Wu-Tang's contract let Method Man go solo first, and he made it count
The Wu-Tang Clan signed an unusual deal: every member could record solo albums for any label he liked. Method Man went first. His 1994 debut Tical entered the charts at number four and sold over a million copies, and a duet with Mary J. Blige from it earned him a Grammy.
Clifford Smith Jr. was born in Hempstead, Long Island, in 1971, and split his childhood between his father's home there and his mother's in the Park Hill area of Staten Island, locally nicknamed Killa Hill. He picked up lacrosse as a boy and still follows it keenly. His stage name honours a 1979 kung fu film called Method Man, in keeping with the Clan's martial arts obsession.
On the group's debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), only he and GZA had a solo track, and his was named after himself. He signed with Def Jam for his own record, although an Elektra talent scout had wanted him. In the mid-1990s he became friends with The Notorious B.I.G., whose debut Ready to Die featured no other guest MC, and he turned up on Tupac Shakur's All Eyez on Me and the Space Jam soundtrack. His second album, Tical 2000: Judgement Day, played on end-of-millennium anxieties and outsold his first, though reviewers complained about its length and many comedy skits.
His partnership with Redman became a brand of its own. They recorded Blackout! while touring with Jay-Z and DMX, and it went platinum quickly on the strength of tracks like Da Rockwilder. Fame brought a deodorant endorsement, the stoner comedy How High and a short-lived Fox sitcom, Method and Red, along with a lasting media image tied to marijuana. He later grumbled about Wu-Tang's management and the poor quality of its clothing line.
Acting became a second career. He had recurring parts in three HBO series, Oz, The Wire and The Deuce; in The Wire his character, Melvin Wagstaff, went by the nickname Cheese. He also took film roles in Garden State and Red Tails. He was later reunited with Blige when both joined the cast of Power Book II: Ghost.
Source: Method Man
