Method Man Interview
 Interrogating people who don't want to be interviewed is a nerve-wracking experience. Such was the case with Johnny Blaze. The question and answer session started off on the wrong foot and balanced itself there for most of the interview. Meth had other things on his mind—his son, his new album, his TV Guide crossword puzzle—and it seemed like I wouldn't get one good quote from The Man. And then, without warning, he erupted like Mt. Vesuvius with a flood of emotional soliloquies on his childhood, growing up in the ghetto, and being a black man trying to deal with fame in white America. Where this came from I have no idea. What made him open up I'll never know. But the end result is one of the most heartfelt interviews you'll ever read with the Iron Lung. I look at the brief time spent with Meth as nothing short of inspirational and I hope it makes you take a long hard look at the world around you and try to change it.
Let's get the plug out of the way first. Tell me about your new album.
A lot of good songs, a lot of good producers. Something on there for everyone.
Okay. Have you been watching "Bull Durham?" Seems like a pretty canned response. If you don't want to talk about that, what do you want to talk about, Meth?
My son fell down the steps yesterday because I ain't put the banisters up. So in the midst of me not puttin' the banisters up I get a call from Def Jam tellin' me I gotta be here to do this interview.
I apologize. Is he alright?
Yeah, he alright.
What do I ask you after you say something like that?
Listen, I don't want to talk about nothing. Like I said, I got problems, man.
Let's talk about your problems.
Imagine me telling you my problems. Nobody want to hear about my problems.
I do.
No, you don't.
Sure I do. And the readers do. They want to hear anything about Method Man. They don't care what it is.
Sure they do.
You could talk about what you had for breakfast and what color your piss was after your coffee, it doesn't matter.
C'mon, man. You won't take me apart... [long pause] ...Am I making this hard for you? I thought you would already have your questions down and I was just gonna answer them and that's it.
Oh, is that it? That's how it works? That doesn't sound too personal.
Well, you let me know what you want from me. I don't wanna make no uncomfortable atmosphere in here. I just got problems, kid.
How many white boys did you stick up on the basketball courts for their jackets?
How many white boys did I stick up? I had nothing to do with that, that's Raekwon's stupid ass. I had nothing to do with that. I didn't stick no white boy up for shit... Unless he deserved it. I'd rob a black motherfucker, and a white motherfucker, didn't matter to me. Hunger pain the same. Don't say I still do that shit. I don't still do shit like that.
 Years ago at the Park Hill Day block party some kid got his ass handed to him because he was acting stupid. Whatever happened to him?
You got a real violent mind. You want to hear about nothing but violence in this city, and that's so sad right there, man. We paid that motherfucker's hospital bills. Word up. His momma is trying to sue, but she ain't trying to sue for her son, I don't know man, niggas is stupid, man. We grew up with that stupid motherfucker. It wasn't even us that hurt him up, no... no, that wasn't us. That was the crowd on some "this motherfucka tryin' to sabotage everybody's good time" shit. But we wound up paying his hospital bills. Fuck the world. That's when you can really say "fuck the world" because now they wanna sue us because they know that's where the money is at.
It seems like golddiggers are always trying to get a piece of the Wu fortune.
That's Dirty. Dirty Bastard was runnin' into lawsuits, not us. His ass had all them damn babies. I don't even know how many he got. He claimed those babies, who knows if they all his? He didn't even know. That shit is bad. Everybody be findin' that shit amusin' -- that shit is sad. Sad on his part and sad on the female's part for even playing theyselves like that. Me, I never run into that shit. I can't get in no problems. Let that shit get to my girl, oh, no. I just go home. I don't party or nothing. I just stay in the house with my wife and kids. I don't get caught up in all the garbage. You don't see my name in the news for nothing.
Are you gonna vote at the next election?
Hell, no. I'll vote for myself. I have every right to. And this shit with the President and that woman, I could care less. It's like he was not attracted to her. She was pushing up on him. What you gonna tell the man? A man gonna be a man, that's been known since the beginning of time. A man gonna be a man. The way we lured the cavemen out of the caves is we sent a woman in. It's like she was planted there and she didn't actually turn this man on or maybe she was just on his dick like that, if she wasn't planted there, either way, she was stalking him. He coulda fucked her, but he didn't. Look at that right there. But he let her suck his dick. He didn't even bust off. He wasn't attracted to her, bottom line. I mean, she is ugly. That's an ugly chick, man. And impeachment? You see those motherfuckers on talk shows, they the first ones to tell someone to leave their husband. "Go 'head girl, you just need to leave him." And then after the show they go home with they sorry, hypocritical asses and they gettin' beat up by they husband. But they ain't leaving. America is full of fuckin' hypocrites. I hate this fucking country.
