The classic album Redman doesn’t remember recording: “I was doing a lot of drugs”
Redman made one of the best albums of his career in the early 1990s, but he doesn’t remember much about it. The New Jersey rapper was a young man when Dare Iz the Darkside was released in 1994, at a time when he was experimenting with a lot of substances.
Reggie Noble’s second album arrived two years after his debut LP Whut? Thee Album off the back of a long time touring. “I was on the road, on tour at a real young age and then I did one album and blacked out on the album,” he told HipHopDX. “Lyrically blacked out, but I was just there. I don’t even remember how I got it done and what studio I did it in.”
While ranking his albums, Redman even put Dare Iz a Darkside second to last due to the fact that he’s never had it on rotation. “It should be ranked a little higher,” he said. “I ain’t gonna lie. But it’s just that I never played that album. Even when I do shows, I don’t do any songs off that album.”
Redman revealed that he doesn’t perform songs from the album at shows because they were recorded during one of the darkest times in his life. However, during his Verzuz battle with Method Man in 2021, he acknowledged ‘Can’t Wait’ with a rare performance.
Released on Def Jam, Dare Iz a Darkside debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 83,000 copies in its first week. Redman produced the majority of the album by himself alongside Rockwilder and Erick Sermon, who served as the executive producer.
Redman admitted that taking a lot of drugs at the time was the reason for him remembering none of the process. He also revealed that, to his surprise, women often come up to him and praise the project.
“I was doing a lot of drugs on Dare Iz a Darkside,” he said. “I have chicks that come up to me and say, ‘Yo, Dare Iz a Darkside is my favorite fuckin’ album, ever.’ I swear, I have not played Dare Iz a Darkside damn near since I did it. Seriously! I was so lost, I was so fucked up during that album.”
Redman spoke more about the specific drugs he was taking during that period, explaining that acid was causing his awareness to be blurry. “I was high as hell on Dare Iz a Darkside,” he told Uproxx. “I was experiencing a lot of drugs, I was doing acid. I don’t remember none of that process to the album. And that’s my least likeable album.”
The Dare Iz a Darkside cover art shows Redman buried in the ground and serves as a nod to Funkadelic’s classic 1971 album Maggot Brain, with the song ‘Cosmic Slop’ also named after another album from the funk rock band. The album went on to be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.