A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere, and are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience. Key elements of happenings are planned, but artists sometimes retain room for improvisation. This new media art aspect to happenings eliminates the boundary between the artwork and its viewer. Henceforth, the interactions between the audience and the artwork makes the audience, in a sense, part of the art.

In the later sixties, perhaps due to the depiction in films of hippie culture, the term was used much less specifically to mean any gathering of interest, from a pool hall meetup or a jamming of a few young people to a beer blast or fancy formal party.

History[link]

Origins[link]

Survival Research Laboratories Performance in L.A. 2006

Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happening" in the spring of 1957 at an art picnic at George Segal's farm to describe the art pieces that were going on^{[citation needed]}. The first appearance in print was in Kaprow's famous "Legacy of Jackson Pollock" essay that was published in 1958 but primarily written in 1956. "Happening" also appeared in print in one issue of the Rutgers University undergraduate literary magazine, Anthologist.^[1] The form was imitated and the term was adopted by artists across the U.S., Germany, and Japan. Jack Kerouac referred to Kaprow as "The Happenings man", and an ad showing a woman floating in outer space declared, "I dreamt I was in a happening in my Maidenform brassiere".

Happenings are difficult to describe, in part because each one is unique and completely different from one another. One definition comes from Wardrip-Fruin and Montfort in The New Media Reader, "The term "Happening" has been used to describe many performances and events, organized by Allan Kaprow and others during the 1950s and 1960s, including a number of theatrical productions that were traditionally scripted and invited only limited audience interaction."^[2] Another definition is, "a purposefully composed form of theatre in which diverse alogical elements, including nonmatrixed performing, are organized in a compartmented structure".^[3] A "Happening" of the same performance will have a different outcomes because each performance depends on the action of the audience. In New York especially, "Happenings" become quite popular even though many have not seen nor experienced it.

Happenings can be a form of participatory new media art, emphasizing an interaction between the performer and the audience. Breaking the fourth wall between performer and spectator, it replaces criticism with support. For some happenings, everyone present is included in the making of the art and even the form of the art depends on audience engagement, for they are a key factor in where the performers' spontaneity leads. Later happenings had no set rules, only vague guidelines that the performers follow based on surrounding props. Unlike other forms of art, Happenings that allow chance to enter are ever-changing. When chance determines the path the performance will follow, there is no room for failure. As Kaprow wrote in his essay, "'Happenings' in the New York Scene", "Visitors to a Happening are now and then not sure what has taken place, when it has ended, even when things have gone 'wrong'. For when something goes 'wrong', something far more 'right,' more revelatory, has many times emerged".^{[4][Full citation needed]} The art thrives on an artist's whim, with the comfort of giving their mistakes the benefit of the doubt. The art defines itself by the fact that it is a unique, one-time experience that depends on audience response. It cannot be bought or brought home, which entitles every Happening artist to a sense of privacy. As Kaprow explains in the aforementioned essay, since the performances are always different, each one of these artists cannot lose their creative drive to a mainstream force.

Kaprow’s piece 18 Happenings in 6 Parts (1959) is commonly cited as the first happening,^{[by whom?]} although that distinction is sometimes given to a 1952 performance of Theater Piece No. 1 at Black Mountain College by John Cage, one of Kaprow's teachers in the mid-1950s. Cage stood reading from a ladder, Charles Olson read from another ladder, Robert Rauschenberg showed some of his paintings and played wax cylinders of Édith Piaf on an Edison horn recorder, David Tudor performed on a prepared piano and Merce Cunningham danced.^[5] All these things took place at the same time, among the audience rather than on a stage. Happenings flourished in New York City in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Key contributors to the form included Carolee Schneemann, Red Grooms, Robert Whitman, Jim Dine Car Crash,^[6] Claes Oldenburg, Robert Delford Brown, Lucas Samaras, and Robert Rauschenberg. Some of their work is documented in Michael Kirby's book Happenings (1966).^[7] Interestingly, Kaprow claimed that "some of us will become famous, and we will have proven once again that the only success occurred when there was a lack of it". (New Media Reader, p 87)^{[Full citation needed]}