Why don't you leave?
Hell no. It's a hell of a lot worse in other places. At least we got freedom. That's the best part of this bitch. Other than that, nobody says what they mean. And when you say what you mean you get crucified for it.
Rock [of Heltah Skeltah] was telling me that as entertainers the government takes 52% of your income.
My taxes... they take 44.44% of my earnings. Shit's crazy, right? But I got two kids now, that shit is over with and with my company I have a lot of expenses.
What's your company?
Method Man Entertainment, fool. Recognize.
Who's on Method Man Entertainment?
Me.
Anybody else?
Not really. My sister works for me. Speakin' of Rock and Ruck, they good peoples, I did a joint with 'em. The Source said I sounded weak on it but fuck the Source for that. Eat a dick. Not even fuck the Source, fuck the writer who wrote that shit. He couldn't understand my shit so he thought I was weak.
Why do you think so many rap-specific magazines act like pussies and don't have the balls to say what they really want to say?
Because they are pussies. It's motherfuckers that can't rhyme. But they know people like us, though, so now they have a magazine. It's like they never had the courage to stand up to the bully but they sword always been the pen so that's what they use. I'm not saying all of them, but a lot of them. I hate interviews, kid.
 I couldn't tell.
Couldn't tell? Yeah, right... you funny.
So how many mics did your last album get?
Four. And I didn't want those. And I don't want any on this album. They can't put me there. Nobody can rate my shit, at all. I don't feel like my shit is music. That's my soul, on wax, kid. So if you wanna categorize it, call that shit soul music. I don't think anybody can tell me what my shit is worth or how good it is, unless they know me.
What would you like the world to know?
I started Johnny Blaze. I brought him in this world and I can take him out. Shit is how you see it, it's what the world is coming to. A bunch of biters and non-writers but I ain't got to step to nobody, they know they wrong. They'll see me, though. But it'll be totally different... I'd rather take the non-violent step with all of that because so many people swear my crew is so damn violent. They think they know us -- I mean, we just went back to our old elementary schools and donated a bunch of computers. If that's a violent nature... oh, boy.
That kind of stuff is never mentioned by the media. They don't want good news. Every report I read on that Park Hill Day was about the fight, not about how you set up volleyball and basketball tournaments for the kids and had booths set up with free condoms and GED information.
I know. That's what I came to show love for. We trapped off from day one. I'm letting you know, a child growing up in the ghetto, in poverty, is in a trap. From day one. From the moment they lured us onto the slave ships and dragged us over to this country. Now imagine yourself being taken to Mexico somewhere and they take your passport and if you don't speak Spanish at al, and don't know anybody over there, you have no money, no clothing, no shelter and you have these Mexicans beating you to make you work, to earn a living. What can you do? You have to survive. Say you have kids, they gonna follow that same pattern until somebody break the chain. America got us all caught up in this illusion that we're really free but we're not. We're only as free as they let us be. They definitely have us trapped off in these ghettos. I hate to say this but if it wasn't for sports, music and entertainment we'd be fucked up right now, man. All of us can't be politicians because of the way we was raised and the environment we grew up in. Some of us was taught to rob and steal from the time of our childhood. And we were taught these so-called values that make America run: respect your neighbor and things of that nature. But after years of bad shit, the bad always outweighing the good, what you gonna tell a kid that never had shit and every time he see a cop they locking up somebody he know. Or pointing at him, telling him at the tender age of 11, "Wait 'til you get older. We gonna be locking your ass up, too." It's all a trap. Before all this music shit, I never even left where I lived at, Staten Island, Park Hill. And if I did go somewhere it was to the next motherfuckin' ghetto. So tell me, how much of America was I going to see like that? How was I gonna broaden my horizons to think maybe there is a way out? My only way out back then was listening to music, living it through them, watching them on the road on tour or on Yo, MTV