Method Man, legally known as Clifford Smith, reportedly failed to pay $32,799 in personal income and earnings taxes to New York State that date back from 2004 to 2007, according to a press release from the New York district attorney’s office.

The former Wu-Tang Clan member turned himself in to the DA police squad car shortly after 8 a.m. in his native Staten Island and was charged with two counts of tax evasion.

The 38-year-old rapper, producer and actor could face up to four years in prison if convicted.

“Taxes are a burden that all citizens share in a civil society, whether you are an ‘average Joe’ on the street or a high-profile rap artist,” said Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan.

Method Man was busted for marijuana possession and driving under the influence in 2007. The following year, his Lincoln Navigator was repossessed after he fell $52,503 in debt. Method Man is divorced with four children. In 1995, he and Mary J. Blige earned a Grammy for their song “I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Need to Get By.”

Your performance this weekend (or what we witnessed of it, through the unfortunate auditory version of beer goggles) was truly stellar, bringing “cool” to Wash. U. in a way it hasn’t known since that night in 1997 when a few freshmen created a drinking game based on utterances from their chemistry professor. Whether we witnessed your music from a vantage point of standing in an infinitely long pizza line, grinding in what became a literal passion pit or looking up at you in the midst of a crowd-surfing experience—the thrill of which is only matched by the time we got a 98 on our price theory exam—we couldn’t help but think one thing: Why can’t you be here all the time?

In all seriousness, we’re a pretty tightly wound community, and we think you really helped us loosen up. We were unsure as to whether or not we were chill enough to hang with you, but once you invited us to light our marijuana cigarettes on the Quad, we started to see what life would be like if you always hung out here. We didn’t know if you’d like our classes, but then you started to introduce questions of gender and sexuality, asking about female arousal and really getting at the thrust of contemporary debates.

There was just one more thing you could have done for us, and impressively, you pulled through in just one weekend. We’ve always liked the Kemper, but we feel like Wash. U. lacks something substantial in the realm of visual culture. You gave us that, in the form of a few well-done, emotionally driven pieces of chalkboard art.

Courtesy of Student Life staff

Even if you don’t want to come hang out again, we beg the administration to leave your chalk work here for posterity, acting as a visual catalyst to our highest of academic pursuits and reminding us of the impermeable nature of mass culture’s place in higher education. Moreover, we encourage our administrators to take strides to ensure that only gender theory and narcotics policy classes are taught in the classrooms that have been graced with your presence.

But then again, we suppose it’s not that peculiar that the two of you are so familiar with our needs as a community and as an institution. After all, you did get into Harvard, and most of us didn’t.

Peace,

The Editorial Board

Students said they are familiar with this year’s Walk In Lay Down’s (W.I.L.D.) lead performers, Method Man and Redman, and though the artists are a throwback, the duo will still put on a great show on Saturday.

“I’m familiar with the headliners, even though I haven’t heard much from them in the past few years,” sophomore Chavelle Patterson said. “I do like their music.”

Sophomore Liz Jordan agreed. She also enjoys listening to Method Man and Redman and is looking forward to seeing them on stage.

“When I first heard the headliners, I was a little concerned,” Jordan said. “But after thinking about it, I realized that they’re going to be very, very entertaining. They’re very funny guys.”

Senior Amirah Ahmed said she believes the performance will be a memorable one, and said she expects that a wide variety of students will find the performers’ music enjoyable.

“The type of music is more upbeat, and I think it’ll cater to a bigger crowd,” Ahmed said.

“I think this year’s going to be better than past semesters.”

This year’s concert will have no inflatable couches—previously a popular item at W.I.L.D. concerts.

Senior Rupert Barshop said he is not sad to see the couches go.

“I personally never use the inflatable couches, because I want to be closer to the music,” Barshop said.

“It doesn’t really matter to me.”

W.I.L.D. works to go green

Despite the University’s campus-wide ban on bottled water, students will be given free bottled water at the concert.

W.I.L.D. is currently exempt from the bottled water ban, along with Commencement and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Bottled water is distributed from water stations at Commencement, and the admissions office gives out water when the temperature outside is 85 degrees or higher.

Senior Will Fischer, Student Union’s executive advisor for sustainability, said he feels W.I.L.D. can become a more sustainable campus event in the future. Fischer said that using water coolers instead of bottled water would be one way for W.I.L.D. to be greener.

Fischer added that Team 31 has been open in the past to discussing sustainability at W.I.L.D. but more work remains to be done.

“They have demonstrated that they’re interested in running a more sustainable event,” Fischer said.

“They have committed resources to it. They’ve been responsive to our requests. But we need to reevaluate more fundamental parts of the event in order to make substantial changes.”

Fischer cited improper waste disposal, non-local food sourcing and air travel for performers as current non-sustainable aspects of W.I.L.D. Fischer recommended improved recycling, a focus on St. Louis-area food options and budgeting carbon offsets for air travel as feasible solutions to all these problems.

Concert information

The concert will begin at 4 p.m. on Saturday with a performance by the winner of the Battle of the Bands competition, which will be held Friday in the Danforth University Center Courtyard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students 21 years old and up are allowed to bring one six-pack of beer each before 6 p.m. W.I.L.D. will officially conclude at 10 p.m.

Free portions of Chipotle burritos will be available starting at 4 p.m., and free pizza will be distributed starting at 5:30 p.m.

To hear the artists’ music before W.I.L.D., Team 31 has posted links to their MySpace pages on its Web site.

