Redman was in an interesting position in 1998. He had done what most artists can only dream of, something even established legends like Jay-Z and Nas never really managed. He had released a hat-trick of classics. Whut? Thee Album, Dare Iz a Darkside and Muddy Waters were albums that were all held in incredibly high regard by the hip-hop community upon release, and despite none of them quite managing to sell a million copies, every hip-hop head in town certainly owned all three in some form, and were proud of the fact. Redman could have retired having done something as incredible as this, especially after he also released a pretty damned good group project with Def Squad as well, but instead of this, he decided that he must appease the fans rather than himself, and he made sure that another album was out by the end of '98, to go alongside the release of Method Man's Tical 2000: Judgement Day, an album with a similarly forward thinking title and skit-filled tracklist.
Redman's fourth solo outing, which went by the absolutely silly title of Doc's Da Name 2000, a name that ages the thing like an early episode of Sex and the City, was released to the masses by Def Jam in December of 1998, and despite the absolutely ridiculous cover art (I mean, just look at that album cover), the album was inexplicably popular and managed to sell over 1 million copies, quite the feat for a project where every single song title (give or take a few) was deliberately misspelled in some way. The only reason I can possibly give as to why this one sold more than his previous work is that Def Jam must have promoted it well, as the recipe was pretty much the same as it was for the gold-selling Muddy Waters. The production work was almost entirely done by Erick Sermon and Redman, with a bit of Rockwilder in there too, and there was a ridiculous number of skits on the thing, resulting in a back cover that listed well over 20 tracks, the majority of which were without guest appearances. Those that did show up were previous collaborators Method Man, Keith Murray, Biz Markie (who prior to this showed up on Def Squad's El Niño) and the aforementioned Erick Sermon, with an addition of Busta Rhymes (yes!!) this time, as well as singer Dave Hollister and a posse cut full of Reggie's friends from the Bricks.
Speaking of The Bricks, it seemed that this album was conceived as a homage to Red's hometown of Newark, New Jersey (frequently referred to as "Brick City", or simply "The Bricks"), not unlike what Tech N9ne later did with The Gates Mixed Plate. Not only does the front cover feature a brick wall (among other things, of course), but the back cover shows a large sign that states "Welcome to Newark, New Jersey", suggesting that this project was supposed to evoke similar feelings to what Red felt whenever he spent time in his old neighbourhood. Devoting the entire album to this theme would then lead listeners to believe that perhaps Red would get a little bit more personal, which he did do, albeit in his own Redman-ish way. The album became the highest selling ever to come out of the Def Squad camp, but the question is: is it worthy of this accolade? Well, if you want to find that out, you'll just have to read on...
1. Welcome 2 Da Bricks (prod. Redman)
Reggie starts things with a spoken word introduction that is certainly a lot easier to interpret than the Jurassic sounds he used on the last album's intro. The script here could be considered corny, but the fact that it's Redman delivering it helps it to go down easier. Still, this wasn't entirely necessary.
2. Let Da Monkey Out (prod. Erick Sermon)
Over a more futuristic sounding E-Double beat than what we've become used to on previous Def Squad projects, Redman rips things up like a flock of baboons in a pomegranate tree field (that is if such a thing exists). This track certainly sounds a lot more suited to radio than anything on Muddy Waters, what with the catchy hook and bouncy instrumental, but Redman still makes it part of his own universe with the inclusion of monkey sounds, Dr. Trevis and an absolutely killer flow that will be sure to keep you engaged through the whole runtime of the track. This song is nice.
3. I'll Bee Dat! (prod. Rockwilder)
4. Get It Live (prod. Erick Sermon)
After a weird little record scratch that for some reason got stuck in my head for what seemed like months after hearing the song, the simplistic beat on this track starts up, and we see a Redman that sounds a lot more like he did on El Niño than on anything that came before that. In fact, Redman sounds like basically a completely different person on this entire LP to anything he had done previously on his solo stuff. While this track isn't too memorable lyrically outside of the reference to The Firm's "Phone Tap" and the goofy chorus, Reggie's flow and delivery teamed with the funky beat make it well worth checking out. Good stuff.
5. Who Took Da Satellite Van? (Skit)
One of seemingly a billion skits littering this album. Still, at least this one's short and reasonably entertaining.
6. Jersey Yo! (prod. Redman, co-prod. Gov-Mattic)
This track is actually a cover/homage to Ice Cube's classic track "Once Upon a Time In the Projects" from 1991, in that it's chorus heavily interpolates that track's opening lines, the outro is similar, and the beat is a reworking of the original from AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. While this track is inevitably not as good as Ice Cube's storytelling masterpiece, I still find this to be pretty goddamned hilarious, even if the chorus gets quite annoying after a short while. This beat is obviously great, and Redman rhymes over it very well with the most hilarious lines on the album as of yet - "Click over - wassup bitch? Oh, hi mama!" is a personal favourite. Yes, this isn't an entirely original track, but I still do enjoy it.
