Share & Wu & Tell with Method Man and Dan Le Batard

Speaker 1 Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.

Speaker 2 The pasta brings him to the church, but the pimpin' brings him back.

Speaker 1 Right after this ad.

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Speaker 1 What is your algorithm like now that my algorithm is

Speaker 2 a lot of workout stuff?

Speaker 1 Meth looks good.

Speaker 2 Dang, he always looks good. It's so frustrating how good he looks.

Speaker 2 I get alerts wherever it is that I am that meth is appearing somewhere in public because of the amount of thirsty women who still, still are looking. You know this is true.

Speaker 2 They're as rare as the 50-year-old plus sex symbol that gets women as crazy as meth does. I would say that these are females that are rooting for a generation that was very rare.

Speaker 2 A very rare generation. Generation X.
We're different. We are different.

Speaker 1 Wait, hold on, hold on. For people who don't remember or understand, by the way, Method Man, thank you for being here.

Speaker 2 Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Big fan, Pablo.

Speaker 1 Oh, well, this is a true delight for a couple of reasons. One of which is that you guys, you and Dan,

Speaker 2 go way back. That's my Brody.

Speaker 1 And I need to ask about that. But for people who don't remember your generation,

Speaker 1 what is Generation X?

Speaker 2 Generation X is the generation that

Speaker 2 came in between

Speaker 2 televisions and computers. We were there before the internet.
It's more or less like we had the best of both worlds.

Speaker 2 We were the generation that still played outside, had less rules, and even had a reminder on television. It's 10 o'clock.

Speaker 2 Do you know where your children are? Because parents forgot they had kids. Back then.
They were in the street playing with other kids, which is not something that's happening.

Speaker 2 We drank out of the water holes, brother. Come on.
Generation X, different, made different.

Speaker 1 How did you two first get to know each other?

Speaker 2 Sports.

Speaker 2 It's sports and the show, right?

Speaker 2 As I recall, I just really enjoyed talking to him the first time I talked to him and was flattered that he would have any interest in what we were doing.

Speaker 2 But when he talks about Generation X and the way that

Speaker 2 Wu-Tang hits people, ESPN did that for him, I'm assuming. It's on his television and he feels like he knows me before he knows me.
And then he gave me the pleasure of allowing me to know him.

Speaker 2 And then I get the rare instance. I don't think a lot of people...

Speaker 2 No, I don't think a lot of people get the experience I got, which is you're a fan of somebody before you meet them because you think they're authentic.

Speaker 2 You feel like you know them because of the art they make. And then you meet them and you like them even more than you liked the art they were making.

Speaker 1 I want to target Dan for a second because you're a friend of Dan, which means you are in the club of people who is undoubtedly getting FaceTimes from Dan Lebetard.

Speaker 2 Well, not exactly FaceTimes, but we do do the phone thing. We definitely do do the phone thing.
And when we're face-to-face, those conversations are totally off the record, but it's real.

Speaker 2 It's definitely real. FaceTime, though, it's more sharing video.
I'll send him a video.

Speaker 2 Instead of voicemails or instead of we send a video, you get the angle from below his chin where he's just like standing, crying. The equipment

Speaker 1 Generation X's version of FaceTime.

Speaker 1 This is Dan sending

Speaker 2 properly groomed, and so he doesn't have the nose hair issues. Yes, but it's a little more intimate, I suppose, than he would like.
Very much so. Very much so.

Speaker 2 And I mean, watching Dan with his father on the show, but prior to that being on ESPN, you as well,

Speaker 2 guest on PTI, things of that nature, Partney Interruption. Love that show.
Anyway, I'm a Long Island kid, so sports were very...

Speaker 2 Prevalent in Long Island from the time you're a shorty playing little league baseball to when you get old enough to play pee wee football, then it's lacrosse, basketball, the whole shebang.

Speaker 2 I mean, I even wrestled one year in junior high school.

Speaker 1 What's this counting report on junior high school method, man, in a singlet?

Speaker 2 Oh, it was tough.

Speaker 2 It was pretty tough, man. I thought that the wrestler, especially when I joined wrestling, I thought we were going to be doing like WWE type stuff.
Nothing near that.

Speaker 2 And way more strenuous than I thought it'd be. The practice is more strenuous than the actual match.
The match is what? Minute, minute, 30, two two minutes. Yeah,

Speaker 2 the practices were way worse. I'm pretty sure that the first time he was on with us, Meth mentioned that he used to kick the ass of Stugatz's lacrosse team.

Speaker 2 So you're going to ask him about Valley Stream's ass all the time and in football. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 And slashing was real lenient, too. You could probably hit somebody in the head with the stick.

Speaker 2 Well, not in the head, but you could hit them on the top of the shoulder pad without getting in too much trouble, depending on where you were playing at.

Speaker 2 When we played Port Washington, those dudes were soft i hope you're not from port washington yeah matt that's where i'm from man that is where i'm from that

Speaker 2 we lost the state semifinals my senior those dudes were soft

Speaker 2 soft port washington was soft as baby schnotted and in football styles had the green and white uniform soft football

Speaker 2 handled me on midfield yeah y'all couldn't handle me on midfield or attack

Speaker 2 did you guys play against each other did you play against

Speaker 2 yeah Yeah, I mean, they were... I wouldn't say they were coddled kids because they did have some tough kids down there, but they weren't our caliber of tough.
Really?

Speaker 2 So Stugatz wasn't reared as tough as you were. They cried a lot.
I mean, we were kids. They cried a lot.

Speaker 1 Wait, as in like

Speaker 1 going to the manager, going to the ref.

Speaker 2 You know, getting hurt and crying. Oh, like, he's talking about crying.
Sorry, physically.

Speaker 2 He's not talking about whimpering. He's talking about

Speaker 2 you're surprised that Wu-Tang would be tougher than Stugat.

Speaker 1 I don't know, in my view, like Method Man playing lacrosse is a mad lib.

Speaker 2 I like that. I like the way you put that.

Speaker 2 You know what? It started. I had a cousin that played lacrosse, and he just brought me down one day and I just took to it, man.
I played four years. I was okay.

Speaker 2 And one coach that stood out the most to me was a coach named Mr. Hotish.
He was a great coach.

Speaker 2 And I mentioned him when I did an interview on CBS for the PLL, Premier Lacrosse League, which is Paul Rabel and those guys. They're doing a great job with that league, by the way.
So I mentioned Mr.

Speaker 2 Hotish, and

Speaker 2 on Twitter, I got a tweet from one of his daughters, and he actually remembered me and said, Yeah, he was a pretty good lacrosse player. So I'm valid.

Speaker 2 I'm pretty much valid because Mr. Hodish vouched for me.

Speaker 2 Word.

Speaker 1 I want to understand how being a person who competes in team sports informed the fact that you are an instrumental figure in the world of, I think, the closest thing to team sports in music.

Speaker 2 Nice.

