📸 Method Man Has A New Career As A NFL Photographer

In today’s newsletter I discuss Method Man’s new career as a NFL photographer, 50-year mortgages could become a thing (if you’re bad at math), you can now mine Bitcoin and heat your house at the same time, MrBeast’s company Beast Industries is worth $5 billion dollars, what would happen to the Bitcoin network in a disaster, Mark Wahlberg buys a new house that has been bought-and-sold 4 times in the last 5 years, Jeff Bezos starts a new AI startup called Project Prometheus to compete with arch nemesis Elon Musk (good luck with that), and Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff is in advanced talks to sell a 5% stake for $300 million dollars.

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📸 Method Man Has A New Career As A NFL Photographer

Today, I want to talk about the career of Method Man, whose god-given name is Clifford Smith Jr. And trust me; there’s a business story here behind the headlines. For decades, Method Man has been a massive figure in the world of hip-hop, famous as one of the founders of the legendary East Coast rap group Wu-Tang Clan. But he’s more than just a musician. He’s taken his career beyond music, to dip his toes into the world of acting, investing, and most recently as a photographer for the NFL. It’s an unusual shift for an artist of his stature, but what Method Man has stayed true to is his creative passions, wherever they may lead.

For those who aren't aware, Method Man started his career as a founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, who debuted their first album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993. That group album sold over 1 million copies by the end of 1994. Afterward, Method Man launched his solo career, which took off quickly. Method Man released his critically acclaimed first solo album, Tical, on November 15, 1994, through Def Jam Records. The album was a major commercial success, debuting at number four on the Billboard 200 chart. Tical was certified Platinum by the RIAA on July 13, 1995, with over $1 million dollars in sales in the United States alone. His second solo album, Tical 2000: Judgement Day, released in 1998, also went Platinum and sold an impressive 411,000 copies in its first week.

Following his musical success, Method Man got into acting. He began with his debut film appearance in the Wayans Brothers' comedy, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood in 1996, and later appeared in the acclaimed drama The Wire as Melvin "Cheese" Wagstaff, a recurring role he held from 2003 to 2008. He also starred alongside fellow rapper Redman in the cult-classic comedy film How High in 2001. In the film, Method Man and Redman, whose real name is Reginald Noble, played the lead roles of Silas and Jamal, two underachieving students who aced their college entrance exams after smoking magical marijuana. The movie had a production budget of around $12 million dollars but went on to earn $31.1 million dollars at the domestic box office.

Method Man’s personal life has remained relatively private, especially compared to his public career. He has been married to his wife, Tamika Smith, since 2001, but they’ve been together since the early 1990s before he ever became a star. Together, they have three children: sons Shakuan Smith and Raekwon Smith, and daughter Cheyenne Smith, with Raekwon and Cheyenne being twins. Method Man has been vocal about keeping his family life away from the media spotlight.

After Method Man’s successful decades-long career in music, acting, and brand endorsements, he has a pretty impressive estimated net worth of around $14 million dollars. But Method Man is far from retired. He still has a steady acting career and tours with the Wu-Tang Clan regularly. Thanks to residual checks from his acting career on critically acclaimed shows like The Wire and Power Book II: Ghost, his acting income is substantial, earning him tens of thousands of dollars per episode. This stable income from television helps to smooth out his financial portfolio.

Recently Method Man’s career has taken a turn with one of his passions: photography. On Sunday, November 9, 2025, Method Man was officially credentialed as an NFL celebrity photographer for the game between the New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns at MetLife Stadium. He wore an official NFL Media vest and worked the sidelines, capturing photos of the live-action game and the fans.

The NFL’s Celebrity Photographer Series, which has also included stars like Kevin Durant, Marshawn Lynch, and Ken Griffey Jr., is designed to give fans an intimate view of the game from the "intersection of football and culture." During his time on the sidelines, Method Man was not working alone; each guest celebrity photographer is paired with the League's Live Content Correspondents (LCC) team to ensure they are "gaining insider access and mentorship to authentically document the NFL experience." The sight of the legendary rapper on the sidelines, camera in hand, immediately went viral, with fans posting pics of him to social media in a bit of irony.

Beyond entertainment, Method Man has established himself as an entrepreneur. In 2020, he launched his own cannabis brand, TICAL Official. TICAL is an acronym that stands for Taking Into Consideration All Lives, and the brand is built with a social equity focus, prioritizing partnerships with Black, female, and minority-owned businesses. The company raised approximately $300,000 dollars for its initial launch, with Method Man retaining a 20% ownership stake. In 2022, Method Man became a stakeholder and advisor for Intercept Music, a digital distribution platform that helps independent artists access major streaming platforms while retaining 100% of their rights and masters. His commitment to media investment extends to the digital space where his YouTube channel generates between $60,000 and $75,000 dollars per year, and his Instagram presence brings in between $15,000 and $25,000 dollars per year. He also co-founded the production company Six AM, An Entertainment Co. with his manager, Shauna Garr. The company aims to produce diverse content for streaming and television, including a third film in the How High series, as he continues to focus on expanding his influence across the business world. This approach echoes the Wu-Tang Clan’s original "branded house architecture" business strategy, where members, including Method Man, were strategically allowed to sign solo deals with different record labels to maximize their financial viability and brand reach.