During the summer of 1959, Red Grooms along with others (Yvonne Andersen, Bill Barrell, Sylvia Small and Dominic Falcone) staged the non-narrative "play" Walking Man, which began with construction sounds, such as sawing. Grooms recalls, "The curtains were opened by me, playing a fireman wearing a simple costume of white pants and T-shirt with a poncholike cloak and a Smokey Stoverish fireman's helmet. Bill, the 'star' in a tall hat and black overcoat, walked back and forth across the stage with great wooden gestures. Yvonne sat on the floor by a suspended fire engine. She was a blind woman with tin-foil covered glasses and cup. Sylvia played a radio and pulled on hanging junk. For the finale, I hid behand a false door and shouted pop code words. Then the cast did a wild run around and it ended".^[8] Dubbing his 148 Delancey Street studio The Delancey Street Museum, Grooms staged three more happenings there, A Garden, The Burning Building and The Magic Trainride (originally titled Fireman's Dream). No wonder Kaprow called Grooms "a Charlie Chaplin forever dreaming about fire".^[8] On the opening night of The Burning Building, Bob Thompson solicited an audience member for a light, since none of the cast had one, and this gesture of spontaneous theater recurred in eight subsequent performances.^[8]

Difference from plays[link]

Happenings emphasize the organic connection between art and its environment. Kaprow supports that "happenings invite us to cast aside for a moment these proper manners and partake wholly in the real nature of the art and life. It is a rough and sudden act, where one often feels "dirty", and dirt, we might begin to realize, is also organic and fertile, and everything including the visitors can grow a little into such circumstances." Secondly, happenings have no plot or philosophy, but rather is materialized in an improvisatory fashion. There is no direction thus the outcome is unpredictable. "It is generated in action by a headful of ideas...and it frequently has words but they may or may not make literal sense. If they do, their meaning is not representational of what the whole element conveys. Hence they carry a brief, detached quality. If they do not make sense, then they are acknowledgement of the sound of the word rather than the meaning conveyed by it." Last, due to the convention's nature, there is no such term as "failure" which can be applied. "For when something goes "wrong", something far more "right", more revelatory may emerge. This sort of sudden near-miracle presently is made more likely by chance procedures." As a conclusion, a happening is fresh while it lasts and cannot be reproduced (Wardrip-Fruin, 86).^{[Full citation needed]}

Regarding happenings, Red Grooms has remarked, "I had the sense that I knew it was something. I knew it was something because I didn't know what it was. I think that's when you're at your best point. When you're really doing something, you're doing it all out, but you don't know what it is."^[8]

The lack of plot as well as the expected audience participation can be likened to Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed, which also claims that "spectator is a bad word". Boal expected audience members to participate in the theater of the oppressed by becoming the actors. His goal was to allow the downtrodden to act out the forces oppressing them in order to mobilize the people into political action. Both Kaprow and Boal are reinventing theater to try to make plays more interactive and to abolish the traditional narrative form to make theater something more free-form and organic.^[9]

Contribution toward digital media[link]

Allan Kaprow's and other artists of the 1950s and 1960s that performed these Happenings helped put "new media technology developments into context".^{[cite this quote]} It was highly influential in true intermedia work and the interactivity in art.^{[citation needed]} The Happenings allowed other artists to create performances that would attract attention to the issue they wanted to portray. Digital media examples of Happenings could be as simple as artists creating a webpage about their issues or going on to blogs, forums and other networks that they could send mass art and information through.^{[citation needed]} Currently happenings today can be found with Jazz in a whole new way through the artistic collaboration of renowned musicians American saxophonist David Liebman, French jazz pianist Jean-Marie Machado, and multimedia visual artist Barbara Januszkiewicz. their group Jazz Vision Trio^[10] is using new media techniques and real-time improvising with jazz and art. Samples of this mixing music and art can be found on YouTube.^{[citation needed]} Dave Liebman a NEA 2011 Jazz master is a perfect example of a forward-thinking player whose advanced style and association with Miles Davis makes him one of the most influential jazz musicians of his era.^{[citation needed]} He recalls mixing it up with the happenings in and around New York in the 1960s.^{[cite this quote]} It is like visiting an old idea but making it new again.^{[citation needed]}

Around the world[link]

In 1959 the French artist Yves Klein first performed Zone de Sensibilité Picturale Immatérielle. The work involved the sale of documentation of ownership of empty space (the Immaterial Zone), taking the form of a cheque, in exchange for gold; if the buyer wished, the piece could then be completed in an elaborate ritual in which the buyer would burn the cheque, and Klein would throw half of the gold into the Seine.^[11] The ritual would be performed in the presence of an art critic or distinguished dealer, an art museum director and at least two witnesses.^[11]

