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Redman: Caught Red-Handed With Success
What the heck am I talking about? Take the first solo Redman album, for instance, which came out in 1992 and was called "Whut? Thee Album." If you listen to Redman here, his music is pretty mature already. It's not like he was some kid who got his lucky break and threw something together to get pop success.
The Redman songs on the record through together all sorts of music styles, blending old school funk with a reggae sound as well as hard hip hop rhymes that you'd expect from somebody coming out of a rough neck of the woods like Newark, New Jersey. And it's not like Redman didn't earn his props for the work. He was named Rap Artist of the Year, after all, and the Redman record went gold.
Hollywood Calling
Redman, also known as his real name Reggie Noble, kept the hits coming. He released in 1994 another album, called "Dare Iz a Darkside," and then his 1996 album "Muddy Waters." And through it all, Redman never back down or let commercial success ruin his style. If you listen to Redman and all of his Redman lyrics, you see that Reggie Noble had a biting humor to him, that easily danced around some of the hardest hits beats.
Since having this modest solo success, Redman has also teamed up with some of the biggest names in the business as well. Erick Sermon, who was the producer behind those hard hitting beats of the solo Redman albums, joined up with Reggie Noble and Keith Murray to form the group Def Squad. Redman can also be heard with Wu Tang member Method Man, and the two hip hop masters came out with a tandem album called "Blackout!" in 1999. How did these do? Well, to be honest, it might surprise you to know that the most successful collaboration that Redman has had was with Christian Aguilera and their 2002 song "Dirty."
And through all this, Redman also found his way onto the Silver Screen. He and his buddy Method Man starred in the pot-smoking comedy How High in 2001 (which is supposedly being followed up with a sequel. Why? Don't ask.) Redman also had a biog part in the horror film "Seed of Chucky," about that freaky little red-haired murdering doll. Not to be left out the little screen either, Redman found his way into Redman video games, such as having his voice in "True Crime: New York City." And he can be found in cartoons, again with Method Man, on Nickelodeon, where they rap in "Fairly OddParents in School's Out, the Musical."
Going Wild for the Future
All this multimedia activity does not mean that Redman is out of the music business. Since the 2001 Redman record "Malpractice" and all of his collaborative work, he also put out "Red Going Wild" in 2007. Could there be a Seed of Reggie Noble movie coming out soon as well?
