Crimson Tide

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]I[/dropcap]’m slumped in a big chair in the deserted lobby of Def Jam/Island Records in Manhattan with a photographer waiting to interview Redman. The receptionist’s desk is conspicuously vacant, but how many labels are still open for business let alone shelling out precious cash to get some eye-candy to answer the phones? Def Jam was founded by Rick Rubin in his NYU dorm room 27 years ago. There are even fewer hip-hop artists who have spent their entire, successful multi-album careers with the same imprint.

Today’s the day Reggie—Red’s seventh studio album—drops. Redman is growing up a little and is using his real name (born: Reginald “Reggie” Noble) instead of his Redman moniker to give him some room to operate outside the Redman formula. It’s a bold move from an artist who hasn’t strayed much out of his comfort zone since he first burst onto the scene in 1992.

Finally we are ushered into an office where Redman is looking a little woozy as he tucks into a plate of rice and beans. He waves lazily and the office’s usual occupant—who is a little miffed at being ejected—leaves and we get into it.

I want you to know that one of the only dance moves I perform regularly is the “Raise the Roof” which I stole from you.

From [the] “Pick It Up”

Exactly. I do it more sedately, of course [demonstrating]. I can’t pull it off as well as you do it, but I do my best. So thanks for that.

No problem [laughs].

I’ve wanted—for years now—to ask you about your legendary MTV Cribs segment where viewers, after being subjected to episode after episode of over-the-top vulgarity, were treated to a tour of your small, messy Staten Island two-bedroom. Was that really your apartment?

Yes.

OK, was that really your cousin “Sugarbear” passed out on the living room floor?

Yes.

Did they really wake you up?

They did come at the wrong time and they did wake me up. They actually wanted me to rent a big house.

I always suspected some of the people on Cribs were flossing borrowed mansions with 12-car garages just for the show.

Yeah, they wanted me to do that, but I wasn’t with it.

The doorbell was my favorite—with the two exposed wires sticking out of the frame. Did you ever get that fixed?

No, I did not.

You got your start with one of my favorite hip-hop artists, EPMD, who are from Long Island where I grew up. Tell me how it all came together back in the day.

Sensations in New Jersey was the local hip-hop club. I was DJ-ing for DoItAll from Lords of the Underground at the time. He wasn’t with the Lords yet, but me and him had a group because we were friends. I was DJ-ing and my DJ name was Cut Killer.

I did not know that.

So we went to meet EPMD that night. They were performing. We went to the backstage and everybody was rapping, then they asked me to rap and they brought me on stage that night after I rapped.

So it went—boom!—kind of instantly. Were you terrified?

I was shocked because I was just with my boys and then they see me on stage with EPMD, you know?

They probably thought you just wandered up there.

Yeah, they thought I was up there bullshitting, but it was real. Then E told them, “Yeah, this is my next artist coming out” and everybody in the club was looking at me like, “This n*#ger is bugging right now.”

Do you still keep in touch with Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith?

Yeah, absolutely. Me and E are going to work on this next album Muddy Waters 2. So, we got a lot of work to do. E put me on so I’m always loyal to him.

You’ve appeared in several movies, including How High (with Method Man) and Seed of Chucky, but you haven’t done much recently. Is acting still something you want to do?

No, I want to be behind the scenes more. I want to be directing. I actually want to actually go to school a little bit. I want to learn the craft.

CULTURE is a medical marijuana magazine from California. I’m pretty sure you’re a fan, but do you follow/support the politics of marijuana legalization?

Yeah, I do. Absolutely, after learning the properties and the elements of the marijuana plant. You gotta really do the knowledge on what it does and how it helps people [through] these dispensaries. You got a lot of naïve people, like maybe from the East Coast, that don’t know that the dispensaries out there on the West Coast are not just for going in and getting high. They’re helping AIDS patients and patients with blood diseases . . . I did a crash course up there at Oaksterdam.

