Tical

Tical
Studio album by Method Man
Released	November 15, 1994
Recorded	1993-1994; 36 Chambers, Staten Island Chung King, Manhattan Firehouse Studios, Manhattan Platinum Island, Manhattan
Genre	Hip hop
Length	43:49
Label	Def Jam
Producer	RZA, Method Man, 4th Disciple
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Entertainment Weekly (B) link Melody Maker link NME (8/10) link Rhapsody (favorable) link Rolling Stone (favorable) link The Source link Vibe (favorable) link
Method Man chronology
Tical (1994) Tical 2000: Judgement Day (1998)
Wu-Tang Clan chronology
Wu-Tang Clan: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993) Tical (1994) Ol' Dirty Bastard: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (1995)

Tical is the debut album by Wu-Tang Clan member and hip hop artist Method Man. It was released by Def Jam in 1994 making it the first Wu-Tang solo album released after Wu-Tang Clan's debut, Enter the Wu-Tang. The word "tical" describes a blunt that has been laced with an adulterant, typically a sweetener or another psychoactive substance. The album title is also a play on the word "methodical".

It was a commercial success reaching #4 on the Billboard 200 and earning a platinum certification from RIAA on July 13, 1995.^[1] This success was driven by its two singles, "Bring the Pain" and also "Release Yo' Delf". The album is critically hailed by many hip hop fans as a classic album. This may be attributed to the gritty production which was handled almost exclusively by RZA. Its success is matched by its influence as a major piece in the East Coast hip hop renaissance. The album has sold 1,613,000 copies to date. [1]

History

In 1991, the rapper GZA tried to help out colleague Method Man by shopping him to label executives at Cold Chillin' Records.^[2] GZA was unsuccessful, but when he formed Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man was included in the group. Method Man went on to perform on eight of the twelve tracks on Wu-Tang's acclaimed debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang, and even had a solo song named "Method Man". That song as well as "C.R.E.A.M." on which he performed the chorus reached #69 and #60 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100.^[3] These two songs had better chart positions than any other tracks on Enter The Wu-Tang and thus hyped Method Man's solo career greatly. At the time of Wu-Tang Clan's debut album, Method Man's deadly rhymes, charisma and smooth, deep voice made him the group's most popular member.^[2]

RZA produced Tical in its near-entirety - except for "Sub Crazy" and "P.L.O. Style", co-produced by 4th Disciple and Method Man respectively - leading Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic to refer to the album as "a two-man show".^[4] As with the rest of the first round of Wu-Tang albums, RZA would recreate the distinct "Shaolin" sound while tailoring it to the featured rapper. On Tical, his production was especially dark and murky, complementing both Method Man's distinctly smooth-yet-rugged voice and his raps of cannabis smoking ("Tical"), project love ("All I Need"), and traditional hardcore hip hop lyricism ("Bring The Pain"). In these early days of the Wu-Tang Clan, the RZA was the sole provider of beats for eight talented emcees, whom he would then battle over the rights to record over them. This competitive approach to quality control would result in Tical's "Meth Vs. Chef", a recording of one such a battle between Method Man and Raekwon.^[2] "Meth Vs. Chef" was recorded in 1993 before RZA's 36 Chambers Studios was flooded, destroying reportedly fifteen beats per Wu-Tang Clan rapper.^[2] Many of the beats for Tical would be hastily recreated and mixed, resulting in a decrease in sound quality.^[2]

In 1994 the lead single "Bring The Pain" (backed with "P.L.O. Style") was released. "Bring The Pain" was a RZA-produced track with an understated but funky groove, capped with the ragga vocals of Booster. The single would reach #45 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Dance chart. The follow-up single, 1995's "Release Yo' Delf", was a more upbeat track - at least by RZA's standards - and featured Wu-affiliate Blue Raspberry singing an interpolation of Gloria Gaynor's disco anthem, "I Will Survive". "Release Yo' Delf" reached #98 on the Hot 100, failing to match the success of "Bring The Pain"; Tical however remains the only Method Man album with two singles reaching the Billboard Hot 100.

To continue the album's promotion, "All I Need" was remixed and released in the summer of 1995 as "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By". There are two versions of this Mary J. Blige duet: one remixed by Puff Daddy and one remixed by the Trackmasters' Poke. Puff Daddy's version featured a sample from The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Me & My Bitch". The RZA remix is more popular and famous. Its accompanying video helped the song reach #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot Rap, Dance and R&B charts^[5]. The RZA remix also won the two a Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group Grammy Award in 1996.

Reception

• Rolling Stone (12/29/94-1/12/95, pp. 178-80) - "He's...capable...of something resembling a love song....But it is with its heaviest numbers...that Tical delivers the primo goods."

• Entertainment Weekly (12/9/94, p. 76) - "...one or rap's most formidable players....[Method Man's] gripping rhymes creep out of the darkness and take listeners hostage." - Rating: B

• Q magazine (2/96, p. 65) - Included in Q's 50 Best Albums of 1995 - "...every second [is] worth paying attention to."

• It was included in Q Magazine's 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time.^[6]

• The Wire (10/01, p. 46) - "Compact but fried....There's a reason Meth is the closest The Wu have to a star."

• Vibe (11/94, pp. 125-126) - "Method is the man who would be king....Method takes the listener on a brilliant journey through the broken boulevards of existence."

• The Source (1/95, p. 85) - 4 Mics - Slammin' - "His hoarse voice and sense of what's metaphorically fly have seen him take over as hip-hop's urban paramilitary....He shows a fragmented hip-hop nation what this music is really about."

• Melody Maker (5/23/00, p. 56) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[Meth] comes correct with [this] beamed-down-from-Planet-Mars [stuff] making music that's way darker and more disorienting than was previously thought possible. 'Bring The Pain' is 'still' the bomb."

• NME (12/23-30/95, pp. 22-23) - Ranked #40 in NME's `Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995 -

• NME (1/28/95, p.47) - 8 - Excellent - "The East Coast hip-hop renaissance continues apace...supremely laid-back, mooching along at a bass-weighted amble whether it's framing the monogamous lover's lament of `All I Need'...or the `I Will Survive' hook of `Release Yo' Delf'."

Track listing

Singles

The information on the singles is extracted from discogs.com^[7] and Allmusic.^[8]

Chart positions

Albums

Album chart positions are taken from Billboard magazine (North America).^[9]

Singles

Singles chart positions are taken from Billboard magazine (North America).^[5]

References

External links

• Tical at MusicBrainz