Method Man and Redman will headline at this fall's W.I.L.D.

Method Man and Redman will descend on campus this Saturday to headline W.I.L.D. The two are childhood friends and have collaborated together on a huge number of projects, working beside artists as varied as Tupac, Limp Bizkit and Xzibit. From the early days working with Wu-Tang Clan and Def Squad to creating perennial Cadenza favorite “How High,” Meth and Red have become household names. But for those who aren’t too familiar with them, what’s important to know?

Meth and Red have known each other for years, but started officially working together in 1994. Their first collaboration was in recording Tupac’s “Got My Mind Made Up.” From there the duo began to work together more closely. Finally they released a full album, “Blackout!” in 1999 to warm reception. The Source included it in their “Top 10 Albums of 1999” and Entertainment Weekly raved, “when hip-hop’s most playfully creative rhyme stylers throw down like two superballs in a rubber room, they’re unstoppable – and make rap’s most joyous ride.”

Their popularity exploded from there into movies and TV, the most famous being “How High.” While coming to Wash. U. marks their return to institutions of higher learning, the movie chronicles (oh! See what I did there?) the story of two stoners who grow a batch of ‘lucky’ weed by fertilizing it with their dead friend’s ashes. Upon smoking it, the ghost of their friend returns to help the duo pass their SATs and get into Harvard. Wacky hijinks ensue, both with the cast of characters they meet in college and with their attempts to keep up their grades; smoking the remains of John Quincy Adams or calling upon Ben Franklin’s ghost to persuade the alumni board to keep them at Harvard. “How High” won the Stony Award for Best Stoner Movie in 2002, and in 2007 Redman confirmed that a sequel was being written.

With the success of “How High,” Method and Red turned their gaze to the small screen, starring in the aptly titled sitcom “Method and Red.” The series was canceled after three months, but by that time the duo had given up on it anyway due to lack of creative control. Their vision for the show had been similar to that of “Arrested Development.” Method Man was especially upset with Fox’s poor editing job and the ever-present laugh track.

Ten years after the first installment, “Blackout! 2” was released on May 19, 2009 and peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200. Critical reception was overwhelmingly positive: HiphopDX.com noted that, “Red and Meth clearly made this album for the fans, and the fans should be more or less sated. They may not be as ferocious as they once were, but very few ever have been. So with that in mind, Blackout! 2 is definitely worth a spin – and not just for nostalgia’s sake.” Check out singles, “A-Yo,” “City Lights,” and “Mrs. International.”

For old fans and new listeners, Method and Red are sure to put on a show. Don’t miss their performance Saturday at W.I.L.D.

Read more about the other performers at this fall’s W.I.L.D.: Passion Pit, K’Naan and Deskhop.

Method Man and Redman perform on "Last Call with Carson Daly." (Stacie McChesney | NBC Photo)

For full coverage of the W.I.L.D announcement, click here.

(METHANDREDMUSIC.COM)

The wait is finally over.

With the fall Walk In Lay Down (W.I.L.D.) just over two weeks away, Team 31 Productions made the much-anticipated announcement of the concert’s lineup: Method Man and Redman will be the main act, with opening sets by Passion Pit and K’naan.

The announcement took place at the Campus Programming Council’s (CPC) weekly happy hour event late Thursday afternoon. The gathering drew more than 200 students and filled Bowles Plaza to the brim.

Free pizza, buffalo wings, cake, drinks and an ice cream truck parked outside the Danforth University Center provided plenty of food and fun before a Team 31 member picked up the microphone to announce the lineup.

The crowd cheered after each artist’s name was called out.

(Seher Sikandar)

Minutes before the announcement, Team 31 Co-chair Ross Festenstein hung up a poster announcing the lineup on the side of the ice cream truck. Back in the Plaza, the music of Passion Pit played in the background.

Following the lineup announcement, students expressed excitement for W.I.L.D.

“I think [Method Man and Redman] are going to put on a great show. The rumor is that [the artists]—especially Passion Pit—are the best live,” junior Monis Khan said. “If you listen to their music, it’s very high energy. I feel like it’s pretty prime for what we’re looking for in W.I.L.D.”

Junior Tara Pham echoed Khan’s enthusiasm about experiencing the performances live.

“I heard that Method Man and Redman are really good live,” Pham said. “The openers will be phenomenal. Passion Pit will be very fun, dance-y and great. I’ve heard they put on a really good show, and on their last tour they sold out.”

“I’m really excited for them to come,” she added.

(Courtesy Photo)

Method Man and Redman, friends since childhood, have often operated as a rap duo on stage since 1995. They appeared together in the 2001 film “How High” and in their own sitcom called “Method and Red,” which aired for only nine episodes in 2004. Method Man and Redman are formerly of Wu-Tang Clan and Def Squad, respectively.

Passion Pit, a five-member electronic band that formed in 2007, released its first full-length studio album “Manners” in May and its debut album “Chuck of Change” in September 2008.

Somali-Canadian artist K’naan released his debut album, “The Dusty Foot Philosopher,” in 2005, which earned him the 2006 Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year and a nomination for the Polaris Music Prize.

Though some students have never heard of the opening acts and said they had hoped for a more recent chart-topper as the main act, they are still looking forward to the concert in two weeks.

Sophomore Emily Heller summed it up.

“W.I.L.D. will be fun no matter who is appearing,” she said.

With additional reporting by David Messenger.