Method Man – Tical LP

Description

The firstWu-Tang Clansolo album to follow the seismic impact ofEnter the Wu-Tang, Method Man’s Tical similarly delivers an otherworldly wallop, one that instantly sets the madcap MC apart from his clansmen as the collective’s shining star. Not only is Meth madcap, both in terms of mentality and delivery, he’s also incredibly witty and wordy. Here he inspires hilarity as well as astonishment, and the way that he fires off his rhymes with such seemingly spontaneous ease compounds this sense of wonder. Just as Meth is quite clearly leagues above practically every other rapper in 1994 sans a small handful, if that, so is his producer,Wu-TangabbotRZA, who produces the entirety of Tical: from the antiquated flutes and kung fu flick samples that open the album, to the pulse-accelerating beats of “Bring the Pain” and the fist-pumping ones of “All I Need” (the b-boy version rather than the radio-geared one featuringMary J. Blige), to the rallying, warlike horns of “Release Yo’ Delf.” Despite a few outside contributions, most notably fromRaekwonon the rowdy spar-fest “Meth vs. Chef,” Tical is strictly a two-man show, Meth bringing da ruckus andRZAthe swarming soundscapes, and that’s precisely what further makes this album such a treasure amid the manyWu-Tanggems. Where most of Meth’s clansmen delivered guest-laden albums that sounded more like group efforts than solo ones, Tical strictly spotlights the group’s two stars and does so with refreshingly straightforward flair. There’s none of the epic overreaching that mars so many rap albums of the era; rather, there’s just over a dozen tracks here, and they’re filled to the brim with rhymes and beats and little else — no pop-crossover concessions nor any heady experimentation for the sake of experimentation, just good ol’-fashioned hip-hop, albeit with a dark, dark deranged twist. -All Music Guide