Pablo Torre Finds Out - Share & Wu & Tell with Method Man and Dan Le Batard

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

Does Gen X know how to FaceTime? Will money contaminate your team? Can your creativity breed insomnia? Why are rappers good liars? And did Wu-Tang really make a KD recruitment video for the Knicks? Plus: Pharma Bro, JV wrestling, beating Stugotz's team in lacrosse, a cautionary tale from "How High"... and the f*ckin' Jets.Further content:• Watch "Trouble Man" starring Method Man• "Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation?"• The Multi-Million Dollar Wu Tang Clan Music Video Meant for One Person Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. The pastor brings him to the church, but the pimping brings him back. Right after this ad. What is your algorithm like now that... My algorithm is... A lot of workout stuff. Meth looks good.

He always looks good. He's so frustrating how good he looks. I get alerts wherever it is that I am that meth is appearing. somewhere in public because of the amount of thirsty women who still, still are looking... You know this is true. They're as rare as the 50-year-old plus sex symbol

that gets women as crazy as meth does at this age. I would say that these are females that are rooting for a generation that was very rare. A very rare generation, Generation X. We're different. We are different. Wait, hold on, hold on.

For people who don't remember or understand, and by the way, Method, man, thank you for being here. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Big fan, Pablo. Oh, well, this is a true delight for a couple of reasons, one of which is that you guys, you and Dan, go way back.

That's my brodie. And I need to ask about that. But for people who don't remember your generation, what is Generation X? Generation X is the generation that came in between televisions and computers. We were there before the Internet. It's more or less like we had the best of both worlds. We were the generation that still played outside, had less rules, and even had a reminder on television.

It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your children are? Because parents forgot they had kids back then. They were in the street playing with other kids, which is not something that's happening. We drank out of the water holes, brother. Come on. Generation X, different. Made different. How did you do first get to know each other?

Sports. It's sports and the show. Right? As I recall, I just really enjoyed talking to him the first time I talked to him and was flattered that he would have any interest in what we were doing. But when he talks about Generation X and the way that Wootang hits people, ESPN did that for him, I'm assuming, that it's on his television and he feels like he knows me before he knows me. And then he gave me the pleasure of allowing me to know him.

And then I get the rare instance. I don't think a lot of people... No, I don't think a lot of people get to the experience I got, which is you're a fan of somebody before you meet them because you think they're authentic. Right. You feel like you know them because of the art they make, and then you meet them, and you like them even more

than you liked the art they were making. I want to target Dan for a second, because you're a friend of Dan, which means you are in the club of people who is undoubtedly getting FaceTimes from Dan Levitard. Well, not exactly FaceTime, but we do do the phone thing. We definitely do do the phone thing. And when we're face-to-face, those conversations are totally off the record.

But it's real. It's definitely real. FaceTime, though, it's more sharing video. I'll send him a video. Instead of voicemails or instead of we send each other. So you get the angle from below his chin where he's just like sending crying. It's the equivalent of FaceTime. Yeah.

Yeah. Things that he. Generation X's version of FaceTime. This is Dan sending L's, he's properly groomed. And so he doesn't have the nose hair issues. Yes. but it's a little more intimate, I suppose, than he would like. Very much so.

Very much so. And I mean, watching Dan with his father on the show, but prior to that being on ESPN, you as well, guest on PTI, things of that nature, part in the interruption. Love that show. Anyway, I'm a Long Island kid, so sports were very prevalent in Long Island.

From the time you're a shorty playing Little League baseball to when you get old enough to play Pee-Wee football, then it's lacrosse. basketball to hold your bag. I mean, I even wrestled one year in junior high school. What's this getting report on junior high school method man in a singlet? Oh, it was tough. It was pretty tough, man.

I thought that the rest was, especially when I joined wrestling, I thought we were going to be doing like WWE type stuff. Nothing near that. And way more strenuous than I thought it'd be. The practice is more strenuous than the actual match. The match is what? Minute, minute, 30, two minutes? Yeah, the practices were way

worse. I'm pretty sure that the first time he was on with us, Meth mentioned that he used to kick the ass of Stugats' lacrosse team. I was going to ask about this. We kick Valley Stream's ass all the time, and in football. Absolutely. And slashing was real leaning

too. You could probably hit somebody in the head with the stick. Well, not in the head, but you can hit them on the top of the shoulder pad without getting in too much trouble depending on where you were playing at. When we played Port Washington, those dudes were soft. I hope you're not from Port Washington. Yeah, Matt, that's where I'm from, man.

That is where I'm from, Matt. Matt, we lost in the state semifinals last year. Those dudes were soft. Soft. Fort Washington was soft as baby schnott. And in football, you guys had the green and white uniform. Soft. Oh, football were terrible.

You couldn't handle me on midfield. Yeah. You couldn't handle me on midfield or attack. Matt, Matt, hold on. Wait a minute. Did you guys play against each other? Did you play against me? I mean, they were, I wouldn't say they were.

coddled kids because they did have some tough kids down there but they weren't our caliber tough really so stugats wasn't reared as tough as they cried a lot i mean we were kids they cried a lot way as in like going to the going to the manager going to the ref no no getting hurt and crying oh like he's talking about actually crying sorry physically he's not talking about whimpering he's talking about your surprise that wutang would be tougher than stugat's i don't know in my view, like met the band playing lacrosse is a madlib. I like that. I like the way you put that.