You’re from New Jersey, a state that passed a medical marijuana law a while back, but hasn’t gotten around to working out the details yet. The current governor didn’t support the bill and has been actively trying to water down (and some say completely sabotage) the law. Have you been following the controversy?

Yeah, I know. People ask me about the East Coast and the marijuana law. I say it’s like the beginning, when the West Coast started it. It’s like the front line. Be expected to take a whole bunch of risks because the East Coast is not as . . . lenient as the West Coast is as far as marijuana [is concerned]. You can still get locked up out here for like a seed or a joint. We got a while to go.

You mention “anxiety attacking” on “Reggie (Intro)” off your new album. Does that come from experience?

Yeah.

I used to get panic attacks, but once you realize what’s going on—that you’re not really dying, you’re just freaking out—you learn how to deal with it.

Yeah. My first one just came about when I was doing a lot of things at one time. Like I get an anxiety attack when I’ve got a show coming up or something like that, and then I’ve got interviews to do that day and other stuff. I get short of breath sometimes and I’ve just gotta sit down. Just freak out a little bit.

So, you’ve used marijuana for medical reasons.

Yes. It definitely calms that down.

You’ve had a long run on Def Jam. How has the label changed since you put out Whut? Thee Album on Def Jam imprint Rush Associated Labels in 1992?

You know, I love Def Jam. They are a great label. The only way they’ve changed is by the way they operate. They used to be the mechanics under the car that made the car roll. They were known for building an artist. They were known for giving that artist that hip-hop background. Like you knew if you were part of Def Jam you was hip-hop. If anyone heard you were part of Def Jam back in the ’90s—when I was coming out—they knew you had to be nice. They knew you were somebody. Now I think they became followers like the rest of the labels that want a ready-made artist. We lost that art form of building an artist. We need to get back to that.

What’s the difference between Reggie Noble and Redman? Do you feel like you are playing a role with Redman that limits you in what kind of music you can write?

Not personality-wise, but musically. When you hear a Redman album, you know what to expect. You know—the skits, the hard drum beats, the basslines. Superman level. I’m always gonna keep that humor when I spit because that’s just my personality, but with this album I wanted to broaden out more. I wanted to really just show growth on this album. Use a broader band of music. My album is more conceptual. I did a couple of concept songs that I know I wouldn’t really do on a Redman album. This is un-formulized.

Have you been listening to it non-stop?

Yeah, I was listening to it even before it came out because I’ve got to make sure there’re no glitches and stuff.

What song is your favorite right now?

Well I’ll tell you what song really sums up the difference between a Redman and the Reggie album. It’s the song “Mic, Lights, Camera, Action.” You’d never find that on a Redman album. “Let Me Get 2” with Saukrates. Very uplifting. “When The Lites Go Off.” Shit, really those.

So your label must be digging the title of your new single and video, right? “Def Jammable?” Was that your idea?

Yeah, I came up the name just doodling around with a pen on the mic. I was freestyling that day. I like recording myself. I engineer myself. I try anything on the mic and it just kinda fit.

You have your own studio and I also hear you are quite the engineer these days. Why did you decide to move out from behind the mic and get behind the console?

First of all, I think in life—whatever job occupation you have—everybody works to get the middleman out the way. And that was just my way of trying to learn to engineer, to record my artists so I can give them pointers on what I think while re-recording. To cut down costs.

Did it ever come from frustration from trying to explain to an engineer how you wanted something to sound and failing?

Well me and my engineer work pretty good. He’s been working with me for a while. But it’s just like I know what I want to do, and recording yourself and engineering yourself allows you to not have any opinions in the studio so it allows you to be more loose and free about what you say.

Has getting your hands on the console and twisting the knobs changed how you make music?

No, it just opened me up more. It’s like I said, with no opinions I can color it the way I want. It’s, like, I like this and I’m not afraid.

You and Method Man appear to be joined at the hip. You’re not Wu-Tang so . . . how did that happen?

