After something like four years on the Def Jam schedules, Clifford "Method Man" Smith's third solo LP has gone from being long-awaited and highly anticipated to forgotten and in serious danger of being overlooked. While the commercial demise of his group, the once dominant Wu-Tang Clan, may be mainly to blame, part of this is also down to Meth's ubiquity. Over the years he's guested on records with both 2Pac and Biggie, and dropped verses for everyone from Roni Size and Missy Elliott to Mary J Blige and Texas. Each collaboration has exposed him to a potential new audience, but each has also diluted his impact.
So "Tical 0: The Prequel" arrives long after even the most ardent fans have ceased to care passionately. Perhaps wisely, then, Meth has opted not to revisit the murky depths of Wu-Tang paranoia-rap, but to deliver a record calculated to appeal to rap's mainstream. It's time for him to call in a few favours – Busta Rhymes, his only real rival for the Most Guest Raps Of All Time crown, drops by for the buzzing "What's Happenin'", Missy's here on "Say What", Redman and Snoop help out on "We Some Dogs" and Ludacris participates in the guitar-fuelled "Rodeo". Throughout, the beats are precision tooled to sound great on radio, in your 4x4 or in da club. Care is lavished on making the choruses, however contrived, catchy and instantly memorable.
It's, well, a thoroughly professional record. And therein lies the problem. Method Man, perhaps more than any other Wu-Tang member bar ODB, has personality to burn, and trying to force it into a box fit for any other hit rapper is an impossible task. Even Ghostface – who guests here on the standout "Afterparty" – can perform that sort of backflip with more ease than Meth. Only three of the 18 tracks don't include at least one guest, which only makes it harder to concentrate on the man whose name's on the front cover.
It's only on his genuinely solo tracks where he even gets to rhyme with any sort of conviction; "Act Right" the one example of content other than sex and lifestyle boasts ("I got tips from Big and Pac while they was blastin' the heat:/If you a rapper, don't ever ride the passenger seat"). It's a shame: there's still a major star inside Smith ready and waiting to come out – but the harder anyone tries to coerce him out of hiding, the less likely he is to show himself.