7. Close Ya Doorz (feat. Double O, Tame, Diezzel Don, Roz, Gov-Mattic & Young Z) (prod. Erick Sermon)
Seeing as this album is all about paying homage to Brick City, it's only right that Red would include a posse cut track of his buddies from Newark, and that is what he does here. The fact that the guests aren't credited on the back cover but are in the booklet is just spiteful, though. While I don't think these guys (side note: while Tame One is credited, he doesn't actually show up on here) are anything special, I did enjoy all of their verses somewhat - ironically the worst verse belongs to Young Zee, the only guy on here to ever really do anything else on record (outside of this song's sequel, "Bricks Two"). The best verse was in my opinion that of Double-O, who has a nice flow and delivery. I also found it funny how, while not having a verse, Redman does contribute ad-libs throughout, as if he couldn't bear to be left out on his own LP. This beat is also chill as hell. Nice cut.
8. I Don't Kare (prod. Erick Sermon, co-prod. Redman)
The obvious misspelling in the title is one of the few on here that I don't find stupid and unnecessary - it adds a sort of bite to the name, which would seem whiny otherwise. I find this song to be pretty solid, but at the same time it doesn't stand out from the crowd at all, especially since the beat is forgettable as an oatcake. This is merely alright.
9. Boodah Break (prod. Erick Sermon)
While the similarly titled "Boodah Session" from Dare Iz a Darkside is simply a skit, this track is actually a proper song, albeit one that takes a while to get started. After some speaking from both Red and the still fully active Dr. Trevis over the chilled out Erick Sermon instrumental, teamed with sound bites of Run-DMC and Public Enemy songs, Red decides it's time to actually spit some rhymes, which he does to the same degree as on most of the previous tracks. Anyone notice this album starting to get a little samey?
10. Million Chicken March (2 Hot 4 TV) (Skit)
Remember the absolutely awful "Chicken Head Convention" from the last album? Well, imagine that but make it corny as well as misogynistically unfunny, and you've got this skit right here. This needs to get the hell out.
11. Keep On '99 (prod. Erick Sermon)
This track has gone slowly down in my estimation ever since I first heard it - I used to not mind this one, but now I find the slow beat, obnoxious hook and seemingly effortless lyrics - imagine you put "write a Redman song from 1998" into ChatGPT - dull and quite unlikeable. The lyrics on here show no divergence from what we've already heard on this album. Don't like this track much at all.
12. Well All Rite Cha (feat. Method Man) (prod. Erick Sermon)
Since I rather stupidly listened to Method Man & Redman's Blackout! before this album, and that CD includes this as a bonus cut, I had heard this track before I introduced myself to anything else on here. As Meth & Red collabs go, this is one of the weakest in my opinion, but that's only because Erick Sermon's beat doesn't really go anywhere. On the other hand, Reggie and Clifford compliment each other as well as they always do on here, and it's nice to hear a voice that isn't Reggie's for once if I'm honest - his lyrical content was starting to get a little tiring. This is a really dope track. "Air it outttttt..."
13. Pain In Da Ass Stewardess (Skit)
Surprisingly doesn't feature vocals from that guy Pain In Da Ass that introduced Jay-Z's first four albums. Unsurprisingly, this skit was pretty useless, although I could understand listeners being a little shocked by it on first listen.
14. Da Goodness (feat. Busta Rhymes) (prod. Redman)
15. My Zone! (feat. Markie) (prod. Redman)
And, after building the momentum up with that classic, Red hits us with one of the most forgettable tracks in his entire catalogue, and I've listened to Red Gone Wild. I literally barely remember anything about this, and what I do remember isn't good. Redman delivers a pretty aggressive verse, and Biz Markie also performs on a short part of the song, but it all just blends in together over the dull production. No wonder this starts with the sound of a toilet flushing (but seriously, what was up with that?).
16. Da Da DaHHH (prod. Erick Sermon)
While this does have one of the most insufferable titles on an album called Doc's Da Name 2000, I still find this to be one of the best tracks here, and one of the most standout in Red's whole catalogue. Instead of dropping funny one-liners and verses about smoking weed, Redman actually bothers to say something of importance on here, detailing his life story from birth to the time of writing, when he had hair on his chest as he proclaims with glee at the end. The song is still goofy in execution ("I'm just a young boy doing grown man shit - like touching your titties" - uhh, what?), but the more solemn instrumental teamed with Red's actually different lyrical content makes this one of my favourite tracks here.
17. G.P.N. (Skit)
You can probably guess what my reaction was to this.
