I realize Hollywood’s upscale Highlands nightclub is attempting to paint its reputation with a glaze of elegant sterility but, even so, I found it odd that the club’s management still expected the kids to dress to the nines when coming to see Method Man and Redman, arguably rap music’s most beloved debauchery-promoting duo. However, giving a nod to the days of gritty punk rockers spitting on disco’s elitist zeitgeist, jeans, sneakers and lowlifes won out at the Myspace-sponsored show.

Method Man waltzed on stage with a sizable blunt in his mouth and exhaled glorious poetry in motion to a hyped ovation from the crowd. Redman was in tow, nursing a half-drunk Corona. Clutching their instruments of transgression, the duo opened with their croaking banger “Da Rockwilder.” Redman still supplements his low-self esteem anthem, “I’ll Bee Dat!” with extemporaneous physical comedy, while Method Man daringly torpedoes himself into the crowd after his eponymous song “Method Man.”

Truth be told, I was skeptical about the legitimacy of the two nearly-forty year-old rappers still stomping across the stage and perusing the juvenile lyrical territory they’ve built their names upon—but, watching the jovial pair, it becomes apparent that their shameless boasts of enjoying the delicacies of “low-culture” are meant to be their own subversive contributions to the low-culture they happily indulge in. And, in a culture where motivations seem to be excessively polarized (either stacking cash or condemning the stacking of cash), the seldom clandestine Method Man and Redman seem to simply shrug, then continue to proudly express their fondness for weed, beer, pro-wrestling and kung-fu films; If Hulk Hogan or Wolverine ever released a rap album, I think Meth and Red would be honored to have Blackout!, Tical, Whut? Thee Album or any other of their classics prominently displayed next to it.

After assisting each other’s solo-work, Method Man and Redman played selections from their latest Blackout 2. Nearing 2:00 AM, Method Man’s slithering voice scolded what was becoming a fairly torpid crowd, “When you come to a Method Man and Redman show, you need two things: good amount of energy and some good-ass weed.”—Well put.

—Paul Glanting