Mobb Deep - The Infamous (April 25, 1995) & 1994 Sessions (April 1, 2014)

I'm killing it with the consistency, I know. Paint that shit gold.

In truth, this post has caused me physical pain from the amount of times it got deleted, no joke. Every time I rewrite my thoughts, something happens to my device which causes me to sink into a day of depression, until today. Among some other personal shit I'm going through. So, like I said, paint that shit gold.

Story time: I'm playing Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. (Tell me if you know where this is going.) I switch over to The Liberty Jam radio station. I hear an ominous loop of reverbed hi-hats and snares. Then, DJ Clue shouts with his ever-annoying voice: "NEW MOBB DEEP!!" (even though the game was set in fucking 1998.) Keep in mind that by this point I don't know what the hell a Mobb Deep is. Then I hear Shook Ones Pt. II for the first time, and my mind is officially blown. Who are these people? And how do they pull off sounding so menacing so effortlessly? Especially the first cat, I remember wondering. There was something different about his delivery, as you can literally hear his conviction and you feel like he already knows he's got you in the palm of his hand. And what can I say about the beat that hasn't been said already by many a better writer than I? I go to my safe haven, Wikipedia, and I find out Mobb Deep is a group made up by Havoc & Prodigy. Wait a minute, those two names ring a bell. Oh yeah! it's the two thugs who were constantly beating the tar out of my created fighters on Def Jam: Fight For NY!

And that's how I became a Mobb Deep fan.

Albert Johnson and Kejuan Muchita were in the pickle of all pickles when their debut album Juvenile Hell, the one shot they placed all of their hopes and dreams on was a colossal clusterfuck of a failure. (Even though looking back now, it wasn't nearly as bad as it seemed. In fact, I found parts of it quite entertaining.) Not only did their label 4th and Broadway cast them away in the cold, lonely wastelands of no-deal-land, everyone who was on board the project seemed to disassociate themselves with the group. Furthermore, hip hop acts like Biggie, Def Squad and the Wu-Tang Clan were quickly taking over the radio in a triumphant stand for mainstream East Coast hip hop while the likes of Jeru The Damaja, O.C. & fellow QB native Nas were the new critical darlings. And during our duo's plight, they also realized they had limited funds for them to make the music that they wanted, what with them being unwanted free agents with no money to pay for a hot beat for them to spit on. In short, Mobb Deep felt like the end of their career was almost upon them. Almost.

In the most unpredictable of ways, our duo went back to the drawing board. There they found out the two most important reasons Mobb Deep is a hip hop landmark today: 1. Prodigy, who was more into production, found out Havoc had an untapped genius as a producer. 2. Havoc, the MC of the group, noted that out of nowhere, Prodigy transformed into a lyrical phenomenon. Production-wise, it might've been the fact that Hav's younger brother, a kid who went by the name of Killa Black, was a fugitive around that time that pushed Kejuan to recognize some of the darkest, most soulless sounds ever to be put to wax in many old melodious hits. Killa Black, who would take his own life a year later, would be immortalized on various future Mobb songs alongside Twin Scarface, one of the Mobb's close crew and the identical twin brother of Infamous Mobb member Twin Gambino. Prodigy's sudden lyrical talent, however, came so suddenly that it caught everybody by surprise. Turns out, it was the result of a particularly nasty bout with sickle cell anemia, a condition P was born with. P wrote his heart and soul on his rhymebook when he was in the hospital. So, in reality, Mobb Deep already had everything they ever needed. They would go on to record a crucial demo, put together by The Source senior contributor Matty C and his partner & fellow A&R Schott Free. DJ Stretch Armstrong of the famous Stretch & Bobbito Show, also a fellow A&R, played a certain track from the demo called Patty Shop which caught the attention of Loud Records, headed by Steve Rifkind. Loud knew a goldmine when they found one, and when they heard said song they immediately greenlit a single deal. The result? One hell of a scorcher by the name of Shook Ones, released by Loud in 1994 and thereby sending the aforementioned Steve Rifkind into a frenzy of hype and excitement, along with whoever had the friggin privilege of hearing that track. A full album deal was greenlit afterwards, which allowed our heroes to release its sequel Shook Ones Pt. II to the unsuspecting masses, who gobbled the shit up. So much so that they flocked over to the single that followed like those pigeons from the Home Alone 2 scene where they attack Joe Pesci & Daniel Stern. Which was good because Survival Of The Fittest is just as much of a classic as Shook Ones, if not even more so. Then, came the album.