In 1960, Jean-Jacques Lebel oversaw and partook in the first European Happening L'enterrement de la Chose in Venice. For his performance there - called Happening Funeral Ceremony of the Anti-Process - Lebel invited the audience to attend a ceremony in formal dress. In a decorated room within a grand residence, a draped 'cadaver' rested on a plinth which was then ritually stabbed by an 'executioner' while a 'service' was read consisting of extracts from the French décadent writer Joris-Karl Huysmans and le Marquis de Sade. Then pall-bearers carried the coffin out into a gondola and the 'body' - which was in fact a mechanical sculpture by Jean Tinguely - was ceremonially slid into the canal.^[12]

Poet and painter Adrian Henri claimed to have organized the first happenings in England in Liverpool in 1962,^[13] taking place during the Merseyside Arts Festival.^[14] The most important event in London was the Albert Hall “International Poetry Incarnation” on June 11, 1965, where an audience of 7,000 people witnessed and participated in performances by some of the leading avant-garde young British and American poets of the day (see British Poetry Revival and Poetry of the United States). One of the participants, Jeff Nuttall, went on to organize a number of further happenings, often working with his friend Bob Cobbing, sound poet and performance poet.

In Tokyo in 1964, Yoko Ono created a happening by performing her "Cut Piece" at the Sogetsu Art Center. She walked onto the stage draped in fabric, presented the audience with a pair of scissors, and instructed the audience to cut the fabric away gradually until she was naked.^[15]

Trash people by HA Schult

In Belgium, the first happenings were organized around 1965–1968 in Antwerp, Brussels and Ostend by artists Hugo Heyrman and Panamarenko.

In the Netherlands, Provo organized happenings around the little statue "Het Lieverdje" on the Spui, a square in the centre of Amsterdam, from 1966 till 1968. Police often raided these events.

In Germany, HA Schult (b. 1939), together with his muse, Elke Koska, organizes happenings since the late 1960s, thereby primarily working with garbage. In the 1960s Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman and Dick Higgins made Happenings in Germany.

In Australia, the Yellow House Artist Collective in Sydney housed 24-hour happenings throughout the early 1970s.

Behind the Iron Curtain, in Poland, artist and theater director Tadeusz Kantor staged the first happenings starting in 1965. Also, in the second half of 1980s, a student-based happening movement Orange Alternative founded by Major Waldemar Fydrych became known for its much attended happenings (over 10 thousand participants at one time) aimed against the military regime led by General Jaruzelski and the fear blocking the Polish society ever since the Martial Law had been imposed in December 1981.

Since 1993 the artist Jens Galschiøt have made political happenings all over the world, in November 1993 he made the happening my inner beast where twenty sculptures were erected within 55 hours without the knowledge of the authorities all over Europe. Pillar of Shame is a series of Galschiøt's sculptures. The first was erected in Hong Kong on 4 June 1997, ahead of the handover from British to Chinese rule on 1 July 1997, as a protest against China's crackdown of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. On 1 May 1999, a Pillar of Shame was set up on the Zócalo^[16] in Mexico City. It stood for two days in front of the Parliament to protest the oppression of the region's indigenous people.

The non-profit, artist-run organization, iKatun,^[17] has reflected the use of "Happenings" influence while incorporating the medium of internet. They aim is one that "fosters public engagement in the politics of information".^{[Full citation needed]} Their project entitled The International Database of Corporate Commands presents a scrutinizing look at the super-saturating advertisements slogans, and "commands" of companies. "The Institute for Infinitely Small Things uses these commands to conduct research performances- performances in which we attempt to enact, as literally as possible, what the command tells us to do and where it tells us to do it. For example, a user may look at a long list of slogans on the website database section, and may submit, in text, his or her take on the most literal way to act out the slogan/ command. The iKatun team will then act out the slogan in a research-performance related way. This means of performance art draws on the collaboration of the web world and tangible reality to conduct a new, modern Happening.^[18]

Modern happenings[link]

Flash Mob Bang^{[clarification needed]}

• Flashmob
• Improv Everywhere
• Performance Art
• Zombie Walk
• Subway party
• International Pillow Fight Day
• Silent Disco

Philosophy[link]

Kaprow explains that happenings are not a new style, but a moral act, a human stand of great urgency, whose professional status as art is less critical than their certainty as an ultimate existential commitment. He argues that once artists have been recognized and paid, they also surrender to the confinement, rather the tastes of the patrons (even if that may not be the intention on both ends). "The whole situation is corrosive, neither patrons nor artists comprehend their role...and out of this hidden discomfort comes a stillborn art, tight or merely repetitive and at worst, chic." Though the we may easily blame those offering the temptation, Kaprow reminds us that it is not the publicist's moral obligation to protect the artist's freedom, and artists themselves hold the ultimate power to reject fame if they do not want its responsibilities. (Wardrip-Fruin, 87)^{[Full citation needed]}

