By Gary Suarez in Newsletter — Mar 10, 2026

Mondays With Method Man

Some thoughts on Johnny Blaze +reviews of B. Dolan, THEHIDDENCHARACTER x 067Red x Action Figure 973

Scrolling mindlessly through Instagram's algorithmically addictive Reels tab this evening, I came across a clip from The Joe Budden Podcast entitled Top 10 Rappers with No Classics.

It was the sort of softball content that ultimately disappoints as much as it initially entices, with one of the panelists rattling off a list he encountered somewhere (source undeclared) and the rest of the crew muttering in agreement or disagreement. Apart from reminding me of Rap Twitter's olden days, where profoundly bored engagement seekers would regularly rouse randos with lazy prompts, this exercise in backhanded compliments focused largely on solo albums by '90s and early '00s emcees, revealing authorial bias against some two decades worth of subsequently released hip-hop.

Among those cited were two members of the Wu-Tang Clan: Inspectah Deck and Method Man. This was unexpectedly amusing to me, having caught a different Instagram video earlier in the day where a creator comically reenacted the recording of 1997's "Triumph." In it, he plays both of those rappers as well as an ad-libbing Ol' Dirty Bastard, with the Rebel INS flawlessly executing the iconic opening verse (I bomb atomically / Socrates' philosophies and hypotheses / Can't define how I be dropping these mockeries) much to next-up Johnny Blaze's palpable dismay.

As someone who once allegedly owned copies of both The Movement and Tical 0: The Prequel, the inclusion of these skilled Shaolin solders in this nebulous ranking didn't seem terribly off base. Uncontrolled Substance and to a lesser extent Tical both warrant more credit in the wider Wu canon than they get. Still, I'd certainly not rank either one higher than Ghostface's third-best album, let alone the full-length debuts of Raekwon, ODB, GZA, or The RZA. But if I learned anything from watching people online rattle off Ye albums from best to worst, musical tastes are by definition subjective.

Method Man will always hold a special place in my hip-hop heart. I have a vivid childhood memory of excitedly listening to his namesake single off Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) on the boombox I brought into my Corona, Queens apartment bathroom. Even as I tried to learn everyone's names, he was by default the first rapper from the Staten Island centered squad that I'd identified, and his distinctive verses and raspy delivery made me an instant fan. Over time, I also welcomed his gradual shift towards acting, and I continue to delight in seeing him on screen not only in Belly or Soul Plane but in relatively more recent flicks like Keanu, Shadow Force, and Trouble Man.

Yet despite spending my hard earned money on Meth's solo albums and the first Blackout! installment with Redman, I found these non-group efforts uneven and, at times, fairly underwhelming. I'd skip to the tracks I genuinely loved like "Bring The Pain" and "How High," something that became a hell of a lot easier once the streaming era started. His beat selection post-1994 didn't do these projects a ton of favors, and by the time 2006's 4:21... The Day After rolled around, I accepted that was not likely to change.

It wasn't until 2020 when I began to question myself on this very topic, when Meth featured on Conway The Machine's From King To A GOD single "Lemon." Co-produced by Beat Butcha and Daringer, the track marked yet another Wu-Tang win for the Buffalo rapper after Raekwon's now-infamous 2017 cosign of the crew on-stage at New York's Webster Hall. Nearly 50 years old, Meth sounded just impeccable on the clamorous cut, triggering rap nerd fantasies in my mind of a full album with Griselda.

While that hasn't come to fruition, some of his recent features give me hope that– under certain ideal conditions–there might be a late-career classic left in him. "Dbz" with Your Old Droog and Denzel Curry officially put Meth on a Madlib beat for the first time while "Speshal Methods," his 2025 team-up with Rochester rapper 38 Spesh, balanced soul with the streets in the exact way one might hope for. Then last year, longtime Wu affiliate Mathematics slotted Meth in with Benny The Butcher on "Warriors Two, Cooley High" off of his showcase Black Samson, The Bastard Swordsman.

Surely with the right producers in Meth's corner, the potential was there. After all, Nas' multi-album run with Hit-Boy earned him awards and a greater respect, and his Mass Appeal Records campaign last year snared acclaim for bringing out good-to-very-good new full-lengths from the likes of De La Soul and Mobb Deep. And judging by the release late last month of "Visions," a joint single with Jay Worthy beautifully produced by the talented Vada, I'd posit he's closer than ever to dropping an album that compels everyone to critically reconsider his status in the best possible terms.

Check out the all-new wrestling movie season right now.

B. Dolan, Fight Naked

(buy it / stream it)

Veteran emcee B. Dolan has seen a lot over the years. But one thing that makes his post-Strange Famous output so worthwhile is that the Rhode Islander remains a vibrant and vital lyricist capable of addressing contemporary concerns both personal and political. On the pugnacious Fight Naked, his follow-up to 2024's self-released The Wound Is Not The Body, he raises his dukes like a daunted but not defeated prizefighter still willing to go the distance. Magnanimously, he gives Wrecking Crew rapper Curly Castro first crack at the Controller 7-produced opener "Soil," coming in afterwards to lament and reflect before Mississippi's Skipp Coon finishes it off. From there, Dolan sets about properly settling scores on the DOOM-conjuring title track and the disaster-laden "Warning." He perhaps sounds best over the Small Professor beats, delivering inventive animalistic metaphors for "Leash Theory" and spitting quiet storm cogitations over "Person Corporatehood." Closing cut "How I(CE) Could Just Kill A Man" finds him unapologetically enraged over fascist overreach while vibing to retro Muggs-referencing production.

THEHIDDENCHARACTER, 067Red & Action Figure 973, SUPREMEMACHINES

(buy it / stream it)

For whatever reason, masked rappers are in surprising abundance in the American underground nowadays. Three of the strongest among them join forces for a trio project called SUPREMEMACHINES, a concise yet robust outing overseen by savvy cultural curator 1000Words. Backed with solid production from the likes of BoneWeso, Felons, and Tremendiss, the bicoastal trio fulfill the promise of their previously released 2026 cut "HIDDEN AGENDA" demonstrating how triples is indeed best on "CENTURION$" and the title track. Wrestling-adjacent moments like "TRIPLEMANIA" and the Nickelodeon nostalgia nod "LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE" serve as showcases for their respective styles, the gratifying diversity of their flows providing posse confluence. That latter characteristic proves even more pronounced on "MASKED AVENGERS," on which fellow hip-hop mystery men Mondo Slade and GREA8GAWD intensify the existing magnitude with their concentrated bars.