The Infamous sold more than five hundred thousand records in the US in exactly two months, a feat which is unheard of today by a hip hop act. In another spoiler, allow me to add that it did so for a good goddamned reason.

THE START OF YOUR ENDING (41ST SIDE)
Havoc succeeds with Mobb Deep's identity reinvention from the very first second you hear his sampling of Grant Green's Maybe Tomorrow. Which is somehow supposed to mean that the beat is friggin' awesome. Both K and Bert sound so far ahead of their past selves it's not even funny. Upon further investigation, I've come to the conclusion that I may have sold Havoc's pen game a bit short and I'm man enough to admit it.

THE INFAMOUS PRELUDE
You duped the consumer good there, Loud. For a moment, a guy would think he's finally getting an skit-less album. Of course, now they know better.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
Nobody approach me when this song is on. You might not recognize me from the trance I'm in. My humble sentiments are that mainstream hip hop should kindly go fuck itself in the most uncomfortable, inappropriate & undesirable way possible for not making songs half as good as this anymore. Remember those two halls of fame that I talked about earlier? Well, Havoc & Prodigy cement their rightful place in said halls of fame with this song alone. Prodigy delivers what many people consider his most memorable verse with a conviction that simply escapes most rappers now, as you can hear the lifelessness in this at-the-time young man's voice with every line he spits, a terror that can only be experienced when paired with the right beat. And let me tell you, Havoc provides a now-classic instrumental built around one of the most unrecognizable loops in hip hop history. So unrecognizable, in fact, that it became the stuff of legend until Havoc finally revealed the source material only a few years ago, a mere second from the opening piano solo of Skylark by the Barry Harris Trio and Al Cohn. Trust me, this is an experience that will haunt your dreams.

EYE FOR AN EYE (YOUR BEEF IS MINES) (FEATURING NAS & RAEKWON)
Lyrically, Havoc is predictably the weak link here and his verse is dope as fuck. What does that tell you about the lyrics on this song? Havoc once again finds the briefest of loops in Al Green's Wish You Were Here and brilliantly transforms it into the soundtrack of torture. Nicely done.

JUST STEP PRELUDE
Apparently, TaJuan Perry aka Big Noyd aka Pizza Dude was famous for freestyling about hood life. This was one of those sessions, coupled with an equally amazing lyrical showing from P to no music, which becomes an acapella by definition. Skip it, I won't tell.

GIVE UP THE GOODS (JUST STEP) (FEATURING BIG NOYD)
Apparently Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest fame had a heavy hand in helping Havoc craft this album's sound. Even though I initially disagreed with that bit of trivia, it's not really that far off since Tip is a musical genius. Anyway, he has only three production credits on the album, so he definitely helped. Even though all of his contributions on the album are dope as fuck, this one's by far the best. His Esther Phillips loop is instantly recognizable to many hip hop heads along with a famous Skull Snaps audio clip sprinkled throughout, and both Mobb halves do their part very well, but the show belongs to Pizza Dude as he follows his hosts' footsteps in successfully eradicating any memory of his real debut on Juvenile Hell. This verse was responsible for his Episodes Of A Hustla EP, which you know I'll review later on, God willing.

TEMPERATURE'S RISING (FEATURING CRYSTAL JOHNSON)
The second Q-Tip beat of the album is built around a Patrice Rushen Where's The Love loop to excellent effect. I'll have to admit, I feel that Crystal Johnson should be known much more than she is, as her vocal talent is undeniable, plus her Leon Ware cover is brilliant! The Mobb's take on what I call the One Love formula works for me because instead of an incarcerated comrade, they're speaking to one who's on the run (read: Killa Black) during the course of their tribute. And I'm pleased to state that both do an equally good job. And how many people find it cool that Tip produced both odes to absent comrades discussed here? Not as good as Just Step, but still pretty fucking awesome.

