Method Man
Album: Meth Lab Season 2: The Lithium
Label: Hanz On Music Entertainment
Release Date: December 14, 2018
Cookin’ it Up
Written by Silas Valentino
The line between Method Man’s hip-hop and acting careers blur on Meth Lab Season 2: The Lithium but the veteran MC hasn’t lost what has made him famous in both fields. With cinematic storylines and spitfire flow, Method Man adds another mile to his enduring presence in hip-hop.
This sequel to 2015’s Meth Lab is a house party with over two dozen guest features and several comedic “Commercial Break” interludes. Contemporary Hanz On has described the Meth Lab series as an opportunity to showcase new talent and the younglings appear in spades. Intell, Noreaga, Joe Young, Mall G, Jessica Lee Lamberti, Deanna Huntt, Freak, Cardi Express and Youngin are just a few new voices who get a shot at the mic on this Meth Lab sequel and this appears to be the album’s most appealing quality. Besides a couple of tight bars from Method Man, most of this album acts as a display of unheard talent.
Episode 1 begins with “Kill Different” where Method Man invites us back and continues to deploy his clever wordplay and ability to slur speak any syllables into a rhyme. “No Malice, I’m just bad/The Crips’ll Pusha T and your head back/Go slap you in your head like, ‘go ‘head, rap’” he gels together like he’s yearning a tale in real time. A hustler who hasn’t had to work a street in decades, Method Man hasn’t lost his ability to tell a story. Fellow Wu Tang member Raekwon provides a verse about “Watchin’ Netflix and Breakin’ Bad bills/Pumpin’ krills back in 1980 fills/FILA suits and grills.”
The most crowded track is “Episode 4 – Drunk Tunes” where Noreaga, Joe Young and Mall G trades versus while Jessica Lee Lamberti sings the hook. It’s a simple tune about becoming too inebriated (the chorus is essentially: “I lost my car, what happened?/These drunk tunes got me trippin’/Take me home, damn, I’m buggin’”) and it inevitably comes off like a bunch of brodies hovering over the mic.
“Commercial Break (Impractical Jokers ‘Torture’)” is hands-down the funniest skit with Sal Vulcano, Joe Gatto and Brian “Q” Quinn revamping a Wu Tang classic intro where they trade clever ways of defacing an enemy. But in this updated version, there’s a little more nuance to their threats: “I’ll fuckin’ fuck with your credit score”, “I fuckin’ erase shit off your DVR” and “I’ll fuckin’ log onto your WiFi router and change the password” they say in a comedic go-round.
Teaming up with Pretty Blanco on the 808-tinged “Killing the Game”, Method Man embraces modern hip-hop with trap bird chirps and melodic versus. “I’m mashin’ the gas/I done mastered the class/Do not give these rappers a pass/These rappers is trash/I give these rappers the drag then ask, ‘Is you mad or you mad?’” he rhymes but it sounds like he’s withholding. Method Man is clearly a talented force but most of Meth Lab Season 2: The Lithium has the MC stunted or hidden behind the group of other voices he invited on board.
The album ends with a brief tease into a future installment of the Meth Lab series which suggests Method Man is far from putting down the mic but if future outputs continue to be a crowded sound booth with unheard-of MCs then maybe Meth should retreat gracefully back to Shaolin.