Speaker 2 I grew up on the crime, sir. Do your job, sir.
Changing a lot with somebody. Well, I mean, yeah, team player, that's me.

Speaker 2 And I love the fact that Wu-Tang, when we came in, you know, I mean, nine people, unheard of.

Speaker 1 So, what was the math on that? Were you concerned? Is this too many at first? How does that work?

Speaker 2 No, I don't think anyone thought about that because we weren't thinking monetary at the time.

Speaker 2 I mean, it definitely boils down to that at the end of the day, especially at the beginning of the month when bills are due, you know.

Speaker 2 But we weren't thinking of that. We were thinking our talent was going to take us someplace and wherever that was, it would be better than where we were.
So that was it in a nutshell right there.

Speaker 2 But the team factor, like even

Speaker 2 my regular life was always about teams. Like I've always enjoyed movies like Five Deadly Venoms, Magnificent Seven,

Speaker 2 Seven Samurai. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, like I've always loved like a variety of characters that you can latch on to.

Speaker 2 My favorite comic book, X-Men, speaks volumes to my character right there because of team.

Speaker 1 Which X-Men is Method Man?

Speaker 2 Ooh.

Speaker 2 I like to joke a lot. I don't know.
I mean,

Speaker 2 I would be either Iceman,

Speaker 2 right, or Bishop because he's black.

Speaker 1 Bishop is also a time-traveling black hard.

Speaker 1 He seems to defy age and is in great shape.

Speaker 2 Yes, he is, sir.

Speaker 2 What are you saying? Are you saying that he has some parallels with?

Speaker 1 I'm just saying.

Speaker 2 honestly, I believe in my assessment of the whole thing was Rizza was supposed to do Wu-Tang with him. Jizza and no dirty bastard.

Speaker 2 We all were MCs that were around the way that would frequently go to his crib and make these tapes. So we were all familiar with each other.
We all grew up together.

Speaker 2 And he had this epiphany because Rizza is a genius. Why not attack him with all of us as opposed to one or two?

Speaker 2 him previously having his own record deal and it falling through and jizza the same his fell through yeah strength in numbers so when he had when he initially had the idea us like i said our situation was so effed up over here that anything was better than what we were doing and we just went along for the ride i mean i i could speak for myself i was just going along for the ride because um I genuinely loved doing this.

Speaker 2 And when it came time to perform, when there was no money involved, we still gave it 110%. And I think that paved the way for what we were going to be and how far we were going to go.

Speaker 1 Well, the thing that Dan has always talked to me about, like, why did he make his show, which is also a collection of somewhere between nine and one zillion people on a stage together, is because it was less miserable.

Speaker 2 Writing was lonely for me, and I was a writer. I came up as a writer, and I wanted community.
I wanted something communal.

Speaker 2 When he was talking, I've wondered this about whether Wu-Tang, once the money gets involved, right, business complicates things.

Speaker 2 Whether Wu-Tang would be closer to family or team, given how money can contaminate something that is not actually family. That's a great question.

Speaker 2 For us, it was a bit different because we signed a deal that was so unique.

Speaker 2 There are people now benefiting from the deal that we signed. We signed a deal as a group with the option to sign as solo artists.
So there you go.

Speaker 2 That solves your problem of how do you feed all of these guys? Well, now we have options and other ways to feed ourselves and other things.

Speaker 2 But here's the biggest part about it was you have these labels that are vying for people in this group, nine people. So it's a lot to choose from, first and foremost.

Speaker 2 So you're going to get the guys that you feel are best first, and you're going to capitalize with those guys. But in the midst of you capitalizing on those individuals, you're working for one brand.

Speaker 2 Not only that, you're working along with other labels

Speaker 2 for one person's cause, which was ours, which was, I don't even know if that was masterminded that way, but it worked so well because we were on so many different platforms at once where I would drop an album,

Speaker 2 then you get a Jizza album, then Ray would come after that, ghosts, now you got another Wu album. So by the time we dropped our second album, it was so much anticipation it had to be a double album.

Speaker 2 You know, so I mean, these numbers work. And as far as the monetary thing, it's, I can't even say it's 50-50 because you would have to ask the individuals, but for me, it's always been 50-50.

Speaker 2 I've always been on board with whether it was team or for myself. I just, that's that's just how I work.
And

Speaker 2 the way these things work, you have to speak to everybody as an individual.

Speaker 2 You can't speak to us as a group anymore, you know, especially with how long we've been in the business and how lucrative we've been on our own.

Speaker 2 So when we come back, we all come back with an understanding that this isn't a me thing, it's an us.

Speaker 2 thing.

Speaker 2 But when you're on that stage, the way we format our shows, everyone gets their time to either,

Speaker 2 let's call it like a solo act in a play where it's just two actors on stage. That could be Ray and Ghost.
And then there's a long monologue where it's just one player on the stage.

Speaker 2 That could be Rizza, myself, or whoever. And then when you get the whole cast on stage, it's like the grand finale of the show.

Speaker 2 And it just puts the cherry on top. The crescendo where all of you are together.
It's kind of amazing that you guys have stayed together this long.

Speaker 2 Like that, there's a lot of people who are going to be able to do that.

Speaker 2 Well, I believe it so much to cheer you on top of it because we're stronger together as a unit than we are as individuals, for sure.

Speaker 1 But there is this thing of you guys being able to go and do your own side quests.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, I remember, so I went to, I saw in New York, I had the pleasure of seeing, actually, I saw it in Miami and then in New York.

Speaker 1 I saw Rizza do the 30th anniversary celebration of 36th James. Yeah.
There's an orchestra.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's the the type of single part two right there, yeah.

Speaker 2 That was the one right there.

Speaker 2 So, this was the one that became part of the album.

Speaker 2 But I had some dirty side there, didn't I?

Speaker 2 It was some dirty there, so it was like some type of fuzz in it, yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's why I had some fuzz in it.

Speaker 2 That's right, he does a lot of shit like that, man.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's it

Speaker 2 was incredible,

Speaker 1 but it was also unclear to everybody. Like, so who's going to be there? Who all is going to be there?

Speaker 2 Right. And that's another thing.

Speaker 1 And you were not there, Meth.

Speaker 2 I was not there. You're right.
Where the hell were you? I was probably on a set somewhere working, doing my acting thing. You know what I mean? But with Rizza, he moves in so many different areas.

Speaker 1 He's an artist.

Speaker 2 Pretty much, yes. I mean, so are you.
No, but honestly,

Speaker 2 real quick, I showed up to the Holly. He had me show up to something he was doing at the Hollywood Bowl.
I wasn't doing nothing anyway, so I show up. I don't even know what he's doing.

Speaker 2 He comes out on stage. It's just,

Speaker 2 he has his equipment out there, you know, it's turntable, whatever the other stuff is, the technical stuff. And there's a big-ass screen.
And on the screen, his cartoons are playing.

