Method Man has revealed how he has managed to avoid conflict with his rap peers throughout his career, and the solution is really not that complicated.
“I just mind my business,” the Wu-Tang Clan MC told Men’s Health. “After you perform at a club, there’s an after party — I didn’t make a lot of those. I think that’s the reason why I stayed outta a lot of trouble.”
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“That and, I mean, I had a big crew. Ain’t nobody really wanna fuck with us like that, ya dig?” he added, referring to his Wu brethren. “We didn’t have a lot to prove any muthafucking way. We always came humble. I just think that dude’s saw the authenticity of the group and was like, ‘Yeah, don’t try those n-ggas, period.'”
Check out Meth’s interview below:
While the 52-year-old veteran has done a remarkable job at preventing any issues from escalating, his run in Hip Hop hasn’t been entirely free of conflict. Back in 2009, Joe Budden questioned Meth’s placement on VIBE’s “Best Rappers of All Time” list.
This ignited a feud between the pair that eventually turned physical when Raekwon and his crew assaulted Budden backstage at Rock The Bells festival in 2010.
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During a conversation with Math Hoffa on his barbershop interview series My Expert Opinion last year, Meth revealed he’d planned to “snuff” Budden long before Rae got to him, but that he didn’t go through with it because of a conversation they had.
The way Method Man remembers it, he had warned Budden after their conversation that if any other slander were to come out about his Wu-Tang brethren, there would be nothing he could do for him.
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“It got to a point where I’m talking to him like, ‘You a talented muthafucka,” he explained. “You don’t need to go this route with all that dumb shit. But I’m telling you, after this moment, if there’s any more bullshit, my hands are tied.
“I don’t know if he acknowledged that shit now that I think about it. I don’t think he did, because later on that day, he did some kind of interview or some shit like that, or some freestyle or something. He named [Inspectah] Deck and he named Rae.”
He continued: “I think he came from that environment where that’s what n-ggas did, but it was never taken to a point where somebody put hands on somebody. You know how n-ggas talk amongst each other and shit, ‘Fuck you, bitch ass n-gga.’ In a different kind of setting though, fighting words, period.
“Joe, like I said, he’s just a smart muthafucka and that shit could have been so avoided, ’cause I spoke to him, me and him spoke. He knows this shit.”
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Within the family, the Wu-Tang Clan’s internal tiffs have also been well documented and Method Man has certainly participated in that too.
Aside from butting heads with fellow group members such as U-God and RZA over contrasting visions, Meth has also slammed the collective’s diminishing value for not getting together more often to work as a unit.
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In a 2003 interview with Big Boy’s Neighborhood, he said: “Ain’t no Wu-Tang album going down unless everybody comes together as a group and stops coming together as these solo artists. Everybody, you know, basically, suckin’ they self off … you’re only as good as your last hit homey. Know what I’m saying? And our last hit was ‘C.R.E.A.M.’ That song came out in 1993.”
The following year, he called out Ol’ Dirty Bastard on stage for failing to appear at a Wu-Tang performance, saying: “There’s no one bigger than the Clan. When you see Ol’ Dirty Bastard, tell him that.”