It’s like, you know, when Def Jam did the “Month of the Man” tour that’s where we really clicked. That was in ’94 and it went down in history as a great promotional tour. We kinda built on that tour and learned from each other. How we still have the Red and Meth product going is we eliminated all the egos, the animosity, really; all the negative ingredients that cause a crew to break up, we don’t have. Meth says I’m the 11th member of the Wu-Tang.

Do you think being big fans of the green helped? It’s a great ice-breaker.

Yeah, it sure is.

You tour a lot. In fact you just finished a 20-city European tour with Method Man. Most artists tire of airport security, fast food all the time, the hotels, the grueling schedule, but you don’t seem to mind. What’s your secret to surviving the road routine?

A lot of vitamins and a lot of f*@king sleep. Sometimes we don’t get enough sleep and, like, you know when you’re young and your mom says, “Go to sleep,” and you go, “Nah, I’m gonna stay up.” Well now I really appreciate sleep. And when I’m on the road I really, really appreciate sleep a whole lot because it makes your show better. It makes your voice better.

How has life on the road changed for you over the years?

When I first went out, compared to now, it was more personal. What I mean by that is you got the viral world now. Anybody [that] wants to see you, they can basically cut on the Internet when back in the day, when I went out, they hadn’t seen me unless it was on Rap City or something like that. You didn’t have too many video channels that was doing it so you only had the chance to see the MCs a couple of times a day. So when you went out it was brand new; it was like you were half like the president or something. People appreciated you more and also, I think, appreciated the culture and the essence when you first went out.

I bet you went nuts those first few tours.

Yeah, you know, I went out with EPMD carrying bags you know and I was just astounded, rocking in front of all these people every night and then seeing the backstage shit. Shit happened. It was crazy. But I adapted real well.

Now that Reggie has been released what is next for Redman?

I’m probably gonna work on Blackout! 3 with Meth, and I really want to start doing this directing thing.

Alright I think we’re good. Anything else you wanna talk about?

Just Gilla House. My crew. Ready Rock, Saukrates, E3, Melanie. Rut Dog. That’s the movement. Gilla House. They are all on the new album, too. Right now we are a kind of self-contained unit. We don’t have a label deal. We just putting it out till we get a buzz going, man. It’s creepin‘. But it takes time.

www.reggienoble.com, www.myspace.com/redman.

Color Me Bad—Ass!

Yes, you can say Redman’s had a, ahem, colorful career. Peep this chronology of the rapper’s doings over the past two decades.

1990

Reginald “Reggie” Noble (soon-to-be Redman) makes his debut on the 1990 EPMD album Business As Usual on the tracks “Hardcore” and “Brothers on My Jock.” The album goes gold the next year.

1993

Redman’s first album, Whut? Thee Album, peaks on the U.S. Top 50. Subsequently, he is named Rap Artist of the Year by The Source.

1996

The rapper coins and popularizes the term “Raise the Roof” after his performance in the video for his song “Pick It Up.”

1999

Redman joins with friend and labelmate Method Man to produce the album, Blackout!, which sells over 1 million copies.

2000

Redman’s fourth studio album, Doc’s Da Name 2000, is released. The album goes platinum in sales and is as a top-selling album for that year.

2001

Method Man and Redman star in the comedy How High. Entertainment Weekly votes it one of the best cannabis-themed movies of all time.

2004

The television show Method & Red broadcasts on the Fox network for a nine-week run.

2006

Redman co-hosts The Stony Awards along with Doug Benson.

2009

The long-awaited Blackout! 2 album debuts at No. 7 on the Billboard 200.

2010

Redman releases his first “Reggie” album and announces that Blackout! 3 is in the works for later this year.

(Compiled by Tessa Page)

Scarlet Avenger

Who says Redman isn’t a superhero? After rapper/producer MF Doom canceled an August 2007 show in Seattle, Redman—on short notice—jumped on a plan and flew to the venue from San Francisco after being contacted by concert promoters. And just to keep the good deeds flowing, three months later Redman performed at the 20^th annual High Times Cannabis Cup.