Redman’s debut project, Whut? Thee Album, released in 1992, was punctuated by the hilarious tale of a working class superhero, “A Day of Sooperman Lover,” inspired by his mentors EPMD’s “Jane” series and Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story.”
The libidinous story about a local hero trying to hold down his job rescuing cats and the like was built around a silky sample of soul singer and multi instrumentalist Johnny Guitar Watson’s “Superman Lover,” from his 1976 album Ain’t That A Bitch.”
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“He wasn’t really a hero with powers,” Redman explained in a 2018 interview to commemorate Whut’s 25th Anniversary. “He had some. He could fly and stuff but all his powers were ghetto. I wanted him to be a superhero that stepped in his pants one leg at a time like everybody else.
“I was a fan of Johnny Guitar Watson and I think me and Erick Sermon came across the record or I had it. Maybe it was my pops record because I took a couple of his records when I moved. I just thought doing a new Superman Lover would be a great idea. Big up to the Watson family for supporting me since day one. They never gave me static or problems and I plan on using him more on my new album. His music is very funky and he’s very talented and that record in particular caught my eye.”
Redman would go on to record five more installments of the “Sooperman Lover” saga across subsequent albums. With the long awaited sequel to his 1996 album Muddy Waters due later this year, Redman told HipHopDX that the next installment of “Sooperman Lover” is well worth the wait.
“‘Soopaman Luva 7’ is lit and it’s long,” The Funk Doc said. “And I already did the animated video to it two years ago. I was ahead of the game. I’m dropping Muddy Waters 2 this fucking year. Hands down.”
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The last “Sooperman Lover,” “Sooperman Lover 6,” appeared on his 2007 album Red Gone Wild and featured the late Hurricane G. It was produced by Erick Sermon and sampled Curtis Mayfield’s “Give Me Your Love.”
In a twist for the series, “Sooperman Lover 6” draws inspiration from the film Natural Born Killers to break his girl out of jail.
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“That was magic. That one reminds me of ‘Super Man Lover 3.’ Melanie Rutherford was killin that on the singing. It was very musical and magical,” Red said. “The story behind that is that I wanted to incorporate my sisters Hurricane G and Chia Rose. I wanted to see SML break IN to save someone. This n-gga so ghetto that he still gotta break IN the jail. His powers are limited.
“I wrote it to be visualized as a cartoon. Really all of them are like that, but I wrote this one like I wanted to get a cartoon made to it. It’s also a quick bite of the Mickey and Malorie from Natural Born Killers with the inmates wilin’ and they broke out the front door? That’s NBK. That’s how I wanted to see SML walk Hurricane G out the front door like them.”
Unfortunately, Redman said that neither Hurricane G nor his cousin Tame One, who passed in November of 2022, will be able to appear posthumously on Muddy Waters 2, due to time constraints.
“You know what? No, I couldn’t really,” Redman told DX. “They’re getting their estates together for their family, so I’m sure I probably could have asked for a verse from one of them somewhere, but I let their family get their estates together first out of respect. But yeah, they’re my people, they’re my family and I love them. RIP, rest in peace. And I’ll see them again.”
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Redman recently contributed his voice to the theme song for Netflix’s new animated series, My Dad The Bounty Hunter, and it was the first time he recited lyrics he didn’t write.
“So EL3VATORS, them some good dudes. I never in my life spit a verse that somebody wrote. I always write my own shit,” he told DX. “ But the brothers who did it, they actually are brothers in real life, and they got their own production team. And it wasn’t like they wrote it for me, they just had it written and they wanted me to spit it.
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“So I added a couple of touches here and there. But anything to help my brothers to succeed in the music industry, or the film industry, or any industry working with one another, I’m all for it.”