You know what? It started, I had a cousin that played lacrosse, and he just brought me down one day. And I just took to it, man. I played four years. I was okay. And one coach that stood out the most of me was a coach named Mr. Hodish. He was a great coach. And I mentioned him when I did an interview on CBS for the PLL, Premier La Crosse League,

which is Paul Rable and those guys, they're doing a great job with that league, by the way. So I mentioned Mr. Hodesh, and on Twitter I got a tweet from one of his daughters, and he actually remembered me and said, yeah, he was a pretty good lacrosse player, so I'm valid. I'm pretty much valid because Mr. Hodesh vouch for me. Word.

I want to understand how being a person who compete in team sports informed the fact that you are an instrumental figure in the world of, I think, the closest thing to team sports and music. Nice. Cash, whoops everything around me. Clean get the buttons. Dollar billion. On the crime side. New York Timeside.

Well, I mean, yeah, team player, that's me. And I love the fact that Wu-Tang, when we came in, you know, I mean, nine people, unheard of. So what was the math on that? Were you concerned? Is this too many at first? How does that work? No, I don't think anyone. thought about that because we weren't thinking monetary at the time. I mean, it definitely boils down to

that at the end of the day, especially at the beginning of the month when bills are due, you know. But we weren't thinking of that. We were thinking our talent was going to take us someplace and wherever that was, it would be better than where we were. So that was it in a nutshell right there. But the team factor, like even my regular life was always about teams. Like I've always enjoyed movies like five deadly victims, magnificent seven. set of samurai you know what I'm talking about yeah like I've always loved

like a variety of characters that you can latch on to my favorite comic book X-Men speaks volumes to my character right there because of team which X-Man is Method Man Ooh

I like to joke a lot I don't know I mean I would be either Ice Man right or Bishop because he's black Bishop is also He's also a time-traveling black person who seems to defy age. Yes.

And is in great shape. Yes, he is, sir. What are you saying? Are you saying that he has some parallels with... I'm just saying? Honestly, I believe in my assessment of the whole thing was Rizzo was supposed to do Wu-Tang with him, Jizzer and no dirty bastard. We all were emcees that were around the way that would frequently go to his crib and make these tapes. So we were all familiar with each other.

We all grew up together. and he had this epiphany because Rizza is a genius. Why not attack him with all of us as opposed to one or two? Him previously having his own record deal and it falling through. And Jazeera, the same has fell through. Yeah, strength in numbers. So when he initially had the idea, us, like I said, our situation was so effed up over here that anything was better than what we were doing.

And we just went along for the ride. I mean, I could speak for myself. I was just going along for the ride because I just, um, I genuinely loved doing this. And when it came time to perform, when there was no money involved, we still gave it 110%. And I think that paved the way for what we were going to be and how far we were going to go. Well, the thing that Dan has always talked me about, like, why did he make his show, which is also a collection of somewhere between nine and one zillion people on a stage together,

is because it was less miserable. Writing was lonely for me, and I was a writer. I came up as a writer, and I wanted community. I wanted something communal. When he was talking, I've wondered this about whether Wu-Tang, once the money gets involved, right, business complicates things. Whether Wutang would be closer to family or team, given how money can contaminate something that is not actually family. That's a great question. For us, it was a bit different because we signed a deal that was so unique.

There are people now benefiting from the deal that we signed. We signed a deal as a group with the option to sign a solo artist. So there you go. That solves your problem of how do you feed all of these guys? Well, now we have options and other ways to feed ourselves and other things. But here's the biggest part about it was you have these labels that are vying for people in this group, nine people. So it's a lot to choose from, first and foremost. So you're going to get the guys that you feel the best first, and you're going to capitalize with those guys. But in the midst of you capitalizing on those individuals, you're working for one brand.

not only that you're working along with other labels for one person's cause which was ours which was I don't even know if that was masterminded that way but it works so well because we were on so many different platforms at once where I would drop an album then you get a Jaze album then Ray would come after that Ghosts now you got another Wu album so by the time we dropped our second album there was so much anticipation it had to be a double album you know

So, I mean, these numbers work. And as far as the monetary thing, it's, I can't even say it's 50-50 because you would have to ask the individuals, but for me, it's always been 50-50. I've always been on board with whether it was team or for myself. I just, that's just how I work. And the way these things work, you have to speak to everybody as an individual. You can't speak to us as a group anymore, you know, especially with how long we've been in the business. and how lucrative we've been on our own. So when we come back, we all come back with an understanding

that this isn't a me thing, it's an us thing. But when you're on that stage, the way we format our shows, everyone gets their time to either, let's call it like a solo act in a play where it's just two actors on stage. That could be Ray and Ghost. And then there's a long monologue where it's just one player on the stage. That could be Riza, myself, or whoever. And then when you get the whole cast on stage,

it's like the grand finale of the show. And it just puts the cherry on top. The crescendo where all of you are together. It's kind of amazing that you guys have stayed together this long. Like that's just so many poisons. Well, I believe that's the cherry on top of it because we're stronger together as a unit than we are as individuals, for sure. But there is this thing of you guys being able to go and do your own side quests.

Yeah. I remember, so I went to, I saw in New York. I had the pleasure of seeing, actually, I saw it in Miami and then in New York, I saw Rizadu the 30th anniversary celebration of 36 chambers. Yeah. There's an orchestra. Yeah, that's the same of a single part of the album. But I had some dirty sh**es out there, didn't I? There was some dirty there, so it was like some type of fuzz in there.

He does a lot of shit like that, man. I mean, it's, it was incredible. Mm-hmm. But it's also unclear to everybody, like, so who's going to be there? Who all's going to be there? Right. And that's another thing. And you were not there, meth.

I was not there. You're right. Where the hell were you? I was probably on the set somewhere working, doing my acting thing, you know what I mean? But he moves in so many different areas. He's an artist. Pretty much, yes. But so are you.

