If you graduated high school in 1999, like this TV editor, “Da Rockwilder” by Method Man and Redman was likely one of the songs on your senior year soundtrack. The Rockwilder-produced track would also probably be the shortest song on that burned CD (again, this was 1999).
“Da Rockwilder,” which features one verse by each of the emcees and doesn’t even have a chorus, clocks in at a lightning-fast two minutes and 16 seconds. With Method Man (real name Cliff Smith) captive on Zoom to discuss his role in upcoming “Power” spinoff, “Ghost,” I asked the rapper/actor why the single was barely the length of pop songs in the 1950s.
His answer was even shorter than the song off of the “Blackout!” album, which went platinum in 2000 — and that stopwatch-watching included his redirecting plug for “Power Book II.” (“You gotta get that Starz app, Doc.”)
“It was so short because Red(man) didn’t like the track,” Method Man said. “Him and Erick Sermon came up with Rockwilder (real name Dana Stinson), and they’re very hard on him when it comes to beats. He didn’t like the track. I loved it, I embraced it, I jumped on it. Red didn’t even have a verse on it for like a week and a half.”
“If you actually listen to it, he kinda rushed through his verse,” he continued.
Method Man’s mic time on this one runs about 10 seconds longer than Redman’s (real name Reggie Noble).
Rushed or not, they’re both good verses — and the whole thing was capped off with a great music video from Dave Meyers (yeah, that’s just his real name).
Remember the good old days via the video above. Also “old” when you consider 1999 was 21 years ago? Me.
Check back for more of our interview with Cliff “Method Man” Smith in time for the “Power Book II: Ghost” series premiere Sept. 6 at 9/8c on Starz.
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