AllHipHop.com: Ghostface has a new album out,
and so does Masta Killa, but not everybody from Wu Tang putting out solo albums
is going to match the success that you’re having. At what point do you ever
feel like you need to reach back to help, or do you?
Method Man: They don’t need help, cuz it’s like
yo, whenever they call for the next Wu Tang album I’ll be there. My brothers
don’t need help – grown men do grown things. You gotta be a man and stand on
your own two feet. You don’t wanna f**kin’ carry nobody, cuz he’s useless to
you, you know? He’s gonna get used to getting carried all the f**kin’ time and
he won’t do nothing for himself. That was RZA’s plan for us in the first f**kin’
place – that’s why we got the deals that we got. It’s like ‘Now you got your
solo s**t, now hopefully you don’t always gotta come to me for beats. Go out
here and explore’. That’s all I did was grow as an artist, and I think I should
have been judged on my merits as far as growing as an artist. [Critics] should
have compared each album to each album and judge me on that, instead of thinking
‘he hasn’t done this in five years, and we’re gonna tear him apart – we’re gonna
listen extra careful. I don’t give a f**k if it is bangin, I’m gonna say it
ain’t.’ That type of s**t.
AllHipHop.com: So it comes down to be unfairly
criticized?
Method Man: Unfairly criticized, exactly. I’m
gonna say names anyway. I like Lil Flip. I like that song he got out. Lil Flip
got four mics in The Source. Listen to his whole album, then listen to my s**t,
and then tell me where the problem is occurring at. It’s because I’ve been in
the game ten years, and they feel like ‘okay, we know this [guy]’ – no. I said
that on my first f**kin’ album. You don’t know me, you don’t know my muthaf**kin
style, so don’t ever act like you’ll get familiar enough with me to know exactly
what I’m supposed to say out my mouth, or what beats I’m supposed to pick. Get
the f**k outta here.
Q: How would you define yourself? What is the
path that you’re making?
Method Man: I just do me. I’ll give you an example.
When I read the first bad review I almost cried, and I haven’t cried since I
was 11-years-old – because I knew I was unfairly judged. Anytime you start a
g###### music review off with ‘The Right Guard pitchman’ or ‘Ever since he seen
the glitz of Hollywood’ and all that s**t – you’re hating off top and you killed
your credibility with me.
Q: Do you blame any of it on the record company
or promotions?
Method Man: You can’t blame the record company
because the record company is the people that brought you to the light in the
first f**kin’ place. It’s what you do with it when you get there.
Q: How about the marketing?
Method Man: The marketing could be blamed…
you have a lot of times, even in Def Jam, you walk up to Def Jam in certain
peoples’ cubicles who work at the label, and they’ll have their favorite artists
pinned up there. It’s like they’ll work [that artist’s] s**t even harder than
they would yours, and I think it should all be fair. It’s a job, you do your
f**kin’ job. It doesn’t matter how you feel about the artist. When me and Doc
was on the Hard Knock Life tour, the publicist that was there, our Def Jam publicist,
would come with different interview people and walk right by our dressing room
for the Jay-Z’s and DMX’s, and I ain’t knockin’ [the artists] – go ahead, do
that thang, but we’re here and we got something to say too. When I made a complaint
about that, it just spread through the whole office – okay, now I’m the bad
guy, now nobody really wanna f**k with Meth on the road. I go out by my f**kin’
self – it’s all gravy though, because I’m here.
Q: Wu Tang is going to be performing together
in Los Angeles. Are you going to join them? How is that going to feel?
Method Man: Yeah. If I’m out there, yeah. I don’t
know how it’s gonna feel for them, but for me it’s gonna be alright. I got off
tour right before we started doing the sitcom, so I’m ready.
Q: With all of you together, do you think you’re
going to have that same old feeling?
Method Man: I hope not, because I don’t know
if you’ve ever been to a Wu Tang show, but it’s little chaotic. It’s hard to
tell who’s rhyming sometimes. Our last tour was a whole different angle, and
everybody came out and did their own set and then we all came together. If it’s
like that it’s going to be a beautiful thing.
AllHipHop.com: Do you feel like you’re a lot
more focused these days?
Method Man: That’s so cliché and s**t,
but you know what? That’s exactly what it is. I’m perfect 20/20 vision right
now.
Q: Have you learned anything?
Method Man: Well, obviously I have – I got my
own TV show that I’m executive producing, and as far as my albums go, yeah –
I learned a whole hell of a lot man. I got a crash course in ‘they don’t think
you’re hot no more’.
AllHipHop.com: We heard that you fired the director
from your show because you didn’t like the direction they were trying to take
it.
Method Man: I didn’t fire him, the studio did,
because they saw the vision. They knew when they signed me and Redman on to
those thirteen episodes, this was before they even seen an episode, they knew
what they wanted to see, and the director didn’t bring it that way. He thought
that it was supposed to be happy-go-lucky, smiley face, jumpin’ around and cheesin’
all f**kin’ day, and that’s not why the studio wanted Redman and Method Man
– they wanted the How High Method Man and Redman.
AllHipHop.com: What do you have coming up movie-wise?
Method Man: Right now, nothing. The sitcom has
been taking up all my time, but with the next movie I do, hopefully it’ll be
a drama and somebody will give me a shot.
Q: Are you getting a lot of scripts?
Method Man: I was, but everybody knows that I’m
on hiatus for the show so I’m not getting too many. My agents nipped that in
the bud early, but John Singleton needs to holla at me, Spike Lee needs to holla
– I done ran into all of these individuals once, twice, three times, and they
got love for the kid but they’ve never asked me to be in any of their s**t.
I think they should holla at me, but don’t holla at me too late cuz I’m gonna
be too hot for ya and you won’t be able to get me. [smiles]
Q: What do you want your fans to know about you?
Method Man: That either they can ride with me
or kiss my muthaf**kin’ ass. The Hip-Hop audience is fickle as f**k. It’s like
whatever is cool at that moment – there’s ten people in a circle and the two
coolest dudes say it’s cool, all the other eight gonna follow it.
Q: That wasn’t always the case.
Method Man: Naw, it wasn’t always the case. That’s
why I give a lot of credit to backpackers or so called backpack or underground
listeners. They’re really into the movement of Hip-Hop, not just the music,
the movement. That’s why when you ask the question ‘Is it industrialized now’
– it has to be. People gotta eat.
AllHipHop.com: What do you want your fans to
know about your new album?
Method Man: I want them to keep an open mind
and judge me on my past accomplishments compared to this one, and see that I’ve
grown.