Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

Consumer Guide:
  User's Guide
  Grades 1990-
  Grades 1969-89
  And It Don't Stop
Books:
  Book Reports
  Is It Still Good to Ya?
  Going Into the City
  Consumer Guide: 90s
  Grown Up All Wrong
  Consumer Guide: 80s
  Consumer Guide: 70s
  Any Old Way You Choose It
  Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough
Xgau Sez
Writings:
  And It Don't Stop
  CG Columns
  Rock&Roll& [new]
  Rock&Roll& [old]
  Music Essays
  Music Reviews
  Book Reviews
  NAJP Blog
  Playboy
  Blender
  Rolling Stone
  Billboard
  Video Reviews
  Pazz & Jop
  Recyclables
  Newsprint
  Lists
  Miscellany
Bibliography
NPR
Web Site:
  Home
  Site Map
  Contact
  What's New?
    RSS
Carola Dibbell:
  Carola's Website
  Archive
CG Search:
Google Search:
Twitter:

Method Man/Redman [extended]

  • Whut? Thee Album [RAL/Chaos/Columbia, 1992] Neither
  • Tical [Def Jam, 1994] *
  • Doc's Da Name 2000 [Def Jam, 1998] A-
  • Tical 2000: Judgement Day [Def Jam, 1998] Choice Cuts
  • Blackout! [Def Jam, 1999] ***
  • Malpractice [Def Jam, 2001] Dud

See Also:

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Redman: Whut? Thee Album [RAL/Chaos/Columbia, 1992] Neither

Method Man: Tical [Def Jam, 1994]
I dunno--maybe he's a great rapper because he doesn't distract from the beats ("Bring the Pain," "All I Need") *

Redman: Doc's Da Name 2000 [Def Jam, 1998]
Redman's brand of weed-fueled raunch-ruckus has never been as wild or ecstatic as Busta Rhymes's or Ol' Dirty Bastard's, but here he fuses their comic high spirits with his own trademark grit into ground-level, politically incorrect satire full of loud farts, stinkin' asses, and no-account thugs making monkey noises. In a genre where nobody wants to be a role model and everybody is, Redman cuts fresh cheese: "I'm a everyday nigga like a Toyota/The A&R hope we don't drop the same coda." People have jobs on this record--"whether it's fast food, or transportation, sneaker store, doin' hair, or straight-up strippin', we gotta get the cash"--and that includes a "round-the-clock lyricist" who claims to sleep in his workboots. Not everybody can go to work, though. So give the last word to babymama militant Liquidacia, whose demands include 40 cans of Enfamil a month and no reporting babydaddies to welfare: "We must stick together in order to survive in a world of bourgie hos." A-

Method Man: Tical 2000: Judgement Day [Def Jam, 1998]
"Suspect Chin Music"; "Sweet Love"; "You Play Too Much" Choice Cuts

Blackout! [Def Jam, 1999]
"Turn the rap game into WCW" ("Blackout," "Run 4 Cover") ***

Redman: Malpractice [Def Jam, 2001] Dud