I know. Honestly, real quick, I showed up to the Holly. He had me show up to something he was doing at the Hollywood Bowl. I wasn't doing nothing anyway, so I show up. I don't even. know what he's doing. He comes out on stage. It's just a, he has his equipment out there, you know, it's turntable, whatever the other stuff is, the technical stuff. And there's a big ass screen. And on the screen, his cartoons are playing. But he's playing James Brown,

Shushan Boy. His Don, boy, give him his shine, but the record is playing along with the screen with the cartoon is. It seems like the cartoon is saying the words with the record. And I'm like, what kind of incredible shit is this? And why did people pay to come see this shit? Well, he did He played the 1978 kung fu film, the 36 Chamber of Shaolin on the screen behind when I saw it in Miami. Oh, he did that in Miami. In Miami. He did that for, I mean, I'm just like...

Oh, but meth's not giving himself enough credit here. Okay, artists demand on growing, and so the way he chose to grow is in that space, and you've poured all of that into acting. I appreciate that. I had to work hard on myself, and a lot of it started with the 4 a.m. workouts and things of that nature. Can we talk about the 4 a.m. workouts? Absolutely.

So, so both of you guys. Another way you guys are connected cosmically. Is that clearly you guys don't sleep enough? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what? It's tough. Anybody that goes through it will know what we're talking about when it comes, you know, it's just something about the way the mind works.

And when it clicks on, I like to attribute it to being a creative. And when you're a creative, your mind is constantly always looking to fill up space or create in a space. So while you're resting and you're supposed to be healing and all of the other stuff that comes with rest, your mind is like, wait a minute, we're not playing anymore. There's space to be filled, let's go. So when you do become, when you come out of the subconscious

into the conscience again, slightly into the conscious, you can't go back to the subconscious. It's like, okay, my mind is on now. What do I do now? Friket get up. So his mind starts racing about whatever it is that it's racing on at 3 o'clock in the morning. Yes.

I don't know if you do meditation. or any stuff like that. But I do think that workout act as that for him. I believe that he goes into that space to get his body, whatever chemicals it needs so he feels good about himself. And honestly, for people, I'm just going to put this out there. If you are having troubles and need help, therapy is a great way to start.

I will speak to mental health on this. Therapy is a great way to start. I just, you know, there's some things that I need to work out. I'm recently been working on a memoir. And remembering all these things from my childhood is open my eyes to a lot of things that I didn't remember or were placed deep inside my subconscious that I wasn't aware or didn't hit me the same way it did as an adult. And yeah, I need to talk to someone about that, you know, figure some things out. I feel like the version of method I am meeting is not the one that Dan necessarily met when you guys first met the first time. Oh, I was a mess, but no, it's still the same method.

It's just, you know, it's more layers to him now because he's becoming more self-aware. You just, you just refer to meth in the third person. Yeah, that's that dude. He has a lot of problems. Now I could make a pun that I didn't even intend, but as a triple entendre, I want to know if you're a method actor. Mm-mm. Do you inhabit the, not alone the roles in Hollywood, but like the character of Method Man?

Um, you know what? That's interesting because, um, No, no, no, no, that's all me. And I incorporate that into my acting as well. It's just, for me, it's translation. And I like to think of it as, and this is the best way I can put it, I like to think of it as living vicariously through a character. So when we're watching certain movies or TV shows,

even if he isn't the main character, there are certain characters we gravitate to. And then we start rooting for this character so much, we are living vicariously through this character. So every decision he makes has to make sense to us. It has to be real. It has to be authentic. So that's how I like to approach it.

He also told me early on he said that the reason that he thought he could be a good actor is because rappers are such good liars. Oh, yeah. Wait, hold on. Give me the first part of that. Why are rappers good liars? Okay. The best analogy I can give you for this, and I've said this before,

The pastor brings them to the church, but the pimping brings them back. Does that make sense? It makes sense? Yes. Okay, thank you. That is it right there. When did you realize you were a good liar? Man, I don't even...

When it comes, when we're talking about lies, right? There are levels to lying. You have white lies, and then you have those big, you know, going to come to the light lies. When you talk about rappers, we embellish, which is a form of lying, in a sense. And I will say that's the form of lying that I do. That's all I thought.

That's all I thought. Look, this is a relentlessly authentic person. And I also believe that Method Man, and maybe even as an actor, I would say having consumed the parts of your work that I've enjoyed, where I feel like you're trying to show yourself to people that you're in there, but instead of you, the human being at five, meth is him at 10.

Yeah. Or the parts that you pick, the parts that you're selecting, or someone that you allow, the human you is frailer and doesn't have the confidence that the, doesn't, just makes you human, that the character has. Yes. The character is bulletproof in terms of confidence. And there is no human that is that. Well, that's going to resonate with the audience.

You can command the camera so much that you don't even have to say a word and the camera stays on you while someone else is talking. That means you're doing the work. People like Morgan Freeman get that. People like Tom Cruise, you know. Like I said, I'm still working on that level of it. I'm having real human experiences when I'm doing these parts. And that's the best thing I get out of it right there.

When you look back at your catalog, is there a point in which you're like, this is when I realized I'm going to have fun doing this? I'm going to enjoy what could be very hard for people to imagine doing. Yeah, especially with the acting. I did a movie called The Cobbler with Tom McCarthy. Now, Tom is like, he's an award-winning, you know, writer, director. It was a great project. And, you know, basically Adam Sandler is the star of the movie.

And most of the actors are trying to. just give you the premise of it really quick. The premise of the movie is a cobbler, a guy who makes shoes or repair shoes. And his mom just dies. He's kind of depressed and his shoe machine breaks down, but there's this old one that he has in the back. So he uses that shoe machine, not knowing that this is a special shoe machine and any shoes that he works on with this machine, if he puts those shoes on, he changes into the person who owns the shoes. So all of us as actors are things. thinking, okay, Adam Sandler is turning into our characters. We have to act like Adam Sandler.