Festivals as happenings[link]

Art and music festivals play a large role in positive and successful happenings. Some of these festivals include Burning Man and Oregon Country Fair.^[19][20] Along with the famous Allan Kaprow Burning Man frowns on the idea of spectators and stresses the importance of everyone being involved to create something amazing and unique. Both parties embody the "audience" and instead of creating something to show the people, the people become involved in helping create something incredible and spontaneous to the moment.^[21] Both of these events are happenings that are recreated and special each year and are always new and organic. These events draw crowds of close to 50,000 people each year and reach more people then just the attendees with their messages and ideals.^[22][23]

Further reading[link]

• Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Nick Montfort, ed (2003). The New Media Reader. pp. 83–88. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-23227-8.
• Soke Dinkla, "From Participation to Interaction" (283, 289-290) Referenced in Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Nick Montfort, ed (2003). The New Media Reader. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-23227-8.
• Joseph Nechvatal, Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2009
• Kaprow, Allan. Allan Kaprow: 18 Happenings in 6 Parts. 2007. Print.
• Hendricks, Geoffrey. Critical Mass: Happenings, Fluxus, Performance, Intermedia, and Rutgers University, 1958-1972. New Brunswick, N.J.: Mason Gross Art Galleries, Rutgers University, 2003. Print.
• Kaprow, Allan, and Jean Jacques. Lebel. Assemblage, Environments & Happenings. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1966. Print.
• Das Theater ist auf der Straße, Die Happenings von Wolf Vostell. Museum Morsbroich Leverkusen. Kerber Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86678-431-4

See also[link]

• Speculations: An Essay on the Theater
• Mac Wellman
• The Flea Theater
• Performance art
• Elizabeth LeCompte
• The Wooster Group
• Ontological-Hysteric Theater
• Richard Foreman
• Richard Schechner
• Allan Kaprow
• Fluxus
• Intermedia
• Dick Higgins
• Marina Abramović
• Jens Galschiøt
• Experimental theatre
• Avant-garde
• Situationism
• Flash mob
• Robert Delford Brown
• Fluxus at Rutgers University
• Bread and Puppet Theater
• Gutai group
• Busking

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiversity has learning materials about Performance art

• Happenings in Belgium
• Happenings by Orange Alternative in Poland
• Allan Kaprow on Ubuweb
• Interview with Kaprow
• Report on a Happening, 1963

v t e Avant-garde movements Visual art Abstract expressionism Art Nouveau Conceptual art Cubism Cubo-Futurism De Stijl Ego-Futurism Fauvism Impressionism Post-Impressionism Color Field Incoherents Lyrical Abstraction Minimalism Mail art Neue Slowenische Kunst Nonconformism Pop art Rayonism Suprematism Vorticism Nouveau réalisme Music Ars subtilior Avant-garde jazz Avant-garde metal Free jazz Industrial music Krautrock Musique concrète No Wave Noise music Post-rock Progressive Rock Rock in Opposition Serialism Second Viennese School Drone music Literature and poetry Acmeist poetry Angry Penguins Asemic writing Cyberpunk Experimental literature Flarf poetry Imaginism Language poets Neoteric Oberiu Oulipo Visual poetry Nouveau roman Cinema and theatre Cinema pur Dogme 95 Drop Art Epic theatre Remodernist film Theatre of the Absurd Theatre of Cruelty General Bauhaus Dada Expressionism Fluxus Futurism Lettrism Modernism Minimalism Postminimalism Neo-minimalism Neo-Dada Neoism Postmodernism Primitivism Russian Futurism Russian symbolism Situationist International Social realism Socialist realism Surrealism Symbolism Book

Method Man
December 21, 2010
Background information
Birth name	Clifford Smith
Also known as	Meth, Tical, Johnny Blaze, Methtical, Shakwon, Iron Lung, Hot Nikkels, MZA, John J
Born	(1971-04-01) April 1, 1971 (age 41)[1][2] Staten Island, New York City, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, actor
Years active	1990–present (rapping) 1995–present (acting)
Labels	Def Jam
Associated acts	Wu-Tang Clan, Redman, Erick Sermon, LL Cool J, The Notorious B.I.G., DMX, Xzibit, Shyheim
Website	method-man.com

Clifford Smith (born April 1, 1971),^[3] better known by his stage name Method Man, is an American hip hop artist, record producer, actor and member of the hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He took his stage name from the 1979 film The Fearless Young Boxer, also known as Method Man. He is one half of the rap duo Method Man & Redman. He won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By" with Mary J. Blige. In 2007, the writers of About.com placed him on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007).^[4]

Method Man appeared in the motion pictures Belly, How High, Garden State as well as a minor role in The Wackness. More recently, he appeared as a crewman in George Lucas' film Red Tails. On television, he and hip-hop collaborator Redman co-starred on the short-lived Fox sitcom Method & Red, and he had a recurring role on HBO's Oz as Tug Daniels and as Calvin "Cheese" Wagstaff on the acclaimed HBO drama series The Wire.