Raps, seeing live performances and seeing maybe I could do that. Now they taking all that shit away, little by little. They shutting us down slowly but surely because we gave the ghetto some hope. It's like you look at BET now. I used to have so much respect for BET because it was a Black Entertainment Television but you look at it now, they won't even play our videos. It's like, what kind of double standard is that? Black Entertainment Television. Well, we black. Last time we checked we was black. And fuck what you heard, black is not a mentality. I remember when Young Black Teenagers came out. What the fuck is that shit? It ain't a mentality. It goes deep. Man, everything about this shit is so bugged out because even when you get rich and you black they still treat you like shit in certain areas. It's like when I get on a plane, they swear I saved all my money to sit in first class. Like I won a trip on a game show or something. I want to be serviced like everybody else. I get on a plane, they won't take my coat. They don't even ask. But when I get up to hang my own coat, "Excuse me, sir. You can't do that." Well, you didn't offer to hang my coat up so what am I supposed to do, sit here with my shit bunched up in my arms? They won't wake you up to feed you, either. But I'll tell you what they will do. They will wake you up to tell you to raise your seat and put away your tray and all that other good shit. It's just bugged. And when I see people like Dionne Warwick -- I see what she's trying to do and I hope everybody else does, too, because she's basically on her way out after that Psychic Friends Network shit -- she trying to take the easiest way back in. And what's that? Hip-hop. She gonna try and organize shit with rappers, the same people she was trying to crucify. She went to the politicians but they didn't think this shit was that big. They were wrong. Dolores Tucker, too. She showed her true colors when she tried to sue Tupac. It just shows you how much strength as artists we do have and if they so concerned about what we say in our lyrics, why didn't they do anything to change it, then? I'll tell you, the generation that came before me didn't teach me shit, the generation that came after me, we ain't teach them nothing. It's a cycle that's gonna go on and on and on. So who's gonna be the one finally to stop it? Because I'm trying to do my best, except my best ain't good enough. I'm trying to teach every individual I can as far as I can. I go out in the street, now that I was blessed with so much, I don't notice my people the same way as I used to like, "It's love." I'm looking at them and I see they clothes are shabby, they got dirty jeans on, no food in they belly, shit like that. I see the poverty, man. And that shit make me feel like I don't even deserve what the fuck I'm getting right now. It make me feel bad to even have the shit I got now. And my way of giving back is not always the best way. Some of them, they see me and the first thing they do is ask for money.
 That's what impressed me most about you, that you gave all your money to those little kids in Park Hill, not the free performance or any of that shit.
You know how much money I gave away that day? I went to the store early that day and got a hundred ones. And the little kids I knew, they got 20's. But it don't mean nothing to me. To me all that shit means is free money. Take it. If I can give it, take it, 'cause who says I deserve it more than anyone else?
Do you feel American economics will ever change or will the whole shithouse go up in flames first?
Man, when families and everybody just stop trying to take, take, take so much and start giving, it could happen. The Mexicans do it. The Jews, Italians, everybody does it except our stupid black asses.
As a parent, what do you tell--
--He's two, he don't know shit. He know "Wu Tang," "Peace," and "Daddy." But I don't have to tell him shit. He'll know. He'll know everything. He'll know why someone called him a nigger or why daddy curse so much in his lyrics. All he'll have to do is ask. But if he ain't curious then that means he know and I ain't got to tell him shit. My father ain't teach me nothin'. Nothin'. And he was there, too, which makes it worse. He wasn't there all the time but he was there some of the time. And when we went and stayed with his ass, I'll tell you, those were the worst times in my life. And so his ass is not around me now. I don't fuck with him. Me or my mother. I'm just like my mother -- when he come around, we disappear.
So many kids are hustling on the street, and clocking more money than businessmen...