I'm going through it. I'm going through it. I'm thinking I got to act like Adam Sandler, but then Tom and my coach made it clear to me that why would you want to act like Adam Sandler? If he's turning into you, you want to be who you are. Okay, boom, that's the red pill. What's the pill they take?

When you want to go, when you want to escape the metric. The red pill is the one that opens your eyes to what the Matrix is apparently... Okay, we're on the red pill. And you're also now storming the Capitol on January 6th. Yeah, there you go. I love that analogy. We're on the red pill now.

And now it's like, holy shit. Oh, wow, I didn't think to approach it like that. So that's what it is. That's what doing the work is. So now I want to try other things. I want to experiment and do other things. And Tom is just so accommodating every day on set that it made it so easy and so comfortable.

That was the most comfortable I've ever been on set. And it made me want to do more work. Can I tell you that the time I did, did pay money to watch you act was in a film that is near and dear to me. Okay. Because it took place at my alma mater. Ah, how high. Say less.

Yo, what the fuck are we going to do now? What you think we're going to do? We're going to smoke his ass, then we're going to start asking questions. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is a motherfuckin' president, man. What the fuck are we doing? You want to stay in Harvard or what? This sasty, motherfucker.

This shit's not working. Is that your first foray into acting year? It was, I think second. That was 2001. How do you feel watching that? Because you are an accomplished actor now. Can you also just explain, you did a great job summarizing the premise of the cobbler. Could you explain the premise of how high?

I'm going to explain to the same way it was pitched to us when we picked this script. This guy, Dustin Lee Abraham, I give him the majority of the credit, the writer. Brad Kaya also was a writer on it. He came in, he was like, two guys getting to Harvard by smoking their dead homie. And that's the premise of the film. Two guys who are down on their luck get into college by cheating because they smoke the ashes of his dead homeboy. You're taking the SAT, but your performance enhancer is the ashes you've smoked of your dead friend. Which I cannot stress enough is a key aspect to the whole.

setup of this, which pays off in that scene. Yeah, that's what the industry's going next. I'm telling you, it's going to be Adderall Weed. Well, without the Adderall. And just to be clear about what that scene was, this is a climactic part of the film. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert.

Could you please explain what was happening at that point in the crescendo of this film? Okay, so what happens in the crescendo of the film is we're about to get our asses kicked out of college. So we come up with the plan to basically sabotage this big swery that the campus is having. I toss a bit of the bud inside a fireplace. The whole place gets lit.

Next thing you know, you got Ben Franklin popping up from the dead. My boy, Ivory, popping up from the dead. Everybody's high. The dean is making inappropriate gestures. It's a lot going on, man. And that was the hardest part to film. I hated filming that part of the movie, because by that time I was over it, man.

By the time you had to dig up, the body of John Quincy Adams. No, we were good there. Okay. We were good with that. You know what? That ran a little long, too. And we were in that cemetery way too long, and it was cold.

And then once the rain, they started with the fake rain stuff. I was pissed. If you look at the B-roll footage, you will see. We were pissed. I want the meth cut. This is a thing that you hear from actors all the time. They think of Hollywood as one type of glamorous, and then the fake rain comes.

And they're like, why did I choose to do it? Why did I choose to do nine takes of this? It's so that years later a podcaster could talk about how their solution was to dig up a smart dead guy and smoke his body to make sure you didn't fail out of school. Absolutely. And that was John Quincy Adams. I would suggest doing that shit kids. It didn't work, actually. If you look at the movie, the shit didn't work.

It's not working. A cautionary tale. Cautionary tale, yes, sir. It is one of the greatest things I've ever seen. Oh, man. Shout out to Redman. Salute to you, brother. An unbelievable, an unbelievable thing

that I think made Harvard University look better. I hope that you're proud of yourself, though, with all of the acting work that you have done. And I don't mean to diminish the whatever, the silliness of that you felt. I sort of felt it on his body because over the last... He didn't like the only clip I prepared for this was a clip of that. He's just a really good actor.

And he's worked really hard at being a really good actor. I'm aware that that was. not thespian shit. Beth was in Garden State. All right. Hold up. Hold up. Who here just saw some tities?

Raise your hand if you just saw some tities. Thank you. I mean, you were acting with Natalie Borphe. That was great. Now, Natalie, crazy. Because her, I don't know what her impression of hip hop was or whatever and shit, but she expected me to have like this big entourage. If anybody knows me, I travel light.

You're here a lot. It's you and you're many pieces of jets paraphernalia. That's it. And she thought that, you know, a big waff of smoke would be coming out to trailer. But I had lines I had to remember and I don't smoke when I work. It's just a thing I don't do. We did that in Howe High and we learned our lesson. Anyway.

So it was like me just standing there talking to her and, you know, I'm enunciating well and all kinds. I don't know, it's just this thing I have in shit that I do. And she seemed disappointed. I can remember that about. about Natalie Portman. Cool as shit, though. And Peter, Scarsgard. Super dope.

And I think I'm part of that family now because I have scenes with him, as well as his wife, Maggie Gillenall. Yes. You've made it. I've made it. Big time, brother. You're, I mean, I'm trying to imagine

at what point, Dan, you realize that meth is not merely a method man, but a Renaissance man. Talk about it. So what? Yeah, so the graduation from, And this is a path here, right? Because you're not just talking about whatever it is that he had to overcome.

