Redman and Method Man became household names with a run in movies and TV in the last five years, meanwhile
Redman has been steadily crafting over the past five years since his last album, Malpractice, was released. He has been
touring with Rock the Bells, creating a crew and working on his new
album. Now he’s back, ready to drop Red Gone Wild in March, saying ”
March, man. It’s dropping in March
and believe me, when the album drops, I’m gonna keep dropping ish, I
got a whole crew I’ve been working on the last three years and we’ve
been building up material. The game has been in shambles, ya know?
”
After his last album, he said the rebuilding process
was difficult because everyone who was with him at Def Jam before, was
now gone.
“I got new staff, new people,
new bosses and between that time of people being gone and getting fired from
the label, within that three years, there’s been a lot of twisting and turning.
You know the label wasn’t stable, you come out with an album, they give you
half a video, then you’re back to the drawing board, who wants that? So the
real question is, not why did it take so long but why did it take so long for
the label to get their stuff together? As you can see, with artists that are on
there now, on Def Jam, and what they’re going through now for artists that
dropped albums this year. You can see what’s going on. Ya’ll ain’t stupid. You
see what kind of promotion my man Meth is getting, and Ghostface, you see
what’s going on, ya’ll are not crazy.”
While Ghostface dropped two albums in 2006, Redman
will also drop two in 2007. Red Gone Wild in March and Muddy Water 2 in November, he said adding, “I
felt that March was the right time, Jay done dropped, the Def Jam hype
would slow down, and they would need somebody to hold the label up and
that’d be me… I ain’t playing no games.”
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While he avoids questions about leaving Def Jam for the indie route and ones about Jay-Z running/ruining the label, he does speak on behalf of his man,
Meth.
“I’m really pissed about my
man Meth and what his album is doing. He’s not getting the right promotion, but
you know, that’s the name of the game. And you know, I can sit here and say
‘yeah, Jay ain’t doing his job’, but I ain’t dropped my album yet for me to say
that. But once I get out there on that road, and once my album is out, I’m not
going to sit around and depend on Jay. He know it, I know it, and the label know
it. They know I’m self-sufficient. You will never hear me in an interview
saying ‘F*** Jay, he ain’t do the man right’. Jay is his own man and I’m my own
man, I feel I’m just as big as that nigga. So maybe I can get in there, hit the
road and tell him what to do.”
As for the crew he’s been building, Gillahouse is a crew that consists of some familiar faces;
Saukrates out of Canada, Icarus, Ready Rock, E3, and a singer named
Melanie. The final member, Runt Dog, is in prison at the moment. Redman says he doesn’t consider there to be any special guests on the album, but
Snoop, Method Man and Nate Dogg all show up for the album with production from
Eminem, Timbaland, Scott Storch, Erick Sermon, Buckwild
and Red himself.
As for Def Squad, he says there is a Keith Murray album finished and on it’s way, adding that,
“hopefully we can get in here
with a Def Squad album, probably in the middle of next year.” He also says he will also be working on a new Blackout album with
Meth next year. As for other projects he said, “How
High 2, definitely. Matter of fact, when we do the
How High 2, we’re going to promote the Blackout 2 as the soundtrack to
the
movie, that will be great. As far as acting I’ll do it if they ask…
We learned from our mistakes, we’re not sellouts. We’re out here,
we’re back in the hip-hop game and we’re trying to get everyone circling
on the Red and Meth thing like it used to be. We want to get our smokers back”
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Finally, he gives his opinion on the state of music today, “I love it. It’s just making
us work harder that’s all. I’m not complaining about down South, I love down
South. I’m glad that they got their shine and doing what they want to do. And I
put it like this, if ya’ll are tired of the down South movement, put out some
stuff that’ll make a change, shut it down. Everything that goes up, must come
down. Everybody knows that. Down South ain’t going to reign forever, just like
east coast couldn’t reign forever, just like west coast couldn’t reign forever…I only say that because I
know the talk in the streets and when you’re talking how you feel about hip-hop
and where it’s going. That question is really about what do you think about the
new artists in the game that’s evolving hip-hop and the new artists is mostly
down south cats and I think its great”