And so how are you gonna tell them not to? Job force ain't hiring, that's my word. You come in looking a certain way... I ain't never had a suit. How the fuck was I gonna go to a job interview, no experience, no nothing? How could I get experience? You can't even get that. It's all a fucking trap. America needs to change they fuckin' ways, man. That's why I gave Bill Clinton a lot of props because when he was in office a lot of black people opened their own business. He spread that money around. I respect that man for that. He went in there and he did his fucking job. He did his job. Aside from all that extra-curricular activity, because we all human. So Bill Clinton lied at first, all politicians lie, it's just that they use so many big words and evasive sentences that it's legal to lie. What's so funny is that the words they using, we use them, too. They got their own slang we got our slang. Half of the dictionary is full of words that mean the same fucking thing. That's why that shit is so fucking funny. Same thing with our slang. Money can be case, dinero, loot, cream... There's so many fucking wordsfor it, right? There's a lot of shit out that I don't like right now and I'm in the front lines of it, being an entertainer and everything. I always got to show my fucking teeth and I hate showing my fucking teeth. Don't get me wrong, I'm a good-hearted person. I smile, but I don't want to have to force one. Like when you're introduced to someone, "This is blase blase. He owns this or that." You know 'cause if you just shake their hand, and not smile they like, "Is he hostile? What's wrong with him? He must be a gangster." It's all part of the entertainment business.
What are you doing with all this money you're making? Do you have a financial adviser?
I got Comp USA. I'm trying to get me a McDonald's, but I got to send some people to managerial school first. You got to send them to school for managing and they go through courses and shit. A little McDonald's school. I guess Ronald McDonald be sitting there with a professor cap on, tellin' you how to run a McDonald's. I wanna get all rest stops. Truckers eat like, oh, boy. What a bunch of nasty bastards. So, I'm about to start doing all that shit, but right now it's just Comp USA I invested in. I got some stock in local banks, Staten Island Savings Bank. You know, I'm making my moves, they not actually calculated moves, but it's good enough for me right now. It's like I'm opening up and broadening my horizons. I know that I'm not going to be doing this shit the rest of my life. Not the way I think and not the way I look at things. My eyes were open at a very young age. I know how the world works. My parents smoked weed in front of us at a very young age. I had little nasty cousins who we'd go visit and they doin' the hootchie cootchie. You can't say that's being molested because back then there wasn't a word like that. My eyes was opened up to a lot of shit early on. I remember seeing my father bust this nigga's head open for fucking with my mother. And then I remember seeing my father taking care of this other lady's kids, wasn't even taking care of us. And I was in second grade and I'd ask my father where he was going and he wouldn't even answer me. He'd take care of this other lady's son and daughter and they'd be all dressed up in nice clothes, go out for a night on the town. And we had nothing. And I couldn't understand that shit for nothing until I got older. I thought back about that shit and it haunts me. And I brought that shit up to his funky ass, and he had nothing to say. That's how I knew that what I seen was true. That's what makes me so honest now. I refused to fall into that Hollywood type shit where everyone's so happy to see you for the moment, until your shit drop off and you're not in the limelight no more and suddenly you ain't invited to any more parties. So I'm saying like this, while I'm hot, don't invite me nowhere because I ain't going. See how many invites I get when I'm gone. I see myself doing this for maybe three more years. I feel like this is a young man's sport. Once you get to a certain age, hang it up, partner, because ain't nobody calling you unless you behind the boards doing something. It's always been like that. We like Menudo. Once they voices change they out of the group.
 Do you think if they started castrating rappers it would help?
Oh, shit... Maybe.
I remember the time you were asked to do a PSA for the NYPD and you laughed in their faces.
I said "Hell no." Why the fuck I'm gonna do a Public Service Announcement when the cop that killed my man received a promotion and he's still working the same area, looking for more kids? In the same area they got him. And that Park Hill Day they were so quick to start hittin' kids up as soon as the fight broke out. And there were little kids there, people's babies. That's why this year it was just big kids there. We had games and gave out trophies but I was the only one that showed up. But I ain't looking for pats on the back because that's what I'm supposed to do. I remember when we were shorties, Ma Duke go to work, come home and the house be all fucked up and she used to have a fit. "Y'all been here all day and nobody cleaned up this house. I got to go to work, come home and clean." She used to hate that shit. So when we picked a day where we would clean up, she'd come home and she wouldn't say anything, not even thank us for cleaning up. And I asked her one day. She was like, "What I'm gonna thank you for what? You supposed to do that shit." That's my philosophy ever since, kid.
Comments
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17 Jul 2008, 18:26
HOLY
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17 Jul 2008, 19:15
WORD
CW
20 Jul 2008, 03:10
Yo meth u got too much money but don't stop rappin [too short]. damn man hope to skate w/u late.
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