Early life[link]

Born in Staten Island, New York, on April 1 , 1971, Clifford Smith divided his childhood between his father's Long Island residence and his mother's home in the Park Hill section of Staten Island aka Killa Hill.^[5] He has two sisters, Terri and Missy.^[5]

Rapping career[link]

[edit] 1992–96: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and Tical

As Wu-Tang Clan ascended to hip hop stardom, Method Man was always one of the most visible members of the collective. He was one of only two members to get a solo song on the group's debut album Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers and he was the first to release a solo album under the Clan's unusual contract which allowed its members to release albums under any record label (Method chose to sign with rap label Def Jam). Method Man's solo debut, Tical (1994) was critically acclaimed and well received, entering the American charts at #4 and eventually selling in excess of one million copies. That album featured the hit single "All I Need" which was later remixed featuring Mary J Blige, which won a Grammy "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need,"). during this time Method Man also became close friends with The Notorious B.I.G., and was the only guest rapper featured on his debut album Ready to Die. He was also featured on Spice 1's album "AmeriKKKa's Nightmare" on the track "Hard 2 Kill". In 1995, he was also featured on "Got the Flava" off Showbiz and A.G.'s album Goodfellas. In 1996, Method Man appeared on Tupac Shakur's album All Eyez on Me, on the song "Got My Mind Made Up" alongside his rhyme partner Redman, The Dogg Pound (Daz and Kurupt) and Inspectah Deck (Rebel INS), whose verse did not make the released album version (although his nickname "Rebel INS" can be heard as the song fades).

[edit] 1997–98: Wu-Tang Forever and Tical 2000: Judgement Day

On June 3, 1997 the Wu-Tang Clan released their Grammy-nominated multiplatinum double CD Wu-Tang Forever, the long-awaited follow up to 36 Chambers. The album has sold over 8.3 million copies to date worldwide.

His second solo album was Tical 2000: Judgement Day, released in 1998, which was heavily influenced by the apocalypse theories surrounding the forthcoming end of the millennium, and which featured myriad guest appearances from his fellow Wu-Tang MCs, proving for the world that Method Man is in fact America's most blunted(with the help of Red Man). The album was certified double platinum. Other guest appearances include Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, D'Angelo, Chris Rock, Mobb Deep, Redman, and brief cameos from Russell Simmons, Bishop Don "Magic" Juan, Janet Jackson, and Donald Trump. The album sold better than his first fueled by the party track "Judgment Day" and the D'Angelo collaboration "Break Ups 2 Make Ups", earning Platinum and Gold certifications in the U.S. and Canada respectively. Reviews for the album were mixed and its long runtime and abundance of intermittent comedy skits were widely criticized. Producers on this album included True Master, 4th Disciple and the RZA.

[edit] 1999–2000: Blackout! (with Redman)

Method Man was part of the very successful Hard Knock Life Tour with Jay-Z, Redman, Ja Rule, and DMX. During this tour, Method Man & Redman recorded Blackout!, a light-hearted, bass-heavy, profanity-laced, party record with an EPMD-evoking emphasis on funky beats and the mischievous wit and cool flows and good rhythm of the two MCs. The album reached platinum status quickly, both in the U.S. and Canada, fueled by "Da Rockwilder", "Cereal Killa", "1, 2, 1, 2", "Tear It Off" and "Y.O.U.". This album also featured three previously released tracks on which the two collaborated.

Their success would lead the duo on to star in movies and TV shows, become product spokespersons and household names, but also associated them with marijuana use in the media. The most immediate results of their success was their co-starring roles in the major motion picture film How High, their endorsement deal for Right Guard, Redman's starring role in Seed of Chucky and a short-lived sitcom on Fox Television entitled Method & Red.

[edit] 2000–04: The W, Iron Flag, and Tihkal 0: The Prequel

The Wu-Tang Clan released The W on November 21, 2000 and Iron Flag on December 18, 2001. The W received both critical and commercial success for the group, while Iron Flag did receive some but not to the effect of The W. The efforts earned two more platinum plaques for the Wu-Tang Clan.

