Why Method Man refused to shake Destiny’s Child’s hands
Method Man is a genuine living legend, and, refreshingly, he is also one of those rare celebrities willing to speak publicly and honestly about some of the mistakes they’ve made throughout their lives.
During an appearance on the My Expert Opinion podcast in 2022, he reflected on a particularly regrettable episode from many years ago, during the 2000s. Basically, he was really rude to Destiny’s Child, but the reason, as he admitted on the podcast, had less to do with them and more to do with his own struggles.
Speaking on the pod, the Wu-Tang legend remembered that his first meeting with Destiny’s Child, while the group was still operating as a four-piece, had actually gone well. But later, when he met them again as a trio, things took a turn for the worst. It was at the 2004 MOBO Awards, and, as he explained, he was having troubles with his self-esteem at the time. He was, in his own words, “miserable”, and that state was a recipe for disaster when he approached Destiny’s Child again.
“I see the girls,” he explained, “so I kinda moseyed out of my seat to go over and say what’s up to them. Now, this is still me in my low self-esteem era. But I’m thinking like, ‘okay, comfort zone here, I’m gonna say what’s up to the girls. I love them, I’m just gonna say hi’. I go over to say hi to them, and when I said hi, they didn’t even turn around and acknowledge me.”
He wasn’t ready for that. “Now, my ass, in my head, with my low self-esteem is like, ‘They just shitted on me’,” he recounted, adding, “When in fact, they didn’t even hear me. It was so loud in that motherfucker. That’s the excuse that I’m giving right now—they didn’t even fucking hear me.”
At the time, he was in such a bad headspace that he couldn’t see that they just hadn’t heard him. He took it as an insult, so when he met them again later, and they offered their hands to shake, he refused. “Afterward,” he explained, “[the producer] Rockwilder—he was gonna do the ‘Bootylicious’ song for them—he comes over, he’s talking to them, he’s like, ‘Oh, you know Redman and Meth?’ And they put their hands out to shake, and I kept my hand here and was like, ‘Go ’head with that Hollywood shit’.” He wouldn’t do it.
He would later come to regret that moment. “To this day,” he said, “that shit hurt my heart, because neither Kelly, Beyoncé, or Michelle ever did any fucking thing to me.”
He explained how the misery and the perceived slight made a mountain out of a molehill in his mind, which led him to think since they hadn’t offered him the respect he deserved, he wouldn’t budge from his notions. He mused how, just like most people around, they were also there to “promote themselves and break records and things of that nature”, and of course there was nothing wrong in that.
Many years have passed between that moment and the podcast recording, but clearly, it still upset him to think about. But he took the opportunity to, after so many years, say sorry. “To this day, man, I don’t think I’ve ever apologised for that,” he said, earnestly adding, “I apologise to Beyoncé, I apologise to Kelly Rowland and Michelle, y’all did not deserve that, at all”.
It’s quite an admirable thing, really. Method Man could have tried to forget about this forever, and he didn’t need to bring it up at all; instead, he publicly admitted to being rude to Destiny’s Child and tried to make amends for it. Humility in show business is a rare thing, but every now and then, we can see flashes of it.