Speaker 2 But he's playing James Brown, Shoeshine Boy.

Speaker 2 But the record is playing along with the screen with the cartoon. And it seems like the cartoon is saying the words with the record.
And I'm like, what kind of incredible shit is this?

Speaker 2 And why did people pay to come see this shit?

Speaker 2 Well, he did this for, he played the 1978 kung fu film the 36th chamber of shaolin on the screen behind when i saw it in miami oh he did that in miami in miami he did that for i mean i'm just like oh but meth's not giving himself enough credit here okay artists demand on growing and so the way he chose to grow is in that space and you've poured all of that into acting i appreciate that i worked i had to work hard on myself and a lot of it started with the 4 a.m.

Speaker 2 workouts and things of that nature.

Speaker 1 Can we talk about the 4 a.m. workouts?

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 2 So both of you guys, another way you guys are connected cosmically and secondly is that clearly you guys don't sleep enough yeah yeah yeah it's it's you know what it's tough anybody that goes through it will know what we're talking about when it comes you know it's just something about the way the mind works and when it clicks on

Speaker 2 i i like to attribute it to being a creative And when you're a creative, your mind is constantly always looking to fill up space or create in a space.

Speaker 2 So while you're resting and you're supposed to be healing and all of the other stuff that comes with rest, your mind is like, wait a minute, we're not playing anymore. There's space to be filled.

Speaker 2 Let's go. So when you do become, when you come out of the subconscious into the conscious again, slightly into the conscious, you can't go back to the subconscious.

Speaker 2 It's like, okay, my mind is on that. What do I do now? F ⁇ it up.
So his mind starts racing about whatever it is that it's racing on at three o'clock in the morning. Yes.

Speaker 2 I don't know if you do meditation or any stuff like that, but I do think that workout act as that for him.

Speaker 2 I believe that he goes into that space to get his body whatever chemicals it needs so he feels good about himself. And honestly, for people, I'm just going to put this out there.

Speaker 2 If you are having troubles and need help, therapy is a great way to start.

Speaker 2 I will speak to mental health on this. Therapy is a great way to start.
I just, you know, there's some things that I need to work out. Mom recently been working on a memoir.
And

Speaker 2 remembering all these things from my childhood, has

Speaker 2 opened my eyes to a lot of things that I didn't remember or were placed deep inside my subconscious that I wasn't aware or didn't hit me the same way it did as an adult.

Speaker 2 And yeah, I need to talk to someone about that, you know, figure some things out.

Speaker 1 I feel like the version of meth that I am meeting is not the one that Dan necessarily met when you guys first met the first one.

Speaker 2 Oh, I was a mess, but no, it it's still the same meth. It's just, you know, it's more layers to him now because he's becoming more self-aware.

Speaker 1 You just refer to meth in a third person.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's that dude. He has a lot of problems.

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Speaker 1 Now I could make a pun that I didn't even intend, but is a triple entendre. I want to know if you're a method actor.

Speaker 1 Do you inhabit the, let alone the roles in Hollywood, but like the character of Method Man?

Speaker 2 You know what? That's interesting. Cause

Speaker 2 no, no, no, no. That's all me.
And I incorporate that into my acting as well. It's just,

Speaker 2 for me,

Speaker 2 it's translation.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I like to think of it as, and this is the best way I can put it.

Speaker 2 I like to think of it as living vicariously through a character. So

Speaker 2 when we're watching certain movies or TV shows, even if he isn't the main character, there are certain characters we gravitate to.

Speaker 2 And then we start rooting for this character so much, we are living vicariously through this character. So every decision he makes has to make sense to us.
It has to be real. It has to be authentic.

Speaker 2 So that's how I like to approach it. He also told me early on, he said that the reason that he thought he could be a good actor is because rappers are such good liars

Speaker 2 and oh yeah

Speaker 2 wait hold on give me give me the first part of that why are rappers good liars okay um the best analogy i can give you for this and i've said this before um

Speaker 2 the pastor brings them to the church but the pimpin brings them back

Speaker 2 does that make sense it makes sense yes okay thank you

Speaker 2 that is it right there

Speaker 1 When did you realize you were a good liar?

Speaker 2 Man, I don't even.

Speaker 2 When it comes, when we're talking about lies, right, there are levels to lying. You have white lies and then you have those big,

Speaker 2 you know, going to come to the light lies.

Speaker 2 When you talk about rappers, we embellish. Which is a form of lying in a sense.
And I will say that's the form of lying that I do. That's all I I embellish.
That's all I look.

Speaker 2 This is a relentlessly authentic person. And I also believe that Method Man,

Speaker 2 and maybe even as an actor, I would say having consumed the parts of your work that I've enjoyed where I feel like you're trying to show yourself to people, that you're in there.

Speaker 2 But instead of you, the human being at five, meth is him at 10. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Or the parts that you pick, the parts that you're selecting are someone that you allow.

Speaker 2 The human you is frailer and doesn't have the confidence that the,

Speaker 2 doesn't, just makes you human that the character has.

Speaker 2 The character is bulletproof in terms of confidence, and there is no human that is that. Well, that's going to resonate with the audience.
You can

Speaker 2 command the camera so much that you don't even have to say a word and the camera stays on you while someone else is talking. That means you're doing the work.
People like Morgan Freeman get that.

Speaker 2 People like Tom Cruise, you know.

Speaker 2 Like I said, I'm still working on that level of it.

Speaker 2 I'm having real human experiences when I'm doing these parts, and that's the best thing I get out of it right there.

Speaker 1 When you look back at your catalog, is there a point in which you're like, this is when I realized I'm going to have fun doing this.

Speaker 1 I'm going to enjoy what could be very hard for people to imagine doing.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, especially with the acting. I did a movie called The Cobbler with with tom mccarthy now tom is like

Speaker 2 he's an award-winning you know writer director it was a a great project and you know basically adam sandler is the star of the movie and most of the actors are trying to let me just give you the premise of it really quick the premise of the movie is a cobbler a guy who makes shoes or repairs shoes and um

Speaker 2 He his mom just dies. He's kind of depressed and his shoe machine breaks down, but there's this old one that that he has in the back.

Speaker 2 So he uses that shoe machine, not knowing that this is a special shoe machine.

Speaker 2 And any shoes that he works on with this machine, if he puts those shoes on, he changes into the person who owns the shoes.

Speaker 2 So all of us as actors are thinking, okay, Adam Sandler is turning into our characters. We have to act like Adam Sandler.

Speaker 2 I'm going through it. I'm going through it.
I'm thinking I got to act like Adam Sandler.

Speaker 2 But then Tom and my coach made it clear to me that why would you want to act like Adam Sandler if he's turning into you? You want to be who you are. Okay, boom.
That's the red pill.

Speaker 2 What's the pill they take? When you want to go, when you want to escape the matrix.

Speaker 1 The pill is the one that opens your eyes to what the matrix is.