I don't think I can even imagine it. But when he's dabbling in therapy and saying you have no idea. His eyes. He wants to do a 10-hour podcast with you. But whatever got him with the scars he needed to have to get to Wu-Tang, which I don't know what the most impossible parts of that journey were, but I'm guessing that the grand majority of people would have failed. for him to continue to seek growth after that with all of the temptations

and all of the learning that's done about doing business with family and friends and entertainment and being a lone wolf among a team and being someone who's a glue guy on a team even while he's the star and there can be all sorts of contaminants if he carries himself like the star to see what he's done with his second career and to see the way that his family matters to him and where he wants to learn about how do I be a better dad? Yeah, in person, yeah. It's just been, it's been an honor to even be anywhere near watching that growth in adulthood.

I really appreciate that, brother, because whether people know it or not, we walk around with this tough exterior, right? And there's a lot of times where people say, well, what do you give the man that can have anything he wants, acknowledgement at the other side? to today, pretty much. I wanted to ask, actually, about a version of acknowledgement that you both, that I, I think, have recently realized about myself as well, which is what I've... Thank you for that, Dan.

Oh, well... I appreciate it. Something that I'm thinking about as I hear you guys just fucking love each other. I really appreciate him. Like, I just appreciate the unrelenting authenticity. No, it's genuine, and it reminds me also that, like, you guys are both performers. Pretty much. Yes.

And so the question of you want to acknowledgement, it's not just that, though. I mean, that's cosmically maybe the most fundamental aspect. Yeah. But the idea of what it feels like to be on a stage. Mm-hmm. So an athlete feels, of course, a version of this. Yes. And you're a huge jet fan, which I assume is several chapters of your traumatized memoir at this point.

Maybe. I think so. I think it plays a part, yeah. But just the notion of like what it's like the high, speaking of highs, the high of being on a stage. Nothing like it. I mean, that, you know, you feed that dopamine. This is probably why I still have butterflies before I go on stage or before I start a scene. Because you never know. You never know if it's going to go right or if it's going to go wrong.

And it's that not knowing, I revel in that. I love that. It's a weird, uncomfortable feeling, but I love it. Because that not knowing and knowing that I had to earn it every time I go out there or in my mind feeling like I have to earn it every time I go out there keeps me on my toes. But when you're out there and they're giving it to you, you'll die for that. You'll die for those people.

That's what it feels like. I will give you all everything I have and leave it all out here for you before I leave. It won't surprise you that he has miles more confidence than I do when he talks about that realm. I'm a reluctant performer. If you come from writing and radio where you're not being seen, you're on stage, but not. right? It's not. It's not... But this is the funny thing about Dan.

Dan is absolutely what he's describing. I've seen him also get butterflies on, like, a stage in front of his own fans. Yeah. But he's also the guy who's wearing a Speedo with stuff cat... Just, like, painted on him. But that's to make fun of myself, though.

The Speedo is me losing a bet I never thought I would lose because I had LeBron, Wade, and Bosch, and they had Dirk Novitsky. You've seen this, you've seen this mouth? It's not a bet. I thought I was going to lose. I was terrified.

Thank you. Thank you for the acknowledgement, for returning the acknowledgement. Yeah, that is reluctant, and it's a byproduct of... Barkley is a byproduct of... I did not think I was going to lose that bet to Charles Barkley. Do you think that if the Dallas Mavericks

had lost that championship, that he would have fulfilled that bet? Because I don't think he would have. I don't think Charles would have. I think Charles would have did everything in his power to talk himself or talk you out. of making him honor that bad. I am not.

He looks like he's enjoying it, though. I mean, Chuck looked like he's really enjoying. I believe Chuck actually said, in terms of career achievements for me, Chuck said that this is the most fun I've ever had, which is hyperbole, obviously, but that man has had fun. So to be in the conversation,

to have him say that is actually something that is a great honor, yes. Love that. But I'm not. Not a natural performer. That is a bit eccentric, though. I didn't think I was going to lose the bet. I have a less, sorry.

Eccentric. I didn't think I was going to lose the bet. It's LeBron Wade and Bosch. Nobody saw a Nevinsky coming. The Sean Stevenson. J.J. Berea. Come on, man. Come on.

He wouldn't post up J.J. Berrea. Stunk in his ass crack. Oh. What is the most, the most traumatic sports memory you have? as a fan. Oh, Richard Todd throwing those interceptions.

Wow. Richard Todd. Yeah. So that's not, that's not A.J. Dewey. That was A.J. AJ in that,

yeah, in that one game. Oh, so the muddy game in Miami? 14 to nothing. You were... And Shula did that shoole-on-purpose,

man, with the field, man. Yeah. Oh, now, finally we can get some Miami. Can we admit that? You were a kid. You were,

so this is a form of, when he talks about childhood trauma. Okay, so I don't know this story. Look, he's still mad about it. I was like 8, 9 years old, brother, this shit was terrible. It was bad.

No, I really loved Richard Todd. I thought he was a rough and gruff quarterback. I mean, he was playing with his ribs broken. I've never heard anything like that at 8 years old. Eight or nine, I always thought like, oh, it's a rap once your ribs break. You got to take a sit down. He was out there doing this thing. He's talking about the formation of a lifelong allegiance that has him voicing the 30 for 30 on the sack exchange

as a career unlawful. honor because it awakens the child. It actually does, Dan. You are absolutely right. And not to mention, they just had the rivalry game. Rivalry. And it was Legends Day, so a lot of the guys came out, and I actually got to shake hands with Wesley Walker.

I was like, bro, you have no idea. At that point, I couldn't care less. Who else was out there? And Vinnie Testa Verdi was there, too. But Wesley Walker, I was like, God. I get a feeling that the way that he gets starstruck around athletes is probably like nothing else in celebrity. Like he meets plenty of celebrities. I salute excellence, period.