In 2004, Meth released his third solo album Tical 0: The Prequel, which featured the hit party single "What's Happenin'" with Busta Rhymes. Hip hop critics voiced their displeasure with the album, many agreeing that Tical 0 felt like generic party rap and featured too many mainstream guests, detracting from his own performances. Regardless, this album sold reasonably well and was certified gold record by the RIAA relatively quickly, but would not see the platinum success of his previous solo releases. There was trouble even before the album's release when Method apparently complained to the press about excessive interference from Def Jam over the album's beats (Meth supposedly desired more input from Wu-Tang leader RZA). On its release, many fans and critics were taken aback by its strong "mainstream" or "commercial" sound, highlighted by the guest appearances of pop-rap stars like Missy Elliott and P. Diddy, two artists that are involved with much different facets of rap music.

P. Diddy was one of the executive producers for the album, although Meth later voiced his displeasure with the final product. "On the third LP, it was suggested (by Def Jam) to bring in Harve Pierre and P. Diddy. Who am I to argue? Puff knows how to sell some records. But that wasn't the direction to go in, and I know that."^[6]

[edit] 2006–07: 4:21... The Day After

Method Man at the 2007 Eurockéennes.

Method Man's fourth album, entitled 4:21: The Day After was released in August 2006 with a star lineup of producers featuring Havoc, Erick Sermon, Scott Storch, Allah Mathematics, Mr. Porter, and, most importantly to Meth, RZA. This time around, a more focused Method Man went back to his hip hop roots and both hip hop fans and the media took notice. He did an interview on the ItsHipHop.Tv.^[7] Despite this being one of Meth's strongest solo efforts to date, the album failed to do well commercially due to it having no single or video, which Method Man has held discontent towards his own label for. However, he has been touring strongly all over the world to promote the album, and has appeared onstage with fellow Wu-Tang member Inspectah Deck, as well as New York up and comers Saigon, and Gat Murdah. Meth contributed various reasons for the problems between him and his label, Def Jam. While he puts most of the blame on personal agendas in the Def Jam offices, Meth did take some blame, himself, for giving into his record label.

In early May 2007, Method Man's camp leaked the street single "New York New York" which became a popular track on the internet.^[8]

[edit] 2007–10: Blackout! 2

On March 27, 2007, Redman confirmed on BET's Rap City: Tha Bassment that the sequel to How High, How High 2, is currently being written.

In an April 10, 2007 Onion AV Club interview,^[9] Redman hinted that there would be a second collaborative album with Method Man, with work beginning in midsummer or early September.

In early 2008, a remake of the Smoothe da Hustler and Trigger tha Gambler classic Broken Language was released to the internet by the duo entitled Broken Language 2008, fueling rumors of a Blackout! sequel coming soon. This rumor was further fueled by the duo while performing in Gainesville, Florida at the University of Florida. A Blackout! 2 LP was scheduled for a December 9, 2008 release but was recently pushed back to the first quarter of 2009, with a new release date on May 19. Bun B has confirmed that he will guest star on Blackout! 2 – in April 2009, a single has been released named City Lights, produced by Nasty Kutt ^[10] Also producers such as Erick Sermon, Rockwilder and Pete Rock have announced their presence on the album.

The duo has finished their Still High tour with Termanalogy, the Alchemist, and Evidence of Dilated Peoples.

[edit] 2011–present: Crystal Meth

Crystal Meth is Method Man's upcoming fifth studio album.^[11][12][13] The album has no confirmed release date. The Crystal Meth was first announced before Method Man began working on his and Redman's sophomore collaboration album, Blackout! 2. In the liner notes of that album, it was given a scheduled release date for 2009. The album, however, was further postponed until it was later mentioned in an MTV interview it would be released in early 2010.^[11] no update on the album's progress or release date has been made. At a concert on the 23 of December 2010 Method Man told the crowd to look for his album in March 2011. However the album was pushed back to an unknown release date.

In a recent interview with The Come Up Show following a recent performance in Canada in April 2011, Method Man replied with this regarding his current 'weed-loving' image:"When you get older and you've got kids and your kids are going to school and you know [their] teachers...and they see how active you are and concerned [you are] with your kids' education or well being, it's hard to sit there and be taken seriously if people are always talking about he's always high...which is totally not the case," he said. "When I first came out, I was young, we were doing our thing, we smoked a lot...and we didn't care if the world knew. Now, I have to use more discretion because of my kids. This is not for me; everything I do is for them now, so I use a bit more discretion and I don't put weed as a forefront any more."