Speaker 2 Okay, we're on the red.

Speaker 1 It's a real reality. And you're also now storming the Capitol on January 6th.

Speaker 2 Yeah, there you go. I love that analogy.
We're on the red pill now. And now it's like, holy shit.

Speaker 2 Wow, I didn't think to approach it like that. So that's what it is.
That's what doing the work is. So now I want to try other things.
I want to experiment and do other things.

Speaker 2 And Tom is just so accommodating every day on set that it made it so easy and so comfortable. That was the most comfortable I've ever been on set.
And it made me want to do more work.

Speaker 1 Can I tell you that the time I did pay money to watch you act

Speaker 1 was in a film that is near and dear to me? Okay. Because it took place at my alma mater.

Speaker 2 Ah, how high?

Speaker 2 Say less. Yo, what the f are we going to do now?

Speaker 2 You think we're gonna do? We're gonna smoke his ass, then we're gonna start asking questions.

Speaker 2 Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 2 This is a motherfucking president, man. What the f are we doing? You wanna stay in Harvard or what?

Speaker 2 I can't smoke a finger.

Speaker 2 This shit's not working.

Speaker 2 Is that your first foray into acting here?

Speaker 2 It was

Speaker 2 I think second.

Speaker 1 That was 2001.

Speaker 2 How do you feel watching that? Because you are an accomplished actor now.

Speaker 1 Can you also just explain? You did a great job summarizing the premise of the cobbler. Could you explain the premise of how high?

Speaker 2 I'm going to explain it the same way it was pitched to us when we picked this script. This guy, Dustin Lee Abraham, I give him the majority of the credit, the writer.

Speaker 2 Brad Kaya also was a writer on it. He came in, he was like, two guys

Speaker 2 getting to Harvard by smoking their dead homie. And that's the premise of the film.
Two guys who are down on their luck get into college by cheating because they smoked the ashes of his dead homeboy.

Speaker 1 You're taking the SAT, but your performance enhancer is the ashes you've smoked. Is the ashes, which I cannot stress enough, is a key aspect to the whole setup of this, which pays off in that scene.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's what the industry's going next. I'm telling you, it's going to be Adderall weed.
Well,

Speaker 2 without the Adderall.

Speaker 1 And just to be clear about what that scene was, this is a climactic part of the film.

Speaker 2 Spoiler alert.

Speaker 1 Spoiler alert. Could you please explain what was happening at that point in the crescendo of this film?

Speaker 2 Okay, so what happens in the crescendo of the film is we're about to get our asses kicked out of college. So we come up with a plan to basically sabotage this big soi that the campus is having.

Speaker 2 I toss a bit of the bud inside a fireplace. The whole place gets lit.
Next thing you know, you got Ben Franklin popping up from the dead. My boy Ivory popping up from the dead.
Everybody's high.

Speaker 2 The dean is making inappropriate gestures. It's a lot going on, man.
And that was the hardest part to film. I hated filming that part of the movie because by that time I was over it, man.

Speaker 1 By the time you had to dig up the body of John Quincy Adams.

Speaker 2 No, we were good there. Okay.
We were good with that.

Speaker 2 But that ran under. You know what? That ran a little long, too.
And

Speaker 2 we were in that cemetery way too long and it was cold. And then once the rain, they started with the fake rain stuff.
I was pissed. If you look at the B-roll footage,

Speaker 2 you will see we were pissed.

Speaker 2 I love went the meth cut. This is a thing that you hear from actors all the time.

Speaker 2 They think of Hollywood as one type of glamorous and then the fake rain comes and they're like, why did I choose to do that? Why did I choose to do nine takes of this?

Speaker 1 It's so that years later, a podcaster could talk about how their solution was to dig up a smart dead guy and smoke his body to make sure you didn't fail out of school.

Speaker 1 And that was John.

Speaker 2 I wouldn't suggest doing that, kids. It didn't work, actually, if you look at the the movie.
The shit didn't work. It was a caution.

Speaker 1 A cautionary tale.

Speaker 2 Cautionary tale, yes, sir.

Speaker 1 It is one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 God, man. Shout out to Red Man.
Salute to you, brother.

Speaker 1 Unbelievable. An unbelievable thing that I think made Harvard University look better.

Speaker 2 I hope that you're proud of yourself, though, with all of the acting work that you have done. And I don't mean to diminish whatever the silliness of that that you felt.

Speaker 2 I sort of felt it on his body because over the last...

Speaker 1 He didn't like the the only clip I prepared for this was a clip of that.

Speaker 2 He's just a really good actor, and he's worked really hard at being a really good actor. I'm aware that that was not best being shit.
Beth was in garden state. All right.
Hold up. Hold up.

Speaker 2 Who here just saw some titties?

Speaker 2 Raise your hand if you just saw some titties.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 1 I mean, you were acting with Natalie Bortman.

Speaker 2 That was great. Now, Now, Natalie, crazy.

Speaker 2 Because her,

Speaker 2 I don't know what her impression of Hill Harvard was or whatever, but she expected me to have like this big entourage. And if anybody knows me, I travel light.

Speaker 1 You're here alone. It's you and your

Speaker 1 many pieces of jets. That's it.
Paraphernalia.

Speaker 2 That's it.

Speaker 2 And she thought that, you know, a big waffle of smoke would be coming out the trailer, but I had lines I had to remember. And I don't smoke when I work.
It's just a thing I don't do.

Speaker 2 We did that in How-High, and we learned our lesson. Anyway.

Speaker 2 so it was like me just standing there talking to her and, you know, I'm enunciating well and all kinds of, I don't know, it's just this thing I have and shit that I do. And she seemed disappointed.

Speaker 2 I can remember that about Natalie Portman. Cool as shit, though.
And Peter, Skarsgaard,

Speaker 2 super dope. And I think I'm part of that family now because I have scenes with him.

Speaker 2 as well as his wife, Maggie Gillenall.

Speaker 2 Yes. You've made it.
I've made it. Big time, brother.

Speaker 1 You're, You're, I mean, I'm trying to imagine at what point, Dan, you realize that meth is not merely a method man, but a renaissance man.

Speaker 2 Talk about it.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So the graduation from, and this is, this is a path here, right? Because you're not just talking about whatever it is that he had to overcome.

Speaker 2 I don't think I can even imagine it, but when he's dabbling in therapy and saying you have no idea.

Speaker 1 His eyes, he wants to do a 10-hour podcast.

Speaker 2 But whatever got him to, whatever got him with the scars he needed to have to get to Wu-Tang, which I don't know what the most impossible parts of that journey were, but I'm guessing that the grand majority of people would have failed.

Speaker 2 For him to continue to seek growth after that with all of the temptations and all of the learning that's done about doing business with family and friends and entertainment and being a lone wolf among a team and being someone who's a glue guy on a team, even while he's the star and there can be all sorts of contaminants if he carries himself like the star to see what he's done with his second career and to see the way that his family matters to him and where he wants to learn about how do I be a better dad.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's just been, it's been an honor to even be anywhere near watching that growth in adulthood. I really appreciate that, brother.

