This past weekend the Bay Area was blessed with visits from two of hip hop's biggest luminaries. Method Man aka John Blaze and Redman aka Funk Doctor Spock aka Reggie Noble dropped through and set Northern Cali on fire. They touched down late Saturday afternoon and made their rounds-first at Rasputin Records in Berkeley where 500+ eager fans showed up for autographs. later on they rolled through 2000 Exclusive Clothing store in Oakland where another large gathering of fans clamored for Meth and Red.

Although, Method and Red have fans throughout the country, the Bay Area is a special place for these guys. Here both these guys have defied the regional favoritism that exist here and have managed to inspire Bay Area fans to come out and position themselves as a key ingredient in the success of these two acts. That trend has continued with the brisk sales of their new albums-'Judgement Day' by Method Man and 'Call Me Doc' by Redman. Yes indeed the Bay Area is Redman and Method man country. It's no doubt their home away from home..

This past Sunday, December 13th, the dynamic duo took the stage to a sold out crowd at San Francisco's Maritime Hall. The mood was set by two off the hook dj performances from T-Ski of the Madd Idiot DJs.. and Mind Motion of The Pirate DJs. Each tried to out do one another in their sets by pulling out hip hop classics ranging from De La Soul's 'Plug Tuning' to Wu-Tang's 'Protect Ya Neck' that left the crowd roaring after every spin. The mood was severely shaken when one of the djs announced they some new material from Bay Area favorite Richie Rich. It had been a while since Rich had dropped new music so the crowd was a buzz with anticipation. Rich's first song kicked off with a familiar bassline accompanied by Richie's raspy voice.. At first the crowd listened and then they began booing loudly.. The beat Rich used was the theme from the Broadway play Annie. It's the same beat as Jay-Z's 'Hard Knock Life'. Things got worse when the track switched up and you heard Richie rappin' to Aaliyah's new song 'Somebody'. The boos got even louder. This song was actually a 'Jackin' For Beats' type groove which was originally featured as a bonus track on DMX's lp and on mixtapes. It was actually out before Jay-Z's Hard Knock Life' but unfortunately for RR, no one in the audience knew that...As far as the audience was concerned, Richie Rich had blatantly bit Jay-Z and that to them was a major violation of hip hop rules.

Finally Redman and Method Man took the stage and commenced blowing up the spot.. Everyone was going crazy as the pair performed hit after hit including; 'Time 4 Sum Action', 'Pick It Up', 'I Feel The Pain', 'Method Man' and 'How High' to name a few..Somewhere in between songs, Richie Rich was invited to take the stage. The crowd booed but Rich maintained his composer. The first thing the veteran emcee said was 'I heard y'all booing me when I was back stage, but let me tell ya I'm an OG'. The beat to the song 'Who Shot Ya' dropped and Richie Rich ripped the dopest freestyle I had ever heard. I mean this thing was tight and with each line, the crowd began to stop booing until finally they had no choice but to cheer. Rich rapped about being an OG who would always remain a fixture in the game of hip hop. His last line had him reminding folks that he was from the Bay Area and that he was still down with 'Def Jam'. The crowd went absolutely bananas.'. The only other time I had witnessed an artist turn a booing, hostile crowd around was when LL Cool J performed at the Palladium in Los Angeles back in '90. This was during the height of the 'I hate LL' phase of his career. De La Soul and 3rd Bass were performing that night.. In the middle of De La Soul's set LL was invited to join the stage to freestyle. The crowd booed and booed but when he was done he left people loving and respecting him...LL's freestyle was one in which he dissed all his critics inparticular Ice T, Hammer and Kool Moe Dee..

So anyway after Richie Rich left the stage, Redman and Meth kept the capacity crowd amped. Meth was so hyped that he jumped off the stage and into the crowd so they could catch him and throw him back... Redman was so high that he stood on top the speakers and just grooved to the beat of his songs..When he did rip rhymes he show and proved that he has mad skillz and is not to be messed with.. Overall I have to give their performance an A rating. they had charisma and great stage prescence. However, they too like so many artists suffered from the 'I gotta put all my homies on stage' syndrome. I just wish I could see a show with only the scheduled performers and not a couple of extra hype men and a bunch of kids from the local hood..

written by
Davey D