On October 5, 2011, a new single from Method Man, titled "World Gone Sour (The Lost Kids)", was released on iTunes.^[14] Recently, he confirmed that the album will come out next year and will have the usual line-up of producers including RZA, Rockwilder, Erick Sermon, 3rd Digala of Digem Tracks and some other new underground producers he's begun to work with.^[15] He also expressed a desire to work with Odd Future frontman Tyler, The Creator.^[16] It was recently announced via Facebook that Crystal Meth will be his last album & to be fully produced by RZA.

Acting career[link]

In the early 2000s Method Man began a career in acting. He has had recurring roles in critically acclaimed television shows such as HBO's Oz as Tug Daniels, HBO's The Wire in which he plays Prop Joe's nephew Cheese, The Twilight Zone and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He and Redman hosted a pilot on MTV called Stung. He has made numerous appearances as himself on TV shows such as Mind of Mencia and Chappelle's Show.

Method Man portrays Drops on CSI, a wealthy Las Vegas party promoter who clashes with the CSI team, specifically investigator Nick Stokes, in their investigations involving his clubs or entourage. His first appearance on CSI as Drops was in the 2006 episode "Poppin' Tags". He resumed the role in the 2007 episode "Big Shots" and again in the 2008 episode "Drops Out".

His first prominent role came in 1998 with the film Belly along with fellow rappers Nas and DMX. He has since added many credits to his name, including roles in the films Garden State, One Eight Seven, and many others, with starring roles in the feature films such as How High and Soul Plane. On March 27, 2007 Redman confirmed on BET's show Rap City that the sequel to How High was being written. The script for How High 2 is being written by Dustin Lee Abraham of CSI, who also wrote the first movie. In 2005 Method Man also had a cameo in the horror movie Venom, where he played a deputy who shortly into the movie is killed. He appears in the 2008 movies The Wackness and also, Meet the Spartans.

Method Man stars in the episode "Snitch" of Law & Order SVU as the main antagonist. The episode was first broadcast December 4, 2007.

Method Man has made an appearance in the Def Jam series of video games. In Fight for NY he voiced Blaze, one of the main characters. In Icon, he voiced Gooch, a major character in the storyline. In Underground, He voiced Meth, one of the major characters. He made a guest appearance in the music video for the 2003 "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys, where he played the role of her boyfriend. He also appeared in Beanie Sigel's music video "Feel It in the Air", where Method Man played an undercover cop leading an operation against Sigel.

Method Man has fallen back from pursuing more acting roles after the situation with his sitcom on Fox left a bad taste in his mouth,^[17] and now mostly just acts if the project is being handled by a friend of his, as was the case with CSI and The Wire. He also played an arsonist and a wealthy executive as well as main antagonist in an episode of the fox TV show The Good Guys.

Method Man appears as a hip hop business mogul in an episode of Burn Notice.

Method man had a cameo appearance in the 1997 film Cop Land as a physically violent fleeing criminal that throws Peter Berg's character off of a New York rooftop. Method Man has also appeared in the TV drama Wonderland, as a patient in a mental hospital.

Method man plays a small role in the 2011 film "The Sitter" starring Jonah Hill. In 2012 he played crewman "Sticks" in George Lucas' movie Red Tails about the Tuskegee airmen.

Other ventures[link]

Method Man appeared in the 1995 documentary entitled The Show. There is a memorable scene in which Method Man, on a train in Japan, gets into an argument with U-God and Ghostface Killah, over camera time, radio interviews, and clothing mishaps.

In 2006, Method Man appeared on the MTV reality game show Yo Momma in the first episode of Season 1.

Method Man is the first of the Wu-Tang Clan to produce a series of eponymous graphic novels for Hachette Book Group USA's imprint Grand Central Publishing^[18] (to be followed by GZA and Ghostface Killah).^[19]

Personal life[link]

He became engaged to his wife in 1999 and they married in 2001.^[5] He has three children: two sons (born in 1996 and 2001), and one daughter (born in 1997). Method Man also has collabed with Rochester rapper "Dale Mahoney" on his project "Jordans&Drugs" in 2012.^[20]

Legal issues[link]