Speaker 2 Because whether people know it or not, we walk around with this tough exterior, right?

Speaker 2 And there's a lot of times where people say, well, what do you give the man that can have anything he wants?

Speaker 2 Acknowledgement at the end of the day, pretty much.

Speaker 1 I wanted to ask, actually, about a version of acknowledgement that you both, that I, I think, have recently realized about myself as well, which is

Speaker 1 something that I'm thinking about as I hear you guys just love each other.

Speaker 2 I really appreciate him. Like, I just, I just appreciate the unrelenting authenticity.

Speaker 1 No, it's genuine. And it reminds me also that like you guys are both performers.
Pretty much, yes. And so the question of you wanting acknowledgement, it's not just that, though.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's cosmically maybe the most fundamental aspect. Yeah.
But the idea of what it feels like to be on a stage.

Speaker 1 So an athlete feels, of course, a version of this.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 1 And you're a huge Jet fan, which I assume is several chapters of your traumatized memoir.

Speaker 2 Maybe I think so. I think it plays a part, yeah.

Speaker 1 But just the notion of like what it's like the high, speaking of highs, the high of being on a stage.

Speaker 2 Nothing like it. I mean, that, you know, you feed that dopamine.

Speaker 2 This is probably why I still have butterflies before I go on stage or before I start a scene.

Speaker 2 Because you never know. You never know if it's going to go right, if it's going to go wrong.
And it's that not knowing. I revel in that.
I love that.

Speaker 2 It's a weird, uncomfortable feeling, but I love it because that not knowing and knowing that I had to earn it every time I go out there or in my mind, feeling like I have to earn it every time I go out there keeps me on my toes.

Speaker 2 But when you're out there and they're giving it to you, you'll die for that. You'll die for those people.
That's what it feels like.

Speaker 2 I will give y'all everything I have and leave it all out here for you before I leave. It won't surprise you that he has miles more confidence than I do when he talks about that realm.

Speaker 2 I'm a reluctant performer. If you come from writing and radio where you're not being seen, you're on stage, but not, right? It's not, it's not.

Speaker 1 But this is, Beth, this is the funny thing about Dan. Dan is absolutely what he's describing.
I've seen him also get butterflies on like a stage in front of his own fans. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But he's also the guy who's wearing a speedo

Speaker 2 with

Speaker 2 stuff cat that he's just like painted on him before Charles Barton. I'm not to make fun of myself though.

Speaker 2 The speedo is me losing a bet I never thought I would lose because I had LeBron, Wade, and Bosch, and they had Dirk Nowitzki. It's not a bet.

Speaker 2 You've seen this battle? It's not a bet I thought I was going to lose.

Speaker 2 I was terrified.

Speaker 2 Thank you. Thank you for the acknowledgement, man.
We're returning the acknowledgement. I, yeah, that is reluctant, and it's a byproduct of

Speaker 2 Barkley.

Speaker 2 A byproduct of. I did not think I was going to lose that bet to Charles Barkley.
Do Do you think that if the Dallas Mavericks had lost that championship, that he would have fulfilled that bet?

Speaker 2 Because I don't think he's

Speaker 2 would have. I think Charles would have done everything in his power to talk himself or talk you out of making him honor that bet.

Speaker 2 I am not

Speaker 2 enjoying it, though.

Speaker 2 I mean, Chuck looks like he's really enjoying it. I believed Chuck actually said,

Speaker 2 in terms of career achievements for me, Chuck said that this is the most fun I've ever had, which is a hyperbole, obviously, but that man has had fun.

Speaker 2 So to be in the conversation, to have him say that is actually

Speaker 2 an honor, yes. I love that.

Speaker 2 But I'm not a natural performer. That is a bit eccentric, though.

Speaker 2 I didn't think I was going to lose the bet.

Speaker 2 Sorry.

Speaker 2 Eccentric. I didn't think I was going to lose the bet.

Speaker 2 It's LeBron, Wade, and Bobby.

Speaker 2 Nobody saw Novinsky coming. The Sean Stevenson.

Speaker 1 J.J. Berea.

Speaker 2 Come on, man.

Speaker 2 Come on.

Speaker 2 He wouldn't post up J.J. Berea.

Speaker 2 Stung in his ass crack.

Speaker 1 What is

Speaker 1 the most traumatic sports memory you have as a fan?

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 Richard Todd throwing those interceptions. Richard Todd.
Yeah, throwing those interviews.

Speaker 2 That's not A.J. Dewey.
That was A.J. A.J.
in that, yeah, in that one game. Oh, so in the muddy game in Miami, 14-0?

Speaker 2 And Schula did that sh ⁇ on purpose, man, with the field, man. But, yeah,

Speaker 1 finally we can get some Miami.

Speaker 2 Will we admit that?

Speaker 2 Intercepted, and that's going to be a touchdown.

Speaker 2 AJ Dewey, what a day for Dewey.

Speaker 2 You were a kid.

Speaker 2 So this is a formative, when he talks about childhood training. I don't.
Okay, so I don't know what he's doing. This would have been Laurie.
Look, he's still mad at me.

Speaker 2 I was like eight, nine years old, brother. This shit was terrible.
It was bad. No, I really loved Richard Todd.
I thought he was a rough and gruff quarterback.

Speaker 2 I mean, he was playing with his ribs broken. I've never heard anything like that at eight years old, eight or nine.
I always thought like, oh, it's a rap.

Speaker 2 Once your ribs break, you got to take a sit-down. But he was out there doing his thing.
He's talking about the formation of a lifelong allegiance that has him voicing the 30 for 30 on the SAC Exchange

Speaker 2 as a career honor because it

Speaker 2 awakens the child in him. It actually does, Dan.
You are absolutely right. And not to mention, they just had the rivalry green, rivalry.

Speaker 2 And it was Legends Day, so a lot of the guys came out, and I actually got to shake hands with Wesley Walker. I was like, bro, you have no idea.

Speaker 2 At that point, I couldn't have cared less who else was out there. And Vinny Testaverde was there, too.
But Wesley Walker, I was like,

Speaker 2 God.

Speaker 2 I get a feeling that

Speaker 2 the way that he gets starstruck around athletes is probably like nothing else in celebrity. Like he meets plenty of celebrities.
Absolute excellence, period.

Speaker 2 So, you know, these guys are like, for one, everyone doesn't make it to the big league. And you have to respect the guys that actually make it there because they did the work to get there.

Speaker 2 And not only that, they accomplished something everybody can't do. So for me, I would never knock our defense for giving up 21 points in the first half.
I would never do that.

Speaker 2 But I will say, as coaches and defensive coordinators, we need to work on some things seriously.