So, you know, these guys are like, for one, everyone doesn't make it to the big league. And you have to respect the guys that actually make it there because they did the work to get there. And not only that, they accomplished something everybody can do. So for me, I would never knock our dad. defense for giving up 21 points in the first half. I would never do that. But I will say as coaches and defensive coordinators, we need to work on some things. Seriously. I mean, I'm just keeping it a buck. You know, we got cook at quarterback right now. I mean, Tarad didn't even make it out of the first quarter. And we got this backup in there, and I'm rooting for this kid because I'm jet all day. But it's weird because

You have this third string who's now the backup, who's not getting enough reps, and now you throw him in a situation where he has to pass. You're going to get what you get. So I'm not faulting the kid. I think the kid did the best he could do with what he had, because we would give Shador the same grace, right? Same's grace. And I'm not comparing him to Shador at all.

Let's not go viral for that. You just did. I'm sorry. Let's go. Rady Cook is better than Shedura Sanders. I retract my statement. It's been said. You can't retract it.

It's already been said. Method man, put it on the scroll. All right, I'll stand on it. I'll stand on it. I'll stand on it. But honestly, us as Jets, we can tank the rest of this year. We're just hoping that the Indianapolis Colts tank the rest of their year so they can get, I don't know, Mendoza, you know, give away some of those.

Uncuano. Uncuano and quarterback. The least Cubano, Cubano. sound like Fernando. Fernando. You're not going to tell me Fernando no is Latino. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Another thing that makes me laugh when I think about how you guys are similar but different is that I think Dan once had an edible and thought his leg was falling off. No, I thought my girlfriend was trying to steal my kidney is what I thought. Yes. But this was, I didn't do any of this until I was, you know, I was in my late 40s. And so I just made the amateur mistake of this edibles not doing.

anything give me another one and now i thought my brother and my girlfriend were conspiring to steal to sell my kidney man and you know the worst part about it you got to ride that song bitch out and there's no downer for that you got to ride that out she called she called my brother telling him you got to calm because my brother had a lot of experience with weed so you've got to calm him down and all i thought was of course you called my brother he's the one that I would trust, and now I don't trust him either. Dad, don't f*** with edibles. I can tell you that.

It's not your bag, brother. Clearly, what tells you that? It's not a lot of people's bag, because I do not do edibles. Y'all can have those, so I'm good. What's your regimen? Smoke. That's it, flour. That's all.

I love flour. Are you somebody who is welcomed the legalization? Yes. In the trial state? It's still weird to me, Matt. I cannot tell you how strange it is to me to be walking the street. streets of New York City and just see people walking around the street smoking. I will not get used to it. I wish Florida was on board, though. It's crazy that Florida isn't. Yeah, yeah. Well, not too crazy.

I mean, yeah, fair. I immediately retracts my previous shock. Oh, no, no retractions, right? No, no retractions. But it's amazing, yes. And, but, you know, the laws are still a bit weird and stuff, especially about, you know, state lines and things of that nature. But, yeah, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I came out of the airport the other few weeks ago, and you can smell as soon as you walked outside. The legal amount that you can legally possess in New York is up to three ounces. I did not know that. Which is a lot.

I need to put that in my bag when I travel. That's what I'm saying? You can just walk around with that. Yeah, that's pretty dope. But I had no idea. Wow. That gives you bona fides to be giving him weed information he doesn't already have.

I think of him as a paramount weed authority. I don't think of it. I don't, you know what, we don't, I don't do the laws. I don't know much about them. I just know we used to get in trouble for that. I don't do the laws. Can we aggregate that? And things of that?

I don't know. I don't do those. I don't do those. I find out later. But Generation X, right? You grew up with a certain type of weed, and now weed is a scientifically engineered instrument. Yeah.

And are you enjoying what is new weed, relatively speaking? I've always welcomed evolution. I mean, I watched my mom, sorry, Mom, but yeah, I watched my mom with the big shoebox top in the trees, and she would use a playing car to do this with it. The reason why she would do that is so all the seeds can fall out of the, to the bottom, and you can pluck all the other. We don't got to do that no more. No sticks, no seeds, no, we don't need.

Acapulco goes, some bad-ass weed. Yeah, man. I think everything evolves. And I think that the marijuana culture is, I mean, it was here before me. It would be here after me. But you got a few pioneers that saw this one coming a long time ago. I'm just a little cautious about government interference in a sense, as far as THC levels and things of that nature.

And when we start getting technical about things. Also, guys, real quick, I don't know if you guys know this or not. But that FedEx weed that you're sending across state lines and all that shit, they know. I just want to let you out, they know. They're just waiting for it to get the felony wait, and then you're going to get one of those letters. So be careful. Be careful. He knows some rules.

Yeah, I know some of the rules. He lives by his own rules, but he knows some of them. He knows the ones he needs to know. So let's just, yeah, I'll leave it there. On the list of people where I'm like, I hope that we can have a blunt conversation. That's actually not. Oh, that was a great pun, no. That was a great pun.

It was genuinely unintended. Nonetheless, on the list of people that I want to have a blunt conversation with you about, though, is a guy named Martin Schrelly. Schrelly, yeah, yeah. I'm limited on my information about Screlly, but I could tell you this. He played his villain role pretty well. So I want to explain to Dan. Do you know who Martin Schrelly is? I know this story, yeah.