On Thursday May 17, 2007 Method Man was arrested in New York City on marijuana charges. His Mercedes-Benz convertible was pulled over at the Battery Tunnel en route to Manhattan, and when he rolled his window down the officer noticed a strong smell of marijuana. "It was like something out of Cheech & Chong. He rolls down the window and the smoke would choke a horse," a source later said.^[21] The arresting officer said he noticed two blunts and a plastic bag with more marijuana in plain view. Upon further inspection more marijuana was found under the driver's seat. The arrest was made at about 10 P.M. Thursday night near the Battery Tunnel toll booths on Hamilton Ave. in Carroll Gardens. He was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana, criminal possession of marijuana, operating a motor vehicle under the influence and driving an uninspected motor vehicle. He later made many public service appearances to try to make up for it, most notably at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn.^[22]

On October 5, 2009, Method Man was arrested at his home in Staten Island for income tax violations.^[23] He was accused of failing to file income tax returns for the state of New York between 2004 and 2007 and owes nearly $33,000 in taxes. On June 28, 2010,^[24] Method Man plead guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to a conditional discharge^[25] and paid a $106,000.00 fine.^[24]

Controversies[link]

Wu-Tang management[link]

In 2003, Method Man criticized Oli "Power" Grant and Mitchell "Divine" Diggs, the managers of the Wu-Tang business.^[26] "Number 1 on my shit list right now is Divine from Wu-Tang management. He took something major from me that he had no intention of giving back."^[27] Divine is multiplatinum record producer RZA's brother who along with Oli "Power" Grant took over the business end of Wu-Tang around 1997.

Aside from the financial issues, Method Man was unhappy with the decision to bring Wu-Tang into the fashion world for a brief period of time with Wu-Wear, despite the brand being a major money-maker for the group. "When Wu-Wear started making shoes and sneakers and pants, it was shoddy material. I never rocked that shit."^[27]

Wendy Williams[link]

In 2006 Method Man had a highly personal and highly publicized conflict with TV talk show host Wendy Williams on The Breakdown, an internet show on ONLOQ.com. Williams talked on air about Method Man's wife having cancer, which was something he had wanted to keep very private and even her own family members had not yet known about. He said that people who lived next door to him didn't even know, but Williams had dug it up and made it public over the radio. Because of this leaked information, Method Man and his wife had many problems.^[28]

Williams also reported rumors that Method Man had even been having an affair with his wife's doctor. Method Man first heard of this while in recording sessions in Los Angeles.

Sean Combs[link]

During a concert in 2006, Method Man criticized Diddy's decisions on the posthumous The Notorious B.I.G. Duets: The Final Chapter album, saying that Biggie never would have worked with some of the subpar rappers. "They got niggas on that album Big would have never rocked with," Meth said of the album. "Musically, I ain't fuckin' with Puff Daddy".^[30] He also brought up the fact that he was the only other rapper that Biggie chose to have on his debut album Ready To Die. He was featured on the track "The What".

Previously, Diddy had been one of the executive producers for Method Man's 2004 album Tical 0: The Prequel, to which Meth later voiced his displeasure on the final product. From then on, he focused on production from within the clan and its closely tied collaborators.

Fox Television[link]

He starred in a Fox sitcom called Method & Red in late 2004, however after only a short time on the air the show was put on hiatus and never returned. Method Man later complained in the press about Fox's influence on the show's style, claiming that "there's been too much compromise on our side and not enough on their side" and bemoaning the network's decision to add a laugh track. Before the show even aired for the first time, he was telling fans not to bother watching it. He told the newspaper:

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

Method Man filmography

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Method Man

• Method Man at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website

Busta Rhymes
Background information
Birth name	Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr.
Born	(1972-05-20) May 20, 1972 (age 40)
Origin	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, actor
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Conglomerate, Cash Money
Associated acts	Leaders of the New School, A Tribe Called Quest, Flipmode Squad, Spliff Star, Dr. Dre, N.O.R.E., The Notorious B.I.G., Pharrell, Swizz Beatz, DMX, Mystikal, Wu-Tang Clan, M.O.P.,

Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr., (born May 20, 1972),^[1] better known by his stage name Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the alias Busta Rhymes after NFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes. Early in his career, he was known for his wild style and fashion, and today is best known for his intricate rapping technique, which involves rapping at a fast rate with lots of internal rhyme and half rhyme, and to date has received eleven Grammy nominations for his musical work. About.com included him on its list of the 50 Greatest MCs of Our Time (1987–2007),^[2] while Steve Huey of Allmusic called him one of the best and most prolific rappers of the '90s.^[3]

Early life[link]

Busta was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, to Jamaican parents Geraldine Green and Trevor Smith, Sr. in 1972. Smith attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, alongside Jay-Z, DMX and The Notorious B.I.G.^[4][5][6][7] He went to Uniondale High School on Long Island, graduating in 1990.