Method Man did a two part interview with XXL Mag. It is an interesting read. Method Man will return to HBO's The Wire this season. Also he looks good for the age of 35. Do it Method Man. Meth has been in the news as of late with Wendy Williams dealing with his wife and her illness.
Interview One
With Southern rap being so dominant, do you feel like you’re still relevant to today’s audience?
Method Man: Everybody has that little fear, but I’m an OG. I hate to say it. [Laughs]. I been in the game a long-ass time. The life expectancy is five years in hip-hop. I been doing it 12, 13 years, so I don’t think much of that sh$% really applies to me. But as far as staying up with today’s music with these Down South dudes, I’m not trying to keep up, man. I just don’t want to be counted out. There always gotta be a yin to a yang. Once people get tired of that they gonna come back to this anyway. But I love the fact that the South got on they grind. Wasn’t nobody checkin’ for them niggas. I felt they pain when they used to go out there and give me their CDs and say, “Nobody want to come see us, ain’t no record labels out here.” Them niggas got on they grind and got noticed. You gotta be a f#$%in’ idiot to hate on that, that’s grizzly. That’s the American dream right there. My only thing is, I’m salty at Down South niggas. They only strikin’ back and defending themselves against all the backlash they getting’ from New York, but they saying, “New York gotta get on they grind.” F*&k y’all. New York been on their grind.
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Interview Two
You’ve been on Def Jam your entire career. Things must have changed a lot since you first signed.
I been on Def Jam a long ass f@#$in’ time. Right now, I’m not feeling the album’s push. A lot of [Def Jam’s staff] came up when I was comin’ up, and there’s some smart muthaf#$%as in that building. So my question is, Is it me? Is it that they lack the confidence in me? ’Cause I got mad confidence in myself. My album comes out on the 29th and I haven’t seen advertising or sh&% for it. I go out on the road, do my fuckin’ radio and all that shit. I don’t really see the snipes, none of that shit, not like it used to be. Sh@*, I know how shit work. I been in the game a long time. Somebody tell me something. Make me a muthafuckin’ believer again because I’m not seeing it.
Are they giving a better push to other artists?Yeah, I think so. I want to push my sh@*back because of that, but they’re like, “No, we can’t push it back.” They don’t go out on the street with us and see how people respond to us when we walkin’ up and down the block. All they see is BDSs. Not even SoundScan, because for real, Ghostface, that album should be off the charts with them fuckin’ BDSs he got on that f*#@$in’ Ne-Yo record. That record did more for Ne-Yo than it did for Ghost. It gave Ne-Yo street credibility. He just rollin’ now. He just rockin’. He that dude. I’m not hatin’ on the kid, I don’t even know the kid, but I ain’t really feelin’ him right now based on that.
You feel like Ne-Yo benefited from song more than Ghost did?
Yeah, but it wasn’t his fault. You can’t hold back a hit record and a star, but I feel like the way the label did that sh$#, it was a maneuver that was not in Ghost’s benefit at all. I think they should’ve gave him another look after the Ne-Yo record.
Why do you think they didn’t give him a second single?
He fast food right now. A lot of these labels are treatin’ niggas like fast food. They just throwin’ the records out there and not giving them the push. They like, We gonna push it two weeks before and two weeks after and then that’s it. If it got legs, it got legs. If not, ff#$@ it. And that s@#$ ain’t no way to do it. What happened to an artist’s relevance? But me? I’m muthaf*#$%’ happy to be on Def Jam, I’ll tell you that much, because it’s synonymous with hip-hop, period. All I’m asking is that Def Jam keep it hip-hop.
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