The Story of Method Man’s Dead Eye

Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man was known to bug some people out with his all-white eye in the 90s. He first appeared in public with this look around 1994, when he was promoting his debut solo album, Tical.

Hip-hop fans debated about Method Man’s eye for years after noticing it in music videos for songs like “Bring The Pain” and “All I Need” with Mary J. Blige.

Method Man was always sly about his eye when asked about it in interviews, never giving away any details, thus adding fuel to the fires of curiosity. In this Rap City interview from 1994, the interviewer asks Meth about his eye, to which he replies, “it’s just my eye.”

The truth, however, is that there is nothing wrong with Method Man’s eye (he was an athlete, after all), and he simply wore a white contact lens in his left eye to give it that dead appearance, so that he could seem frightening in music videos.

It looked pretty badass at a time when it was necessary to be a badass in the world of hip-hop, and Method Man absolutely succeeded at that. He kept this look up for a few years, and then eventually stopped wearing the contact lens and never said another word about it.

In 2010, Method Man did have a close call with an eye injury, when he was hit in the face with a full beer can during his performance at the Gathering of the Juggalos. It had absolutely nothing to do with the contact lens that he wore in the 90s, and there was no permanent damage, but it did result in a bloody face.

By 1997 the glass eye look had been retired, however, he did bring it back in 2021 to promote his clothing line, Buy Tical.

Also in 2021, the Hulu series Wu-Tang: An American Saga, created by RZA and Alex Tse, featured Dave East representing Method Man with a white contact lens in his eye (S2E6).

See Method Man’s dead eye look in the music videos for “Bring The Pain” (1994) and “All I Need” (1995) below.