“Now, you know you don’t own a Benz / Yes, I do and chrome’s the trim,” says Redman to himself on “Redman Meets Reggie Noble,” a track off his 1992 debut, Whut? Thee Album. Even then, he drew a line between himself and Redman, a boastful blunt smoking, gun-toting rap character who’s nothing like Reggie (besides the blunt smoking part). 17 years later, his new album Reggie Noble 9 ½ furthers this distinction and caps a career that’s made him known in the world of both rap and entertainment.
“If you find a bag of weed on the floor motherfucker, what the fuck you gonna do?” It’s a pretty simple question, but it’s pretty easy to imagine such a situation causing a few people pause. Opportunity has never been a problem for Redman—whether it’s the lyrics to his 1997 classic “Pick It Up” or ten years later, while manning much of his own promotion—the Brick City banger never blinks in the face of fortunate circumstance. His latest record, Red Gone Wild, has been billed as a “return to form,” but the truth is, form has never left Reggie Noble.
While Jay-Z and Nas were inundated with flack about their street disconnect, Redman still owns that slummy Jersey duplex that hosted the greatest episode of Cribs in MTV history. He was a dirty old man even on his debut …
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