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Lowered Expectations: Hip-Hop's Five Most Disappointing MCs [#1: Method Man]

October 13, 2008 | Tags: Wu-Tang, disappointment, lowered, expectations, method, man

It's Monday, and as promised, here's number one of the Lowered Expectations list: Method Man. Only one or two people suggested Meth when I've been putting together my list, so it'll be interesting to see what people think of this. It's a pretty long entry, but I felt that it was necessary since he was at the top of the list. Oh yeah - and just to show you guys my appreciation for the comments/discussion (and to avoid accusations that I'm avoiding conversation), I've also included Honorable Mentions and Non-Honorable Mentions, with my reasoning for not including them. Some you'll agree with, some you'll disagree with, and some I really don't have answers to. Either way, enjoy.

The Potential: Method Man had every single ingredient necessary to succeed. He was a standout member of the Wu-Tang Clan-which isn't only one of the best groups of all time in terms of product and concept, but was one of those entities that really took over shit in all areas in its prime. Don't forget, the Wu had GOAT personalities/talents like Ghostface, ODB and GZA as well (it seems obvious, but it's one of those things that's easy to forget when you don't really break it down). He had a Top 5 producer (RZA) on his side, plus a crew of other immensely talented Wu-Tang producers to handle the beats. The Wu had the music, the clothing line, video games, the graphic novels; all that shit. Youngsters: think Roc-A-Fella and G-Unit combined in their primes, but like five and eight years earlier, respectively. RZA may have been the mastermind, but Method Man was the face.

Tangible assets aside, Method Man was an emcee's emcee as well. He had imaginative lyrics, and his rough, patented flow will forever be considered one of hip-hop's most distinctive. When he's rhyming alongside Redman or his fellow Wu-Tang members, his verses were always standouts. He's also always had the bonafide charisma of a celebrity: he's stupidly funny, and that's translated everywhere from album skits to TV (well, maybe not always on TV) and movie roles. Dude even had his own comic book released this year! And I won't even get into his live shows; you'd really have to be there to understand.

What I think is most important here is that all of these assets and talents, he had the advantage of a time frame when the game was ready for him to capitalize on it. He had everything there for him at the time when East Coast rap-both lyrically and production-wise-was at its peak, when the Wu was leading the way, and when his acting career was prominent enough to give his rapping career the attention that it was set to deserve. Method Man had the tools and the talent to be a Top 5-10 emcee in rap history, period.

The Disappointment: The problem is, Meth's solo career didn't match his solo potential. His Tical debut was dope: not as good as it should've been, but it was really dope. Some would say that it was overshadowed by all of the other albums that came out in 1994 (Illmatic, Ready To Die, Resurrection, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Hard To Earn), and despite Meth's buzz being what it was, that's an excuse I'm willing to live with. After all, Nas, Biggie, Common, and Outkast are still considered as all-time greats over a decade later. But in many circles, Tical is still considered a classic album.

Last year's 4:21...The Day After was dope, but it's literally the album that he should've made nearly a decade ago to follow up Tical: top shelf rhymes, top shelf production (RZA, Erick Sermon, Mathematics, one of the few Scott Storch beats that are actually tolerable), and a couple of radio-friendly singles. Instead, Meth released Tical 2000: Judgement Day and Tical 0. The former was a conceptual triple-question mark that you wanted to appreciate because of its goal but was too bad for you to justify, making the points where he actually did succeed that much more frustrating. and the latter was simply one of those albums on which you can't believe something so bad came from such a great emcee. When a talent like that has two consecutive solos that are that bad, fans wonder why they even had faith in dude in the first place. Maybe I have to give these two albums another listen, but I remember being pissed when I first heard ‘em. Not even as pissed as I was confused. A young Ketchums was actually second-guessing himself: "This is an album by Method Man, so why am I not feeling this?"

But similar to Lowered Expectations Entry No. 5, Fabolous, he'd be a completely different emcee once he's not on a song by himself. On Wu-Tang albums, he'd snap. He had a song with Mary J Blige that defines what Hip Hop is to some people. Dude made Limp Bizkit tolerable, for fuck's sake. Some would argue that he's one of the only emcees to hold his own--even outshine (?)--both Biggie and Pac on their own songs. "Comin' to spread the butter lyrics over harmony grits?/...I spit on your grave then I grab my Charles Dickens?" Yup. Only other guest emcee on that album. Rarely do you see an emcee out for justice/...Johnny Blaze, out to get loot like Johnny Cash? Yeah. Am I the only one disappointed by the fact that Method Man's best album was Blackout!, his duo album with Redman? He's like that kid who gets caught stealing at the grocery store, apologizes and promises that he'll never steal again...then he won't try stealing anything else if he knows somebody is watching, but when he doesn't know anyone's watching, he'll try again, just to get caught again. Sure, you're fine when you're around others-hell, you're a spotlight performer. But if you can't make it happen on your own, what's the point?

Different people have given me different reasoning behind Meth's disappointment. One of them (shoutout to Sanam) said that he just lost his inspiration because of the death of a close family member (don't remember which one), and because his label wasn't supporting him. I say that Def Jam was supporting him before his last album, and that even though it's unfortunate that he lost his relative, that the legends of this shit use tragedies like that and translate it into emotive music (see: Jay-Z's "Dead Presidents" or "You Must Love Me," Nas' "Dance" or "One Love," scores of Pac songs). My homie said that Meth decided to focus on his acting career. I agree, but the least he could've done was not release anything at all instead of putting out two wack albums in the meantime. Like I said earlier, he had everything necessary to be a Top 5-10 of all time: and at the end of the day, for whatever reason, he's not there.

He'll always be one of the most unforgettable personalities in rap history, but he's my most disappointing emcee of all time.

Honorable Mention: LOX (EDITED FOR CLARITY: mildly disappointing, but both Styles and Jadakiss have had hit singles to push their solos, they've sold decently, and considering their A) years lost with Bad Boy fuckery, and B) their usually gutter music once they got released, part of me feels that they've gotten reasonable success with the bullshit they've had to go through to get there) ... Mobb Deep (they've already got several classics under their belt that people will never forget; they've only had one wack album, and even Blood Money wasn't as bad as people made it out to be) ... Kurupt (I honestly don't know dude's catalog well enough to contribute to this, but I know dude's disappointing considering how much of a monster he was on everything that I have heard) ... Ras Kass (talented as hell, but I never really got into his material, so I can't call it) ... Mos Def (not sure why, but to me, I'm not as disappointed in his career as I should be. Black On Both Sides is perfect, as is Black Star, and I actually liked the direction he took with New Danger, I'd give it 3.5 out of 5; that leaves him with only one wack album. Unlike Meth, his music was always against the grain anyway, cuz his solo career started to boom in the late 90s/early 2000s, when rap was changnig for the worst) ... Lauryn Hill (I honestly have no explanation to why she's not on this list. A nigga forgot.

Non-Honorable Mentions: Papoose (I respect the work ethic and the conceptual intent, but that nigga's delivery was always ass), Cassidy (for an emcee who came in as a battle rapper in the 2000s, a disappointing debut, a great sophomore and a questionable third LP isn't surprising), Snoop Dogg (dude's still making great music and sticking to his niche to this day), Dr. Dre (*snickers* @ the suggestion of someone who's had a classic with damn near every album he's released)

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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Lowered Expectations: Hip-Hop's Five Most Disappointing MCs [#1: Method Man]

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