18. Down South Funk (feat. Erick Sermon & Keith Murray) (prod. Erick Sermon)
The inevitable Def Squad posse cut uses a sample in the chorus from the better cut "Cosmic Slop" from Redman's sophomore effort, a fact that could come across as interesting or terribly dull, depending on what you're interested in. Erick Sermon drops a typically funky beat for this one that is actually more entertaining than a lot of the tracks in the first half of this thing, so that's great, and he also provides a stellar verse, despite referring to "balls of steel" at some point. Reggie knocks him out the park with an excellent verse, though, and Keith does a solid job himself. It's no "How's That" or "Cosmic Slop", but still, this is a pretty damn good track in my opinion.
19. D.O.G.S. (prod. Erick Sermon)
Red, ashamed that he forgot to sample "Atomic Dog" somewhere into Muddy Waters, decides to include a track heavily sampling the piece late into this album, to call back to Dare Iz a Darkside, which sampled the famous track multiple times. This track contains one of the smoother beats on this LP, which is actually quite excellent, and Redman doesn't make a fool of himself on here either, at least until he ends with the line "I keep the stinkin' ass hoes doin' laundry". It's not entirely original, but I still find this to be a pleasant listen.
20. Beet Drop (prod. Redman)
Reggie attempts a quick cover of The Beastie Boys' "The New Style", but things cut short when he realised that this was actually a terrible idea. Still, nice to hear him switch to a more aggressive style.
21. We Got Da Satellite Van! (Skit)
Continuation of the skit all the way back at track 5. Still, unnecessary.
22. Brick City Mashin'! (prod. Erick Sermon)
You would think that someone meant to be repping their hometown would stray away from "mashing" it, but there you go. I already knew I would like this from the hilarious song title, but damn is this song a good one. Reggie experiments a little more with the flow here, with some interesting experimentation with echoing and other shenanigans that make this one of the best rapped songs on the entire LP. The instrumental is absolutely great as well. I read somewhere that Method Man was supposed to feature on here, and his addition would have been nice too, but this is fine as it is in my opinion, and Keith Murray pops up on a bridge here, so that's alright. "Look around your seats, do you see anybody weirder than me?" is a classic opening line too.
23. Soopaman Lova IV (feat. Dave Hollister) (prod. Redman)
Something that pisses me off to a grand level is the fact that Redman could have got this to a perfect 25 tracks if he had separated the skit at the end of the previous track, but he decided not to. The hell? I mean it's not like the guy is averse to skits. Still, an even better outcome would have been if he had just cut this song altogether - as a fan of the Soopaman Luva (or "Lova", as he is apparently now known) series, I was incredibly disappointed by this weak storyline and awful R&B feature. Do better, Redman. Do better.
24. I Got A Seecret (prod. Roni Size)
Interestingly, I used to hold this album near and dear, and a couple of years ago you could actually catch me playing this thing all the way through at least once a week. Therefore it comes as a surprise that I actually don't enjoy this album anymore as much as I expected, and I find there to be quite a few weaker tracks sprinkled throughout. As a whole, this thing is, simply put, bloated as a beached whale. There's an abundance of pointless skits that it shares in common with Muddy Waters, but unlike with that album, I actually find a lot of the rapping performances from Redman to be a little subpar on here. I just feel like he went too far with the comedic side, and therefore strayed away from what made him great in the first place - his ability to be lyrically engaging, funny and technically impressive all at once. On here, you could say he checks the first two, but I'll be honest - the verses rarely impress here (outside of the incredible "Da Goodness" and a couple others). I will say that things get a lot more interesting once you hit "Da Goodness" actually, as the second half has a lot of genuinely great tracks intermixed with some utter trash, meanwhile the first half tends to stay in the same lane for the most part, making it a bit of a slog to get through, especially with boring-ass cuts like "Keep On '99". I will say that the production on here remains great, with E-Double providing an excellent soundscape with a little bit of help from others, but unfortunately Redman didn't entirely bring his all to this LP. Still, there's a lot of great bangers on here, and I would say that I'd recommend a listen, as Redman is still an entertaining MC, and while there are consistency issues, the great tracks are truly great. This album could have trimmed off a whole load of fat, but at the same time, I still find good times with it, and I think it's a project that fans of Redman should definitely head into. Just beware if you hate skits and/or weak attempts at comedy - there's quite a bit of that.
Best Tracks: Let Da Monkey Out, I'll Bee Dat!, Get It Live, Da Goodness, Da Da DaHHH, Down South Funk, Brick City Mashin', I Got a Secret
Worst Tracks: Keep On '99, My Zone!, Soopaman Lova IV, the bloody skits
Want to read some more about Red? Well, I for one won't stop you!
Images for "Da Goodness" and "I Got a Seecret" singles taken from Discogs
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