Speaker 2 I mean, I'm just keeping it a buck. You know, we got cook at quarterback right now.
I mean, Tarad didn't even make it out of the first quarter.

Speaker 2 And we got this backup in there, and I'm rooting for this kid because I'm jet all day. But it's weird because you have this

Speaker 2 third string who's now the backup. who's not getting enough reps.
And now you throw him in a situation where he has to pass. You're going to get what you get.
So I'm not faulting the kid.

Speaker 2 I think the kid did

Speaker 2 the best he could do with what he had because we would give Shadur the same grace, right? Same grace.

Speaker 2 And I'm not comparing him to Shador at all. Let's not go viral.
You just did. You just did.

Speaker 2 Let's go. Brady Cooks is better than I do.

Speaker 2 I retract my scroll. Method, man.
It's been said. You can't retract it.
It's already been said. Method, man.
Put it on the scroll. All right, I'll stand on it.
I'll stand on it. I'll stand on it.

Speaker 2 But honestly, us as Jets, we can tank the rest of this year. We're just hoping that the Indianapolis Colts tank the rest of their year so they can get,

Speaker 2 I don't know, Mendoza, you know, giveaway something. Uncubano.
Uncuano at quarterback.

Speaker 1 At least Cubano-Cubano, sounding.

Speaker 2 Fernando. You're not going to tell me Fernando no Eslatin, no? I, I, I,

Speaker 2 I.

Speaker 2 We're never supposed to be in a position, but by the glory of God, the great coach is my family. Everyone around us, who ain't able to blow themselves,

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Speaker 1 Another thing that makes me laugh when I think about how you guys are similar but different is that I think Dan once had an edible and thought his leg was falling off.

Speaker 2 No, I thought my girlfriend was trying to steal my kidney, is what I thought. Yes, but this was, I was over, I didn't do any of this until I was, you know, I was in my late 40s.
And so I just made

Speaker 2 the amateur mistake of this edible's not doing anything. Give me another one.
And now I thought my brother and my girlfriend were conspiring

Speaker 2 to steal and sell my kidney. Man, and you know the worst part about it? You got to ride that song, bitch, out.
And it's no downer for that. You got to ride that out.

Speaker 2 She called my brother, telling him, you got to calm, because my brother had a lot of experience with weed. So you've got to calm him down.
And all I thought was, of course, you called my brother.

Speaker 2 He's the one that I would trust. And now I don't trust him now.

Speaker 2 Dad don't f ⁇ with edibles. I can tell you that.
It's not your bag, brother.

Speaker 2 Clearly, what tells you that? It's not a lot of people's bag because I do not do edibles. Y'all can have those, so I'm good.

Speaker 1 What's your regimen?

Speaker 2 Smoke. That's it.
Flour. That's all.
I love flour.

Speaker 1 Are you somebody who has welcomed the legalization? Yes.

Speaker 2 In

Speaker 2 the trust? It's still weird to me. I cannot tell you how strange it is to me to be walking the streets of New York City and just see people walking around the streets smoking.

Speaker 2 I will not get used to it. I wish Florida was on board, though.

Speaker 1 It's crazy that Florida isn't.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Well, not too crazy if you

Speaker 2 fair.

Speaker 2 Immediately retracts.

Speaker 2 My previous story. Oh, no, no retractions, right?

Speaker 2 No retractions.

Speaker 2 It's amazing, yes.

Speaker 2 But, you know, the laws are still a bit weird and stuff, especially about, you know, state lines and things of that nature. But yeah, it's pretty cool.
It's pretty cool. I came out of the

Speaker 2 airport the other,

Speaker 2 a few weeks ago, and you can smell it as soon as you walked outside.

Speaker 1 The legal amount that you can legally possess in New York is up to three ounces.

Speaker 2 I did not know that. Which is a lot.
I need to put that in my bag when I travel. That's what I'm saying.
You can just walk around with that.

Speaker 2 Why not? Yeah, that's pretty dope. But I had no idea.
Wow. What about

Speaker 2 bona fides to be giving him weed information he doesn't already have? I think of him as a paramount weed authority. I don't think of I I don't, you know what?

Speaker 2 I don't do the laws. I don't know much about them.
I just know we used to get in trouble for that.

Speaker 1 So as far as the laws, aggregate that,

Speaker 2 things of that.

Speaker 2 I don't know. I don't do those.
I don't do those. Okay.
Find out later.

Speaker 1 But Generation X, right? You grew up with a certain type of weed, and now weed is a scientifically engineered instrument. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And are you enjoying what is new weed, relatively speaking?

Speaker 2 I've always welcomed evolution.

Speaker 2 I've always, I mean, I watched my mom, and sorry, mom, but yeah, I watched my mom with the big shoebox top and the trees, and she would use a playing card to do this with it.

Speaker 2 The reason why she would do that is so all the seeds can fall out of the, to the bottom, and you can pluck all of them. We don't got to do that no more.

Speaker 2 No sticks, no seeds, no, we don't need acapoca ghost, some

Speaker 2 badass weed.

Speaker 2 Yeah, man, I think

Speaker 2 everything evolves, And I think that the

Speaker 2 marijuana culture is, I mean, it was here before me. It'll be here after me.
But you got a few pioneers that saw this one coming a long time ago. I'm just a little cautious about government

Speaker 2 interference, in a sense, as far as THC levels and things of that nature. And when we start getting technical about things.

Speaker 2 Also, guys, real quick, I don't know if you guys know this or not, but that FedEx weed that y'all sending across state lines and all that shit, they know.

Speaker 2 I just want to let y'all, they know. They're just waiting for it to get the felony waiting, then you're going to get one of those letters.
So be careful. Be careful.

Speaker 2 I mean, it's legal, but yeah, I know some of the rules. He lives by his own rules, but he knows some of them.
He knows the ones he needs to know. So let's just, yeah, I'll leave it there.

Speaker 1 On the list of people where I'm like, I hope that we can have a blunt conversation.

Speaker 2 That's actually not a punt. Oh, that was a great punt, No,

Speaker 1 that was a great punt. It was genuinely unintended.
Nonetheless, on the list of people that I want to have a blunt conversation with you about, though, is a guy named Martin Shkrelli.

Speaker 2 Shkrelli, yeah. Yeah, I'm limited on my information about Skrelli, but I could tell you this.
He played his villain role pretty well.

Speaker 1 So I want to explain to Dan, do you know who Martin Shkrelly is?

Speaker 2 I know this story. Yeah, he's that hated pharma guy who bought the only Wu-Tang album there is in existence that everybody wants to hear that they have not been able to hear.

Speaker 1 So in 2017, Martin Shkrelly bit of the background, was convicted in federal court on two counts of securities fraud, one count of conspiracy.

Speaker 1 He was sentenced to prison, fined millions of dollars, so forth and so on. There's a civil case, on and on.
He is a scammer

Speaker 1 who is permanently banned, not unrelatedly, from serving as an officer of any publicly traded company. And at some point, he gets the idea to do what, Meth?

