Let’s get it straight, it doesn’t get any rawer than Redman and the flow doesn’t get any nicer than Method Man. Here you have two of hip hop’s best combining their skills to mold one project: Blackout! The album came out in 1999 to fairly good reviews, but there were the occasional bad reviews. The negativity could have come as a product of the era it came in: The Bling Era. It’s fair to say 99-01 were the years that hip hop took a possible turn for the worst and while these two were making music together on this album, expectations from the hip hop purists fans, i.e. Sean Deez, were extremely high. This is heavily a main reason why I was not particularly warm to this idea when first released. 9 Years later I gave this a very in depth listen to provide to following review on the Funk Doctah and the Iron Lung.

I’ll start off by saying that out of the duo, I’m heavily in favour of Reggie. I think Redman is one of the most complete emcee’s in hip hop and I think to include him in my top 10 is by no means absurd nor stupid. I think very few emcees possess what Reggie Noble can display; that is, all the components that an emcee should have. Besides, who is as creative, raw, playful, rowdy, grimey and f’ing skillful as Redman? As for Method Man, well, I think he heavily fell off as a solo artist after his debut, but “4:21 The Day After” showed shades of his true potential. I do think he can flow on the beat of a lawn mower or light switch, I just think he lacks content and relies heavily on punch lines to fulfill the duty of the song.

The title track is an obvious stand out. The beat by Erick Sermon won’t fail to snap your neck (like most of his classic works) and the two emcees go back and forth and display their styles to the fullest extent. “Y.O.U” shows Mef pretty much flowing effortlessly while spitting in his low monotone bit, but it acts as a great tradeoff from the upbeat and wild Redman (who completely destroys his first verse). “Da Rockwilder” is arguably their most popular song and still today gets everyone going buck. You guys know the track by now, but still: “Spent bank loans on home grown/ suckers break like Turbo and Ozone/ when I, grab the broom/ moon-walk platoon hawk my goons spark/ leave you in the blue lagoon lost.” True Red, true.

You more or less get the same of Red throughout the entire album and he is normally always on point. I can’t say the same for Meth because at times he sounds bored and uninspired. “Tear It Off” aims to be a club banger, but how can it be when Meth sounds so uninterested? “Maaad Crew” is another where Redman completely outshines Meth and that too is another trend throughout the album. The RZA-produced “Cereal Killer” seems out of place because of its change in mood and style and “The ?” forces you to take a bite of the uncomfortable and seemingly forceful back and forth chemistry between these two.

The production has its highs and lows. Erick Sermon handles most of the production and delivers. RZA tackles 2 tracks and is blessed to have Ghostface on “Run 4 Cover” and totally turn it out. Redman/Reggie Noble even brings his heavily under appreciated production skills to the table and provides some heavy hitting drums on “Big Dogs.” The production is very hard hitting as far as “thump” goes, but some times too much “thump” and not enough subtlety can bring along a large flaw in the rhythm and flow of an album.

The biggest problem I had back then when I listened to the album to now remain the same: the chemistry. It should be no question that these two should have some of the best chemistry of any duo out there, but that is not the case. Redman outdoes Method Man on just about every track and provides for the ultimate highs while Meth has many low points. I also found this album extremely long with plenty of unnecessary tracks like “Mi Casa,” “Dat’s Dat Shit,” and “Well All Rite Cha.” The content doesn’t exactly expand that far, it is extremely limited and the lack of concept of what could’ve been a great conceptual album hurts the overall sound. Hopefully their long awaited sequel will have Meth in his new rejuvenated form and Red back at his old tricks, keep an eye out.

Overall Rating: 69/100

Standout Tracks:

Da Rockwilder

Y.O.U.

1,2,1,2

Blackout

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