Red Bull Spiral is a freestyle series, part of the wide-ranging media and entertainment enterprise under the energy drink’s name. With the Wu rising back to prominence on the back of some buzzy pop culture moments (look at the big budget behind the Wu Tang Dunk, enlisting the New York Knicks in the process), the brand is tapping into that retro lean with their latest edition of the series, casting Redman, Method Man and Raekwon.
Redman, Method Man and Raekwon Expectedly Combine For Greatness
It won’t come as a surprise for any old-school hip-hop fan, but a thumping boom-bap instrumental is the choice to set the pace for the three legendary MCs. Each turn in characteristically sturdy performances, but Method Man may take the cake. He showcases once again how he metamorphosed to fit a new listener, blending his timeless rugged delivery and A-plus pen game with new triplet-like cadences: “Meth the man again, be a man or a mannequin / That business that we standin’ on, be the business you standin’ in.”
Redman’s contributions major more in meaning than dazzling technicality, reaching a peak with his assertion: “New rappers they hero Lil Wayne / But my hero Billy Danz and Lil Fame.” Raekwon closes out the festivities, seeped in his own characteristic brand of vivid imagery and mafioso charisma: “Had the spider on, a leather wit my idol on it / Bar blowers, we G-coded, the Ds know it.”
Red Bull Spiral Presents Unique Performance Lane In Hip-Hop
Zooming out, the music industry (and hip-hop, more specifically) is currently amid an arms race of novel live performance concepts, stretching from mainstays like NPR Tiny Desk to relative newcomers like On The Block or COLORS Studio. Red Bull Spiral truly does feel like a breath of fresh air in that regard, capitalizing on a high-concept logline: multiple artists, one beat, one take.
While the idea of a hook-less performance has been a mainstay of promo efforts for years (Sway, LA Leakers, Tim Westwood), more than one MC only takes on the challenge at one time on rare collab album occasions. Further, though the BET and XXL cyphers showcase how buzzy it can be to place unorthodox rapper combinations together, tying those performances to once-a-year events inherently limits their cultural impact.
Though Red Bull Spiral still has a relatively small catalog compared to all of those aforementioned institutions, they’ve certainly got our attention even with the pieces released so far. In particular, the Pusha T, Khi Infinite & yvngxchris, Cash Cobain, Chow Lee & Lonny Love, and IDK, Smino & Mick Jenkins editions are worth a listen, each elucidating a different lane and generation that these tri-headed takes can tap into.
Catch this throwback edition of Red Bull Spiral on their YouTube page, along with all the other pieces mentioned here.
Elsewhere in the world of hip-hop, the Denzel Curry deluxe adds a new dimension to his already spectacular King Of The Mischievous South.
