- Review

Black Out !
Method Man & Redman

If there are two rappers from who you would expect a landslide to happen if they'd combine their skills on an album, it’s definitely Method Man & Redman. "Black Out!" should be the rightly chosen title to an album, if you got the expectations I just wrote about.

The album starts off with an intro referring to the X-Clan’s ‘This is protected by the red…" and is immediately followed up by the title track of the album. This track is nothing but a disappointment. The beat sounds like a ‘What, what, what’ Jäy Z track and even though Meth’s & Red’s lyrics are straight up, with a beat like this the lyrics lose power. During the entire track there are no interesting changes or loops in the beat. This is not exactly what I think the word ‘BlackOut’ means.

Musically the 3rd and 4th track sound just as tame. "Y.O.U." could even be a Busta Rhymes track if you’d let him rhyme on it: it’s got that same type of beat and rhymes. Of course the lyrics are thrown correct, cuz the brothers got skills.

The album gets more interesting with ‘4 Seasons' a posse cu together with LL Cool J, Ja Rule and Da Rockwilder. Finally producer Eric Sermon is doing something with his skills right here. ‘Cereal killer’, produced by the RZA, is a dope track too. Especially the stereo effects are fresh.

More up tempo and surprising is ‘Da Rockwilder’. Check this one out. "Sawed off shotgun/ hand on the pump/ sippin’ on a 40/ smokin the blunt/ bust my gun of Meth & Red didn’t jump, la la la la la la la laaa."

About 'Where We At' somebody’s got to explain me the humor or the point of intro: a white guy talkin’ about how he secretly bumps rap music at night when all other whiteys don’t pay attention. Yo, I don’t get it. Is it still funny that so many different people love rap? Why they got to hide it?…

The rest of the album, expect for ‘The?’, is as tame as the start. It’s like two lions are chained to their cages and forget how to roar the way they used to.

Only the remix of ‘How High’, a track they brought out in 1995 and was the bomb, gives a slight sample of that ’95 high. But again: the original version was much better. The remix is a tame version of classic shit.

Mickey One.