UP NORTH TRIP
After a useless excerpt from the Fatback Band's To Be With You, Havoc (allegedly) returns behind the boards for this beat which samples I'm Tired Of Giving by The Spinners. I will say that my former argument would be weak against one who's of the opinion that Q-Tip had more of a hand than what was credited and who uses this song as an example thereof. Then again, I am a blogger, so I just have to be stubborn about my opinions or other bloggers will call me a lazy-ass flunkey. So, Havoc's (alleged) beat inspires Prodigy to yet another riveting display, while Havoc, while nailing the flow part, is stuck with random goddamn threats, thereby can only look weak in comparison. His verse tries to get across, before Prodigy's verse guts it from behind shinobi-like. P has said in the past that Illmatic had a big influence on him sharpening his pen, and it fucking shows. P carries the lyrics of this song like a champ.

TRIFE LIFE
The numerous Norman McConnors samples serve as the foundation for a Havoc beat that is utilized by the Mobb to describe the thuggish roles some females play in 'hood life'. And even though Hav & P both paint very vivid pictures about said subject matter, the fucking beat takes center stage for me. This, unlike the previous song, is undoubtedly a Havoc beat as it weaves the samples together in a clear statement of its maker's talent. He even lets the beat ride RZA-style, which I always like when the beat is this good.

Q.U.- HECTIC
This Havoc beat serves as foundation for a lyrical competition between both Mobb halves, as they go back & forth for a bit, trading excellent verses with each other, until Havoc eventually relents to Prodigy's prowess. P then takes to the mic and opens one of the most vivid windows into the ghetto thug's mind ever written. Props to Havoc throwing the famous Quincy Jones sample used previously on Shook Ones Tha Dos on here, as it somehow added to the brilliant final product.

RIGHT BACK AT YOU (FEATURING GHOSTFACE KILLAH, RAEKWON & BIG NOYD)
Havoc sets a very prominent Les McCann loop as the foundation for this posse cut that I always argue with people about when trying to determine the best posse cut on this album. This song is my choice because I'm a big fan of the unique back & forth style used on here by Rae & Ghost which previously debuted on the Chef's Heaven Or Hell as a tribute to EPMD. Add Big Noyd's continuing winning form from his last appearance on this album and you have one of the greatest posse cuts in hip hop history.

THE GRAVE PRELUDE
...

CRADLE TO THE GRAVE
The previous skit should've been included into this track, as it's too goddamn short to be given its own space on the tracklist. Anyway, it serves as a plotline for a revenge tale brilliantly written by Prodigy. Havoc, on the other hand, exhibits why I think he should've stuck to the boards when he commits to the story for only his second verse. His remaining lyrical contribution are, once again, random thuggery, which really detracts from what could've been a classic staple in hip hop. It really deserves such a title given P's writing, as I swear, he seems like he's gaining momentum with his pen game with each passing song. Havoc deserves credit for the haunting beat built around the briefest of Teddy Pendergrass notes. This song is still very good, but it could've been so much more.

DRINK AWAY THE PAIN (SITUATIONS) (FEATURING Q-TIP)
Q-Tip's final production showing on the album warrants a verse from the legend that fits right in between his many contributions to the genre. Hell, this whole song sounds like a Tribe song. In fact, I'm adamant that this track was Tip's brainchild. Hav & P dedicate their verses to their preferred liquor brand of choice, depicting them as the most desirable of women. Whatever, Tip takes this song, weaving a crime tale using various clothing brands as the characters. Now we know where Lupe Fiasco got his influence for that Twilight Zone joint off his Fahrenheit 1/15 mixtape series. The beat was an awesome yet very characteristic loop of Mr. Tip using a prominent Headhunters sample.

