shoddy, and his collaborative album with Raekwon & Ghostface in 2010 had solidified his discography to a decent level similar to Masta Killa's. With releases like this, the MC seriously risks undermining his legacy.
Rating: 3.2/10.
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