Wu-Tang Clan
Clifford Smith was known as Shakwon until he recorded "Method Man." As RZA put it: "Method Man was Shakwon until he made that song. Everybody in the hood called him Method Man." The track drew from an unusual set of inspirations: a Michael Jackson cover of a Beatles classic, Hall and Oates' funk-pop sound, and Masta Ace's hip-hop delivery. The song shipped over 130,000 units. Two months after the album dropped, Method Man signed a solo deal with Def Jam, proving that RZA's controversial strategy of keeping the collective together while allowing individual label deals could actually work.
In our deep dive into Method Man, we trace the song from a Staten Island street name to the deal that launched one of hip-hop's most unlikely business models, and what it reveals about a collective that understood identity as a creative tool.