Method Man’s career is a great example of a talented individual who refused to be boxed in by a single profession. From his foundational work with the Wu-Tang Clan starting in 1993, to his Platinum-selling solo career with albums like Tical, and his substantial film and television acting resume, he has built an impressive career. His new passion for photography shows that even at the height of his fame, he is still driven to explore and master new creative avenues. I love seeing artists and business people I admire find new ways to connect with the world through different creative lenses.

Quick Hits

🏦 Business

President Donald Trump has proposed the creation of a 50-year mortgage, but these mortgages would saddle a borrower with roughly $378,240 dollars in extra interest compared to a 30-year loan. If a new homeowner can’t afford a 20% down payment for a normal 30-year mortgage, then maybe they shouldn’t be buying a house that comes with five decades of debt. And when you look at the cost savings of a 30-year mortgage versus a 50-year mortgage on a $400,000 dollars home, you’re only saving around $250 dollars a month with a 50-year mortgage, but you’ll end up paying nearly double the total loan cost over the 50 years, so it’s actually going to cost you a lot more in the long term. Simple math people!

📱 Entertainment

YouTuber MrBeast’s company Beast Industries just secured a $5 billion dollar valuation when they recently raised $200 million dollars. This put MrBeast’s equity in the company, which he reportedly owns over 50% of, at roughly $2.5 billion dollars. Not bad for a guy who got his start on YouTube playing the video game “Minecraft” on his channel.

💻 Tech

What would happen to the Bitcoin network if there was a 24-hour global Internet blackout? Liam 'Akiba' Wright wanted to know, so he researched and wrote a paper that suggest that the Bitcoin network could split into different partitions like Americas, Asia, and Europe/Africa, with different hashrate distributions if each region lost their connection with other regions. The separated regions would autonomously produce blocks, with the 45% hashrate region producing approximately 2.7 blocks per hour, which would eventually lead to hundreds of blocks of divergence after a full day of mining. When the Internet recovered all Bitcoin transactions that had been confirmed on the shorter chains, which could potentially amount to millions of dollars in value, would be orphaned, and their owners left with no rewards for successfully mining Bitcoins in their regions. Luckily, this would only happen in the most dire of circumstances where the entire Internet was cut off from other regions of the world, which would most likely only happen in a nuclear war. So there’s that to provide you Bitcoin miners with some comfort.

🪙 Crypto

What do you get when you combine home heating and Bitcoin mining? A Bitcoin mining setup that can also heat your house, of course. Some Americans are utilizing the substantial heat generated by their home cryptocurrency mining equipment to warm their homes and offset their traditional heating costs this winter. There’s a new device from HeatTrio that retails for around $900 you can take the heat from your Bitcoin mining setup and circulate that heat throughout your home. The profitability of mining enough Bitcoin to generate a profit is pretty low, and when you factor in the rising costs of electricity, good luck not losing money on your home Bitcoin mining operation.

🏡 Real Estate

Mark Wahlberg just bought a new home in Florida for $37 million dollars. That’s not really surprising or news, since he buys and sells real estate all the time. In fact he just sold his home in Los Angeles for $55 million back in February of 2023. What is interesting about this purchase, is that the home has been bought and sold four times in the last 5 years, by the same Douglas Elliman real estate broker Senada Adzem, which amounts to over $106 million in real estate transactions in the last five years. At a commission rate of 4%, that means Senada Adzem could have made $3.18 million dollars in commission by selling the home 4 times!

🤖 AI

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has stepped back into the business world as co-CEO of a new AI startup called Project Prometheus, which focuses on applying AI to engineering and manufacturing in fields like aerospace and automobiles. The company raised $6.2 billion dollars in funding with some help from Jeff Bezos himself. They already have 100 employees, including researchers from OpenAI and Google DeepMind.

Project Prometheus is concentrating on what is being called "physical AI" or "world models" to build AI systems that learn by interacting with the real world, such as through robotics, scientific experiments, and physical processes. What they are not doing is relying only on Large Language Models (LLMs) like OpenAI. The company’s approach is to accelerate scientific discovery, drug design, and the automated manufacturing of complex components for sectors including computers, aerospace, and automobiles. So it looks like Jeff Bezos is back to competing with his arch nemesis Elon Musk again in the AI field, in addition to space flight.

🏁 Sports

Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff is in advanced talks to sell a 5% stake in the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 team to George Kurtz, the CEO of sponsor CrowdStrike at a valuation of the team of $6 billion dollars. Toto Wolf has an equal equity stake of 33% with co-owners of the team including Mercedes and Petronas. This valuation means Toto Wolff would receive $300 million dollars from the sale of his 5% of the team, leaving his remaining 28% stake in the team valued at approximately $1.68 billion dollars. That should be a nice consolation prize when Mercedes loses the Constructions Championship and neither of their two drivers wins the Driver’s Championship for another year of losing. Go McLaren!

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The Business Behind The News is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.