PREVIEW: Method Man & Redman’s “Blackout! 2”

Excerpt from Vibe.com ~ Redman and Method Man are the hood’s most authentic one-two punch since chicken and biscuits. So fittingly, they served boxes of KFC and “baked with care” brownies to media and industry heads Wednesday night, as they previewed their forthcoming album, Blackout! 2 (Def Jam).  With Meth filming overseas, Red bounced around Manhattan’s Quad Studios like a pinball, fielding interviews and dapping cohorts while vintage Wu-Tang Clan cuts played the background. Island Def Jam chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid and the duo’s frequent production collaborator Rockwilder came through to support the sequel to 1999’s Blackout! “We went after the ’90s cats on this album,” Redman told VIBE.com of their second full-length collaboration. “We know our age group.”  True, Red and Meth turned 39, and 38, respectively, this month, yet the duo sounds youthful as ever. Things kick off strong with the intro “B.O. 2,” which finds the duo comfortably trading bars like Styles P and Jadakiss over screaming horns. Next up is “I’m Dope Nigga,” a brash head-bobber on which Meth pops his white-tee collar: “I can’t deal with fickle minds/’cause I’m too official with mine/Put your nose in my notebook and gon’ sniff you a line.”  For the most part, Blackout! 2 is a lyrical exercise. Familiar faces Raekwon and Ghostface go in on the punch-line plentiful “Four Minutes To Lockdown,” while “Dangerus MCs”—with its funky bassline and soulful squeaks—could’ve dropped ten years ago. “Honestly, we stayed in the box,” Redman says. “What we did was make the box wider. We didn’t really venture out on too much new shit.” That’s not to say they don’t have any new tricks up their sleeves. Check the recently leaked, synth-infused “City Lights,” which finds Bun B rocking a nimble flow while a chopped Pimp C plays the hook. Here, Red even toys with Auto-Tune “just to let you know we can bounce that way if we want to… not too much, though.” But the tag team sounds silly when proclaiming “I Know Sumptn” as a track for the club—the straight-forward flows and rolling percussion are definitely not dance-floor friendly. CONTINUE READING...