He's that hated farmer guy who bought the only Wu-Tang album there is in existence that everybody wants to hear that they have not been able to hear. So in 2017, Martin Scralli bit of the background was convicted in federal court on two counts of securities fraud, one kind of conspiracy, he was sentenced to prison, fine millions of dollars, so forth and so on. There's a civil case on and on. He is a scammer, who is permanently banned, not unrelatedly,

from serving as an officer of any publicly traded company. And at some point, he gets the idea to do what, meth? By the Wu-Tang single album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Yes, sir. And once upon a time in Shaolin, had you foreseen the possibility that this would be this kind of a story? I love the story that Rizzo told because Rizzo said when he met the guy, because Rizzo was very instrumental in the whole thing with this whole album,

he said when he met the guy, he was great, and cool dude and everything, you know? He said, but after that, once he got the album, he turned into, again, this super villain, like this was his origin story and shit. And it just turned into this thing. And then him and Ghostface got into it, and I was like, oh, okay, I see the theatrics now. This guy's playing a role, but he don't know who he's playing with right now.

You know what I mean? And, you know, karma is a bitch, and so is life. So you should know not to cross either one of them hoes at all. And so Martin Schrelli, he spent about $2 million at auction to buy Once Upon a Time in Shell Inn, the 31-track album that I need you to explain. to me as a matter of it was conceived to be itself a commentary. Like the whole premise of we're only making one of these things. The only way to get it is to bid on it. That itself is this larger statement.

And here's the thing. We weren't privy to any of this information, which is why I was a fallout with clan members who were dealing with one individual. I won't say his name, but we were dealing with one individual who was one of Ridges-protejays. and, you know, he sent out these tracks. Here, I need you to spit on this. I need you. Paid brothers accordingly.

Okay, whatever. But it's just, for us, this is protocol. It's like, you send me a track, I spit on it, give my money, I send this shit back. Whatever, whatever. Royalties, I don't, however that's, that works itself out, publishing, however. But we didn't hear anything else after that until we heard this is a single album, and we're selling it auctioned. So brothers are scratching their heads.

Like, wait a minute, hold up. If I knew that that's what this was going to be, maybe I would have been a bit more artistic on it because I know where we're going with this, or maybe I would have took a little bit more time and wouldn't have approached it as a guest appearance. I would have approached it as a Wu-Tang project. We didn't know it was a Wutang project until it was.

So now we're looking at it, and then we're seeing that it was sold for $2 million. Bing starts things are going off. Okay, well, where's that money going? And how's this work and how does that work? then the Screlly thing happens and now I'm like this is a fucking circus

I don't want any parts of this I don't care if I ever hit that fucking album at this point you know and right now I don't know who owns it I think a few maybe you can find that out

I know the feds had it for a minute and somebody else came and purchased it and I don't think we're entitled to any of that money as well I was gonna ask have you seen any residual I don't think so and if I have they you know my bank account pretty tight, so, you know what I'm saying? I don't be noticing sometimes. I'm just saying I'm just

keeping it a buck. I was wandering around New York City and someone invited me to one of these, I didn't go, unfortunately. I really regret it just because I wish I could tell you what your album is like. Yeah. Have you heard it? I only heard the songs that I'm on. Yeah, okay, so. You want to hear them? I mean, I don't have two million dollars, but it would we go off, I'll play something for you. It's just my verses, though. No one else's verses are on there. Three joints, yeah. would love to hear that because the only way to hear it otherwise is to go to one of these listening parties held by a digital art collective, a Dow, this is one of those again, just like crypto era, just like, I don't even know what the fuck this is, but they own it.

And they're only, they purchased it in July 2021 from the U.S. government. Again, an incredible Madlip, which had seized it from Martin Schrelli. This Dow, a pleaser Dow is a collective of 74 members who collectively own the album via NFT, via non-fundurable token, and they bought it for $4 million. Jesus. And they're only allowed because the contract on the album was... 88 years.

88 years. Of course, the number 88. So in 2103, you can hear it, but until then, you've got to go to like a listening party where they're playing it for people. I'm thinking about, like, the ways in which you have responded to this bizarre future that has become the present.

And I look up in your photographic in New York Jets game. Talk about that. Like, whoa. I mean, you went analog. Dan, did you see this? I have not seen this. Can you explain? I mean, I'm making you explain everything.

But, like, meth was wearing a photographer's vest. They asked me three weeks prior to that. We did a meeting in the whole shit. Would you like to? Well, Jessica, I forgot her last name, but I love Jessica. She's one of their reps there. She said the question was presented to her. And before she even asked me, she said, yes.

because she knew I'd want to do it. She asked me, I said, yeah, what does it entail? You get to be on the field all day? Say less, let's just freaking go. I show up that day. And basically you can walk the whole freaking field with the exception of going on the field until the end of the game.

And I was just out there trying to be the best photographer I could be. But the problem was I spent a little bit too much time on the Cleveland Brown side of the field, taking too many pitches, way too many pitches of the Cleveland Browns when I should have been more focused on the Jets. Because you're an impartial journalist.

Impartial, indeed. So that's pensive sex symbol, meth, knowing he's being photographed. The other two are goofy childhood meth. Just, I'm out here. Can you believe I'm out here with the Jets? That was all performing. Looking off into the distance, your jaw, maxed. I still got my arm's sleeve, too. Shout out to Perry and all the guys down there as security.

Yes, sir. Ken, respect. Oh, my God. I mean, I don't know if I want the Jets to be one of the last notes that we have in this conversation. I asked him to bring over. I asked him if he still had the Wu-Tang recruitment song. I looked for it, too, and I do not have it. Whenever we record with Riza, we leave with nothing.

Nothing at all. He doesn't give tapes, none of that shit. He just takes it and he does his one-two-one-two. But honestly, I haven't heard it since I did it. Well, the story was that, like, it was also, like, Kevin Durant being recruited to the next. Do you remember, like, anything about the track or about the... I don't remember the track, but I remember we shot a visual for it, and that was a long day in a dirty part of New York.

