As Method Man and Redman orbited around the Jannus Live stage, strutting and bouncing to their hypnotizing beats and flowing on their comical and clever lyricisms, the dynamic emcee duo had a blunt viewpoint to share about the current state of hip-hop, which can be summed up in two words that were yelled into the mic by the straightforward Red, “Fuck SWAG.”
Oh yes, the 40 year old, pot-promoting MCs, who have been layin’ down collaborative rhyme sessions since the mid-1990s, are not too happy with what is happening within the genre they helped grow as a legitimate modern music form.
The hundreds of people in the audience could not have agreed more, shouting and hollering in approval to Redman’s bold statement against a word that so largely represents today’s hip-hop artists. Red’s artistic rant focused on the materialistic culture currently associated with the genre and asked audience members to remember when it was just a guy, a DJ and a mic and not focused on bling, “Ya’ll remember when it was old school, and not about your car or your jewelry,” he quipped.
The actor-rappers fired the message up by cheering the audience on to shout things like “old school” and “Rest in Peace ODB” throughout the entire night, and Meth and Red even orchestrated a sing-a-long to the most classic hippie-to-the-hip-hop song ever, “Rappers Delight,” by the Sugarhill Gang. (See video clip below.)
It may seem like the guys are just grumpy oldhead veterans who long for glory days, but they backed up all these nostalgic opinions with a badass performance full of smoked-out energy, superstar stage presence and crisp clear rapping, all of which highlighted the mellow-meets-brash MC chemistry of Method and Red.
Before the Ivy League rap stars made their descent down onto the eerily fogged-out and skull-ornamented stage, audience members participated in a costume contest and were judged by the crowd. As would be expected, the two guys dressed as a bag of weed and a blunt stole the show and easily out-costumed their scantily clad female competitors.
Creative Loafing Best of the Bay MC winner, Dynasty (The Femcee) opened the night, dominating the stage with her witty flows about following dreams, which were backed by DJ Sandman beats and scratching records behind the petite MC.
Meth (real name Clifford Smith), clad in a Wu-Tang shirt and cargos, and Red (real name Reginald Noble), sporting a visor, First Down vest and cargo shorts, hit the stage at about 10 p.m. and were welcomed by an ecstatic and slightly-sauced crowd as well as the intense aroma of the sticky green substance their movie, How High, is based around. And, for real, I have been to my fair share of shows where marijuana is part of the musical culture, but the initial blast of the skunky scent that came Friday night when Method and Red took the Jannus Stage was like baking in an oven with a batch of special brownies.
The MC duo gave the St. Pete show all they had and never even appeared to be out of breath or concerned with cottonmouth, as they broke out an almost two hour set, mixing in songs that shifted from their collaborative work to solo songs, such as “M.E.T.H.O.D. Man,” “A-YO,” “Tical,” “Da Rockwilder,” “How High,” “Just Clap Ya Hands,” and ODB’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya.”
Throughout the show there were hints at a How High 2 and a Blackout 3 album, and both guys fell into their personas perfectly – Meth playing the more serious, introspective part and Red acting silly; all confused about whether he was in Tampa Bay or St. Pete and constantly busting out all sorts of funky-flavored dance moves that sometimes had a wacky, Karate Kid style.
The night ended with the emcees calling the whole crowd in towards the stage, a request that was faithfully obeyed. Red then proceeded to stage dive into the Jannus herd and crowd surf for a few brief moments. Then it was Meth’s turn, but he was playing scared, so Red got everyone yelling “jump,” and Method Man, too, got his crowd surfing on before being thrown back on the stage. But it didn’t end there, Redman took one more dive into the Jannus crowd, but this time from the top of speaker he was standing on. It was pretty epic, and risky stage dives were a perfect way to end a wild and fun show.
The MCs came to Tampa Bay – err, I mean St. Pete – to entertain, and that they did.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.