"Method Man is the ni@@a most fake MC's love to hate. He's a confident street soldier with a back-to-basics style that earns him respect from anyone worth getting it from. His Tical album brings what is sure to become hip-hop's sound-to-bite in '95: dark bass and distorted wails that sound like someone is being hacked to death. His delivery is casual; instead of bullshit, battle rhymes are thrown like grenades. His hoarse voice and sense of what's metaphorically fly have seen him take over as hip-hop's urban paramilitary. His voice is cool and collected, dropping lines like, "36 chambers / be out you's in danger / let me pull your brain out your ass with a hanger." After "Tical" and "Biscuits" show who's boss, "Bring The Pain" has Meth roaming through his sonic castle, shining a candlestick on various wick-wack suckers who dare to release product in a hip-hop-gone-mad world. For "What The Blood Clot" he strolls through urban hell, smoking Dutch Masters, prepared to "kill a whole project." "All I Need" tells of sunshine, grey skies and the honey who stood by him through thick-and-thin. "Meth vs. Chef" is an aural equivalent of Marvel's Hulk vs. Thing epics, with Meth and Wu-Tang's Raekwon pretending to battle, then uniting against a common enemy. Tical combines verbal terrorism... and home-demo lunacy to produce a gritty introduction. He shows a fragmented hip-hop nation what this music is really about. The album will provide entertainment on the nights when there ain't jackshit to do but pop in a hip-hop tape and escape from a boring reality. And if that doesn't suit you, then go buy a Hammer tape, pootbutt." - The Source, 1995.
Below is DJ Filthy Rich's tribute mixtape celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Method Man's Tical from 11/15/94. After releasing 36 Chambers, RZA's master plan for the Wu was for each member to put out their own album. This was the first of the Wu solo ventures, and featured Meth at his rawest! To put a new spin on this classic, Filthy Rich mixed in some of the original samples, demos, remixes, breaks, album cuts and his own custom blends. Props to Filthy Rich, listen to his mix below...