Method Man Talks New Movie, Hip Hop, & B.I.G.

Method Man recently sat down with the Wall Street Journal at the Berlinale, the Berlin Film Festival, to talk about his upcoming 3D thriller, The Mortician. The rapper plays the title character of a mortician who discovers that a snooping boy who’s been lurking around his job is actually being hunted by his father who wants to kill him.
Meth speaks about not only the film, but his views on the current state of hip hop, his feeling on acting, and shared some memories about friend Notorious B.I.G.

On Authenticity and Arrogance in Hip Hop
“There are genuine artists out there who love what they do and do it with a purpose, but then you have those dudes who are a bunch of fashonistas…These kids are more concerned with the way they look than what’s coming out of their mouths…Back when I first came out if you told a kid “I’m an MC,” the first thing the kid would say to you is, “Oh yeah, well say a rhyme for me.” …Nowadays, you tell the kid you’re an MC and he’s like “Oh yeah, where’s your big chain at? Where’s your watch? Where’s your car? That’s what it is now. …The majority of the people who listen to the music can’t afford half that s—.”
On Whether He Sees Himself More as an Rapper or Actor
“I’m an entertainer, so in whatever form I entertain…The thing about being a rapper is that you have more control over your form, whereas with acting you have to compromise a lot. You can’t go in there with the same mentality of “I’m a f—— star. This is all about me.” No, it’s not about you! You start stripping those layers away and becoming whatever that character is supposed to be and identifying with it.”
On Notorious B.I.G.
“He was hilarious, man. Once when we went inside this airport [in North Carolina]. There was a lady at the security gate and Big went through and “beep beep beep” and he’s telling the lady, “Look, I got a bullet in me, so the machine’s gonna keep going off. Why don’t you pat me down?” And she was like “No just keep going through the machine.” And he kept going through and through…I just thought that was f—- hilarious…After a while you’d forget he was fat or had those googly-eyes, you’d just see a funny motherf—– …I think Big would have been big on screen.”

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