Method Man returns to release a studio album four years after the last time, releasing the third installment of the "Meth Lab" series that began in 2015. Pascal Zumaque produces half the album and handles the mixing, other beats are provided by Rockwilder, Adam Mcleer, Erick Sermon, Darnell Normn, Daniel C. Wells, Joshua D. Zimmerman and Justin Trugman. Guests include Cappadonna of Wu-Tang Clan, Elaine Krista, RJ Payne, KRS-One, Redman, Eddie I, Jadakiss, Cortez, Chunk Bizza, and Wu-Tang affiliates JoJo Pellegrino, Hanz On, Iron Mic of Staten Stars, Carlton Fisk of House Gang, Intell & 5th PXWER of 2nd Generation Wu.
The album opens with "Stop Crying", Pascal Zumaque invents a good bouncy and melodic beat, with an honest sample where Method Man and Cappadonna let loose with random bars. Elaine Krista sings the hook, sweetening the track. Don Cappachino sweeps the beat away in the second verse and he sounds like one of the best performers on this album, incredibly: he's one of the guys who has improved the most in Wu-Tang over the last few years. "Butterfly Effect" is not bad, at the expense of a rhythm that moves forward but isn't telling me anything, it's decent, passable, forgettable, inoffensive: Zumaque remains behind the keyboards and he lays down another melodic bouncing boom bap on which Method Man delivers worthily, just before RJ Payne tears up the cut with a delivery style that doesn't fit the beat as well as Johnny Blaze's smooth style. The beatmaker Pascal Zumaque signs the third rhythm in the first three songs, and also for "Black Ops" we have a boom bap that bounces with a dry drum, violins as a background and a good rapping delivery by Meth together with his protégé Hanz On, already co-protagonist in the entire "Meth Lab" saga, being featured on 16 of the 33 tracks (not counting skits) offered in the two previous chapters of the series.
"Guillotine" is crossed by deep guitar licks inserted by Rockwilder for Method Man's only solo on this project and one of the few in the entire series, perhaps the fourth. The beat is decent and could be better. Adam Mcleer scribbles the beat of "Live from the Meth Lab", a mess that sounds all too similar to Rockwilder's previous rhythm, with the difference that this one is even less accessible than the previous one, due to a loud drum and electric guitar licks that are too distant to be punchy and far enough away to be annoying. The track already seems to have gotten lost due to a messy beat, chaotic and grumpy, but the skill of the performers manages to bring the tune to the bottom: Method Man puts the beat back on track, Redman annihilates it with solid rapping, KRS-One destroys the beat with a hardcore delivery.
Pascal Zumaque hasn't really done well so far for a Method Man album, but here he loses his bearings and creates a bad rhythm: his solution is simple and minimal, there's a hint of soul sample that gets lost within the beat itself, the drum is hard and thick, plastered, the rhythm is cumbersome. Method Man's son and 2nd Generation member Wu 5th PXWER opens the cut with a nice regular flow, then Eddie I's honeyed hook comes to slow down the song. Jada drops light-hearted and effortless bars in a phoned contribution, closes Tical with a good flow on a bad production. "Act Up" has production by Erick Sermon that sounds like a watered-down Neptunes beat, while Method Man has fun dropping a couple of verses and 5th PXWER performs the hook. Meth brings a sing-along style to "Training Day", over a haunting production by Darnell Norman & Daniel C. Wells: the beat is weak, it could work if it were a one or two minute song, but at three it starts to get tiring, despite Blaze's rapping and guest Cortez's hook.
"King of New York" is a collaborative choice made together with Chunk Bizza, who spits the second verse, and Carlton Fisk, underrated rapper among Killa Beez who for some reason doesn't even get a verse here. Zumaque's production is questionable, the drums don't beat, the music is disturbing and it's too weak to support the rap of the performers. "Find God" returns to embrace rap rock with strong production made by Adam Mcleer, good beat, Method Man inside, U-God's son and 2nd Generation Wu member Intell, and finally Iron Mic on the final verse. Ticallion and Intell deliver bars with a commendable and different style from each other, Iron Mic sounds like a sort of middle ground between the other two and his style isn't totally suited to the rocking mood of the beat, making the vibes of the track fade. In this song, Method Man states that U-God is his favorite member — Meth brought him guest once (granting him seven bars) in ten albums released at the time of this writing.
Iron Mic also remains a guest on the following track, "Last 2 Minutes", on a haunting, bouncing production conceived by Joshua D. Zimmerman and Daniel C. Wells: Method Man embiggens the cut with a sensational flow, Iron Mic performs the hook, Johnny Blaze completes the album's banger on one of the project's few successful productions. Carlton Fisk gets his time to shine in "K.A.S.E.", on a dark production where the drum leads the way for Fisk, who drops bars with good delivery along with Meth on a good beat by Justin Trugman in the heaviest song on the album.
The album is sadly ignored by mainstream critics and even fans. The third installment of the "Meth Lab" series is also the best: Method Man learns from the mistakes of previous records and comes out with 12 tracks instead of the 22 of the previous episode and also cuts the running time to just over half an hour, improving its tape in all fields compared to the previous two efforts, while following in their own footsteps. The rap is more focused, the beats are better, there are no skits and the tape is funnier, even if we are faced with another collection of random tracks.
It's still not a good album, unfortunately: Meth is getting busy here and he has good rapping that isn't rewarded by beats that are generic most of the time, as well as guests who add little or nothing to the tape, except the good Carlton Fisk, the only rapper from the Wu-Tang Clan present Cappadonna (honour to him) and the boys in "Live from the Meth Lab". Little stands out and the tape has virtually no replay value, except for the only discrete tracks that emerge with difficulty: "Stop Crying", "Butterfly Effect", "Last 2 Minutes" and "K.A.S.E.".
Rating: 5/10.
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