Speaker 2 Buy the Wu-Tang single album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 And Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,

Speaker 1 had you foreseen the possibility that this would be this kind of a story?

Speaker 2 I love the story that Rizza told because Rizza said when he met the guy, because Rizz was very instrumental in the whole thing with this whole album, he said when he met the guy, the guy was great and cool, dude, and everything, you know.

Speaker 2 He said, but after that, once he got the album, he turned into, again, this super villain. Like, this was his origin story and shit.

Speaker 2 And it just... turned into this thing and then him and Ghostface got into it and I was like, oh, okay, I see the theatrics now.

Speaker 2 This guy's playing a role but he don't know who he's playing with right now you know what i mean and um

Speaker 2 you know karma is a bitch and so is life

Speaker 1 so you should know not to cross either one of them hoes at all and so martin shkrelli he spent about two million dollars at auction to buy once upon a time in shallin the 31 track album yeah that i need you to explain to me yeah as a matter of it was conceived to be itself a commentary.

Speaker 1 Like the whole premise of we're only making one of these things, the only way to get it is to bid on it.

Speaker 1 That itself is this larger statement. And here's the thing.

Speaker 2 We weren't privy to any of this information, which is why it was a fallout with Klan members who were dealing with one individual.

Speaker 2 I won't say his name, but we were dealing with one individual who was one of Ridge's proteges. And

Speaker 2 you know, he sent out these tracks. Here, I need you to spit on this.
I need you to pay brothers accordingly. Okay, whatever.
But it's just, for us, this is protocol.

Speaker 2 It's like, you send me a track, I spit on it, get my money, I send this back. Whatever, whatever.
Royalties, I don't, however that shit works, that works itself out. Publishing, however.

Speaker 2 But we didn't hear anything else after that until we heard this is a single album and we're selling it auction. And so brothers are scratching their heads like, wait a minute, hold up.

Speaker 2 If I knew that that's what this was going to be, maybe I would have been a bit more artistic on it because I know where we're going with this.

Speaker 2 Or maybe I would have took a little bit more time and wouldn't have approached it as a guest appearance. I would have approached it as a Wu-Tang project.

Speaker 2 We didn't know it was a Wu-Tang project until it was. So now we're looking at it and then

Speaker 2 we're seeing that it was sold for 2 million. Bing starts.
Things are going off. Okay, well, where's that money going? And how's this work? And how does that work? And then the screlly thing happens.

Speaker 2 And now I'm like, this is a f ⁇ ing circus. I don't want any parts of this.
I don't care if I ever hear that album at this point, you know? And right now, I don't know who owns it.

Speaker 2 I think a few, maybe you can find that out. I know the feds had it for a minute and somebody else came and purchased it.
And I don't think we're entitled to any of that money as well.

Speaker 1 I was going to ask, have you seen any residuals? I don't know any of that.

Speaker 2 So, and if I have, they, they, you know, my bank account pretty tight. So, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 I don't be noticing sometimes.

Speaker 2 So I'm just saying, I'm just keeping it a buck.

Speaker 1 I was wandering around New York City and someone invited me to one of these. I didn't go, unfortunately.
I really regret it just because I wish I could tell you what your album is like.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Have you heard it? I only heard the songs that I'm on.
Yeah. Okay.
So you want to hear them? I mean, I don't have $2 million, but if we go off, I'll play something for you.

Speaker 2 It's just my verses, though. No one else's verses are on there.
Three joints. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I would love to hear that. Yeah, yeah.
Because the only way to hear it otherwise is to go to one of these listening parties held by a digital art collective,

Speaker 1 a DAO. This is is one of those, again, just like crypto era, just like, I don't even know what the f this is, but they own it.
And they're only, they purchased it in July 2021 from the U.S.

Speaker 1 government. No.
Again, an incredible Mad Limp, which had seized it from Martin Shkrelli.

Speaker 1 This DAO, a pleaser DAO, is a collective of 74 members who collectively own the album via NFT

Speaker 1 via non-fungible token. And they bought it for $4 million.

Speaker 1 Jesus. And they're only allowed because the contract on the album was

Speaker 2 88 years.

Speaker 1 88 years. Of course.
Number 88. So in 2103, you can hear it, but until then, you got to go to like a listening party where they're playing it for people.

Speaker 1 I'm thinking about like the ways in which you have responded to this bizarre future that has become the present. Yeah.
And I look up and you're photographing a New York Jets game.

Speaker 2 Talk about that. Like, whoa.

Speaker 1 I mean, you went analog. Dan, did you see this?

Speaker 2 I have not seen this.

Speaker 1 Can you explain? I mean, I'm making you explain everything, but like Meth was wearing a photographer's vest.

Speaker 2 They asked me three weeks prior to that. We did a meeting and the whole shit.
Would you like to? Well, Jessica, I forgot her last name, but I love Jessica. She's one of their reps there.

Speaker 2 She said the question was presented to her. And before she even asked me, she said yes, because she knew I'd want to do it.
She asked me, I said, yeah, what does it entail?

Speaker 2 You get to be on the field all day. Say less, let's just freaking go.
I show up that day.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 basically, you can walk the whole freaking field with the exception of going on the field until the end of the game. And I was just out there trying to be the best photographer I could be.

Speaker 2 But the problem was, I spent a little bit too much time on the Cleveland Browns side of the field, taking too many pictures, way too many pictures of the Cleveland Browns when I should have been more focused on the Jets.

Speaker 1 Because you're an impartial journalist.

Speaker 2 Impartial, indeed. So that's pensive sex symbol meth, knowing he's being photographed.
The other two are goofy childhood meth. Just I'm out here.

Speaker 2 Can you believe I'm out here with the Jets? That was all performance right there.

Speaker 1 Looking off into the distance with jaw max.

Speaker 2 I still got my arm sleeve too. Shout out to Perry and all the guys down there.
Security. Yes, sir.
Ken, respect.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 I mean, I don't know if I want the Jets to be one of the last notes that we have in this conversation.

Speaker 2 I asked him to bring over, I asked him if he still had

Speaker 2 the Wu-Tang recruitment song. I looked for it too, and I do not have it.
Whenever we record with Rizza, we leave with nothing.

Speaker 2 Nothing at all. He doesn't give tapes, none of that shit.
He just takes it, and he does his one-two-one-two. But honestly, I haven't heard it since I did it.

Speaker 1 But the story was that it was also Kevin Durant being recruited to the next.

Speaker 2 Do you remember anything about the track or about the... I don't remember the track, but I remember we shot a visual for it, and that was a long day in a dirty part of New York.

Speaker 2 It was just one of them dirty alleyways and shit. And I was like,

Speaker 2 man, when is this going to be over? Let's hurry up and get this shit over. We took pictures, all that shit.
It was about a four to five hour process, and then it was over.

Speaker 2 But you were trying to help the Knicks. You were trying to help.

