The rapper Method Man bit for ‘The What’ verse
In the autumn of 1994, hip-hop was buzzing with the release of the Notorious BIG’s Ready to Die. Among the standout tracks was ‘The What’, a grime-soaked duet with Method Man, the only guest rapper Biggie invited onto his debut.
That choice alone was a statement. Out of all the MCs in New York, Big picked the sharpest voice from Staten Island, a Wu-Tang swordsman who could meet him bar for bar.
The record became an instant favourite, but only years later did Method Man reveal a secret about the verse fans had memorised word for word. He admitted it wasn’t fully his style. The flow he used, the rhythm of those lines, came straight from Nas. “I was biting Nas’s flow,” he said, with the blunt honesty of a man who has nothing left to prove.
The session itself has taken on mythic status. Tracy Waples, a Bad Boy Records exec, picked Method Man up from his house and drove him to the studio. Inside, Easy Mo Bee was queuing up a beat that rattled with dust and menace. Puffy was milling around, Biggie was cracking jokes at everyone’s expense, and Meth was ushered into a scene that felt more like a block party than a recording session. They pulled up chairs at a small dining table, scraps of paper ready, pens in hand. Big had already written his verse and suggested a clever handoff. He would finish with “you can’t mess with M E”, and Meth would jump in by spelling “T H O D”.
The timing felt awkward, so he overlapped Big’s ending, cutting in with his own signature entrance: “T H O D man, here I am”. That was the spark. What followed poured out of him quickly, almost without thinking. But in his own words, the style he leaned on belonged to Nas.
Lines like “I’ll be damned if this ain’t some shit, time to spread the butter, lyrics over harmony” roll out in the same conversational rhythm Nas brought to Illmatic. It is the Queensbridge cadence, smooth and unhurried but still cutting, mapped onto Method’s gravel-toned delivery. At the time, nobody called it out; fans only heard a Wu-Tang MC in his prime. Only in hindsight, and by Method’s own admission, does the resemblance ring clear.
This is where the culture of the 1990s matters. Originality was everything, and to bite another rapper’s style was a cardinal sin. Wu-Tang themselves built their image on tearing down imitators, even accusing Biggie of copying Nas’s album cover concept. Ghostface Killah’s Shark N*** skit on Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… flat out mocked rappers for stealing Nas’s ideas, a jab that stung Big and caused tension across borough lines. Within that climate, for Method Man to borrow Nas’s flow was daring. Yet, because he blended it with his own flavour, nobody noticed, and the record became legendary.
It is worth noting how collaborative the track truly was. Biggie didn’t just pass the mic, he fed Meth lines. One of the most famous exchanges, where Method boasts about having “more Glocks and TECs”, actually came from Biggie’s pen, and the man confirmed it himself, noting, “He had me say that part”. Far from weakening the verse, these shared touches made ‘The What’ feel like two heavyweights sparring in sync, tossing jabs and finishing each others’ punches.
Decades later, ‘The What’ still rattles like a cypher caught on tape. Biggie struts with wit and threat, while Meth snaps with a borrowed Queensbridge swing turned Staten Island grit. Together, they captured the spirit of a city in constant motion.
When Method Man laughs and says, “I’ll be damned if this ain’t some shit”, he is not just writing a clever opener; he is confessing the truth of an era where influence moved fast and biting could turn into brilliance. That is why ‘The What’ remains untouchable. More than a collaboration, it is New York’s finest voices echoing through one another, proving that even the fiercest competitors sometimes need a little inspiration from across the river.