It was just one of them dirty alleyways and shit. And I was like, yeah, when is this going to be over? Let's hurry up and get the shit over. We took pitches, all that shit. It was about a four to five-hour process, and then it was over. But you were trying to help the NICs. You were trying to... We really wanted K.D.

come. And I knew KD wanted to come to New York. He just wasn't clear on where he wanted to go. So I just got to jump in here to say that about three months ago, we got a tip. That kind of reminded me of the tip we got previously about the 2010 New York Knicks recruitment video for LeBron James, which we uncovered here at Poblatori, finds out, you know, the whole Sopranos reunion thing. Now, we just got to find a place for your friend LeBron to live. What's he like? Where's a modern guy? But he respects tradition. You're something classy on the east side. Was you big enough?

But this tip, the new tip, was that the Wu-Tang Clan had, in fact, been paid by the same organization, James Dolan's Nix, for the NBA free agency window of 2019. And what we were told was that the Nix paid the Wu-Tang Clan to write and record and film an original song to Wu Kevin Durant.

And after asking our sources to comb through their phones and their hard drives, all of us racing to do this ahead of our interview, with Method Man, who was involved in this song, we finally found it. A few hours actually after meth walked out of the studio.

And so, what you're about to see and here is a video that was hiding in plain sight on a message board, apparently, called wutankcorp.com. And the caption is, quote, Ghost, Ray, Riza, YDB, and Meth. Beat is weak and verses our commercial for KD,

but flows are crazy, nice artifact. end quote. And the video title, and I love a YouTube video with like less than 2,000 views on it or whatever, the video title posted to YouTube by a cinematographer who worked on this, it would seem, who goes by the name of at bleed blue, quote, the multi-million dollar Wu-Tang Clan music video meant for one person. This is a multi-million dollar video and it was only meant to be seen by one person. and one person only, and that's Kevin Duran.

And because this was five years ago, and this is a project that I worked on, I still basically have access to the video and we could show it. I just got to be the first to say, beyond the, I want to be precise here, 2,745 people who have seen this random YouTube video before now, the thing is kind of crazy, as this verse from Ghostface kind of, indicates.

But what I do want to make sure to show you is the verse from our good friend Method man, in which he shouts out the Knicks roster one player at a time and has one Timberland on top of a basketball while, you know, wearing his orange and blue jersey with the number 35 on it. Real rap, no cap, no pressure. This is where you ought to be, no lectures. I'm courts out of him in the Red Fox. Oh, S.

Kevin Knox, picture Roberts in the beast. Dennis Smith, Jr. Nick Kovac. And we're the geese. All we need is a shatter in the creases. The name's, we more empty than the paces, and we're hotter than the heat. Fresh pair of cage, these designs on the feet.

Stepping in the garden in that blue and orange, no retreat. What's the render? You put a 41 here, remember? I mean, there's lots of reasons you should come here. Remember Biggie from here. I'm ringing 7.3, that was done here. Been a warrior long enough. We need another one here.

I'm saying, we even got your jersey styles. If all you needs a reason, I can give you 35. And then you get some cameos from Young Dirty Bastard and Aecus and Aesab Ferg. before the Rizza himself takes us home. More high is more Fraser. Enough paper to buy your own skyscraper. Have your legacy in Madison Square Garden.

Nick's 20-20, boy, I beg your part in. 2-3 zone. You can zone with the squadron. Shoot a pick and roll. Oh, he dunked on Hardin. The crowd goes bananas. Instantly play on that Jumbo-Tron camera. I like that sound when that basketball pounds the ground.

7 pounds of presses passed around. 22 ounces of rubber defensive cover. All we need is you to play that. The song. And this is better than cheddar. It's a love letter. A invitation for you to be together with the woo. In New York City, that never sleeps.

The five boroughs keep you in the heart real deep. The song ends with a graphic of the MSG Jumbotron, and there's a New York skyline emblazoned to top it with a quote, KD colon, the city is yours. But then there is a brief epilogue. Listen, homie, we need you in. New York right now. We need you on the Knicks right, right, right now. A lot of people gonna give you a lot of reasons to come to New York and play for the Knicks,

but I'll just say this. You come here, you be the prince of the city. Play for us, New York Knicks, you know what I'm saying? We want you, man. The Knicks want you. Come through, baby, make a move, make a solid move, man. We want you to come and join the New York Knicks, yo. You know what it is. Like I said, we're going to build you a gold statue. The Garden is synonymous with the Knicks, and I mean, it's something about that building that brings out the best in players. Score for us. Hit buzz the shots for us.

Do it for the cream. Do it for the team. Do it for the Wu-Tang, baby. Real talk, man. I love you, man. Love everything you do, man. Trust me, the game will never be the same. You may now know how the story ended. Kevin Durant chose the Brooklyn Nets,

despite having seen this video presented to him by the Knicks. But as for the promise that was made to me, by Method Man, it does bring me back to the real set of tracks, the real set of Wu-Tang songs that have been lost to history that I was told that I could hear in our studio

even though, you know, you guys can't. At least not yet. Dan Meth. Yes, sir. It's been a pleasure. Thank you, sir. And it's time to listen to those tracks. He's playing it.

You better either get out of here or beep it or something. He's starting to play it. I'm looking for it. I'm looking forward to... As soon as he hits a play, we're going to end the show. That's not right.

Yeah. Yes, it is. Yes, it is perfect. This is a Christmas gift just for me. It is perfect. Trust me. Oh, God, I hope I can find it. This is going to be tough.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. We're out of here, y'all. Salute. Respect. This has been Pablo Torre finds out. A Metal Arc Media production. And I'll talk to you next time.