Speaker 2 We really wanted KD to come. And I knew KD wanted to come to New York.
He just wasn't clear on where he wanted to go.

Speaker 1 So I just got to jump in here to say that about three months ago, we got a tip that kind of reminded me of the tip we got previously about the 2010 New York Knicks recruitment video for LeBron James, which we uncovered here at Pablitori Finds Out, you know, the whole Sopranos reunion thing.

Speaker 8 Now, we just gotta find a place for your friend LeBron to live.

Speaker 3 What's he like?

Speaker 2 He's a modern guy,

Speaker 2 but he respects tradition.

Speaker 3 Here's something classy on the east side.

Speaker 2 Was it big enough?

Speaker 1 But this tip, the new tip, was that the Wu-Tang clan had, in fact, been paid by the same organization, James Dones Knicks, for the NBA NBA free agency window of 2019.

Speaker 1 And what we were told was that the NYX paid the Wu-Tang clan to write and record and film an original song to Woo Kevin Durant.

Speaker 1 And after asking our sources to come through their phones and their hard drives, all of us racing to do this ahead of our interview with Method Man, who was involved in this song,

Speaker 1 we finally found it. A few hours actually after Meth walked out of the studio.

Speaker 1 And so what you're about to see and hear is a video that was hiding in plain sight on a message board, apparently, called wu-tangcorp.com.

Speaker 1 And the caption is, quote, ghost, Ray, Rizza, YDB, and meth, beat is weak and versus our commercial for KD, but flows are crazy, nice artifact, end quote.

Speaker 1 And the video title, and I love a YouTube video with like less than 2,000 views on it or whatever.

Speaker 1 The video title posted to YouTube by a cinematographer who worked on this, it would seem, who goes by the name of At Bleed Blue.

Speaker 1 Quote, the multi-million dollar Wu-Tang clan music video meant for one person.

Speaker 9 This is a multi-million dollar

Speaker 9 video, and it was only meant to be seen by one person, and one person only, and that's Kevin Duran.

Speaker 9 And because this was five years ago, and this is a project that I worked on, I still basically have access to the video and we could show it.

Speaker 1 And I just gotta be the first to say, say, beyond the, I want to be precise here: 2,745 people who have seen this random YouTube video before now.

Speaker 1 The thing is kind of crazy, as

Speaker 1 this

Speaker 1 verse from Ghostface kind of indicates.

Speaker 2 statue right in front of the garden. All gold, all these other organizations, garbage.
Visit the teams, they like bench targets. We got money, big bill for us, know how to market.

Speaker 2 Come on, orange and blue, and that KD hoodie. Three some half-court, the outcomes, all goody.
Buzz and beat is another leader. Urge you should leave a touchdown.
The word is spread like Cedar.

Speaker 1 But what I do want to make sure to show you is the verse from our good friend Method Man, in which he shouts out the Knicks roster one player at a time and has one Timberland on top of a basketball while wearing his orange and blue jersey with the number 35 on it.

Speaker 2 Real rap, no cap, no pressure. This is where you ought to be.
No legs. I'm Court Sodom in the Red Fox.
Oh, S.

Speaker 2 Kevin Knox, Richard Roberts from the Beast. Dennis Smith Jr.
Nick Bakers, we the East. All we need is a shotter in the crease.
The Knicks, we more envy than the Pacers, and we hotter than the heat.

Speaker 2 Fresh pair of KD designers on the feet. Stepping in the garden and they're blue and orange, no retreat.
Want to render? You put a 41 here.

Speaker 2 Remember, I mean, there's lots of reasons you should come here. Remember, Biggie from here.
A ring of 7-3 that was done here. Been a warrior long enough.
We need another one here.

Speaker 2 I'm saying, we even got your jersey size. If all you need is a reason, I can give you 35.

Speaker 1 And then you get some cameos from Young Dirty Bastard and Jadakiss and ASAP Ferg

Speaker 1 before the Rizza himself takes us home.

Speaker 2 Enough paper to buy your own skyscraper. Have your legacy in Madison Square Garden.
Next 2020, boy, I beg your pardon. 2-3-Zone, you can zone with the the squadron.
Shoot and pick and roll.

Speaker 2 Oh, he dunked on Harden.

Speaker 2 The crowd goes bananas instantly. Play on that Jumbotron camera.
I like that sound when that basketball pounds the ground. Seven pounds of pressures passed around.

Speaker 2 22 ounces of rubber, defensive cover. All we need is you to play that B4 for us.
And this is better than cheddar. It's a love letter.

Speaker 2 An invitation for you to be together with the woo in New York City that never sleeps. The five brothers keep you in the heart real deep.

Speaker 1 The song ends with a graphic of the MSG Jumbotron, and there's a New York skyline emblazoned to top it with the quote, KD,

Speaker 1 the city is yours.

Speaker 1 But then

Speaker 1 there is a brief epilogue.

Speaker 10 Listen, homie, we need you in New York right now. We need you on the Knicks, right, right, right, right now.

Speaker 2 A lot of people are going to give you a lot of reasons to come to New York and play for the Knicks, but I'll just say this. You come here, you be the prince of the city.
Play for us, New York Knicks.

Speaker 2 You know what what I'm saying? We want you, man. The Knicks want you.
Come through, baby. Make a move.
Make a solid move, man. We want you to come and join the New York Knicks, yo.

Speaker 2 You know what it is? Like I said, we won't build you a gold statue. The garden is synonymous with the Knicks, and I mean it's something about that building that brings out the best in players.

Speaker 2 Score for us. Hit busting shots for us.
Do it for the clean. Do it for the team.
Do it for the Wu-Tang, baby. A real talk, man.
I love you, man. Love everything you do, man.

Speaker 2 Trust me, the game will never be the same.

Speaker 1 You may now know how the story ended. Um, Kevin Durant chose the Brooklyn Nets, despite having seen this video presented to him by the Knicks.

Speaker 1 But as for the promise that was made to me by Method Man, it does bring me back to the real set of tracks, the real set of Wu-Tang songs that have been lost to history that I was told that I could hear in our studio,

Speaker 1 even though you know, you guys can't,

Speaker 1 at least not yet.

Speaker 1 Dan Meth. Yes, sir.
It's been a pleasure. Thank you, sir.
And it's time to listen to those tracks.

Speaker 2 He's playing it. You better either get out of here or beep it or something.
He's starting to play. I'm looking forward.
I'm looking forward.

Speaker 1 As soon as he hits play, we're going to end the show.

Speaker 2 That's not right. Yeah, yes, it is.
Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 This is a Christmas gift just for me.

Speaker 2 It is perfect. Trust me.
Oh, God. I hope I can find it.
This is going to be tough.

Speaker 2 Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
We're out of here, y'all. Salute.
Respect.

Speaker 1 This has been Pablo Torre finds out a Metalark media production,

Speaker 1 and I'll talk to you next time.

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