SHOOK ONES PT. II
Other than the ingenious meshing of samples ranging from Quincy Jones to Herbie Hancock, please refer to track #3 for further review. Seriously, every attribute about that song applies here. Oh, you still want more? OK, story time: (Hey, you wanted more.) Listening to The Liberty Jam radio station in GTA:LCS, I always gravitated to this song here's depiction of the criminal youth thought process through the present thuggery. I was particularly struck with how Prodigy, 19 at the time, sounded like the most apathetic human being without even trying and I always asked myself: What makes someone reach that mindstate in society? What can someone possibly go through that would make him that heartless at that age? Havoc adds an equally harrowing verse, yet he lacks the conviction P displays. This song is a hip hop staple for a good reason.

PARTY OVER (FEATURING BIG NOYD)
This album closer depicts a point in time where Mobb Deep and their cronies were having fun in a way simply not possible anymore, given the Mobb's recent meltdown. Over a loop taken from the fucking awesome Lonely Fire by Miles Davis, Hav, P & Noyd all swiftly interchange verses of threats & tales of violence in one smorgasbord of action-filled wizardry. Prodigy hits full throttle with his imagery here, and there's no doubt left in your mind that you'll remember this dude's lyrics for a long time. Album over.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Like I said in the first review, what can I say more than what's already been said? The Infamous sold 500,000 copies in exactly two months, and you know what? It's worth every fucking cent & should've sold more. I can only pity those few who actually listened to Juvenile Hell first, then wrote these two off. For Havoc & Prodigy, as everyone already knows by now, pull off the hip hop image reinvention of the fucking century. Havoc and Prodigy switch their previous roles as producer and lead MC respectively, and hip hop, nay, art is all the better for it. Prodigy exhibits a mastery over words that is rivaled by a very select few MC's, and Havoc produces masterpiece over masterpiece on this album showing a consistency that mainstream rap simply isn't aware of. Props to the two shits. Much props.

WORTH IT?
If, by some freak incident, you're into hip hop and don't know this album, do what I originally did and stop browsing NOW! Go and fucking stamp this shit into your head. Then, you just might be able to clean toilets here. This album is worthy of its place among the great hip hop albums of the mid-90s, and it certainly did enough to make Mobb Deep a hip hop household name.

I had to compensate for my absence, didn't I?
For the people who're currently balking at the goddamn screen, asking: (Y U nO reeViEw CD1?) I say, leave this blog now. You won't like it. Anyway, the abovementioned classic fucking album certainly had its share of stories, unreleased cuts & throwaways. I've decided said throwaways are worthy of shedding some light on, especially when Mobb Deep themselves think they're worth your time, evidenced by the fact that this is part of an official release by the duo. CD2 of our couple's 2014 double album The Infamous Mobb Deep, comprised of masters found on old floppy disks, mind you, is almost too unfair to CD1, which is composed of all new material. (Show of hands: Who's old enough to remember floppys? No one? Thought so.) It's simply impossible to stack the two CDs against each other, as they were made by entirely different people, in my eyes. So, how is this CD really expected to end? Read on, motherfucker.

EYE FOR AN EYE (FEATURING NAS, RAEKWON & GHOSTFACE KILLAH)
This original take is getting a lot of love from the Interweb, which is totally to be expected. Prodigy uses one of the verses he ended up using for the fucking awesome Gusto by Long Island former lyrical wunderkind A+. P seems to love this verse very much, as it pops up more than once on this album. He has every reason to, of course, as the verse is one of his best ever. Speaking of using verses that pop up somewhere else, Ghostface uses his awesome verse from the Real Live Shit remix off of The Turnaround, a classic album I reviewed earlier on in this blog, and Nas' verse is the same as the final version. So, that leaves the Chef & Havoc as the only ones with verses no one heard until this track's release, and they sound pretty damn good. Especially the Chef. Hav's beat freaks a different part of the same Al Green source for the final version, and still makes it sound dark. Nice!

SKIT
Taken from the Yo! MTV Raps episode where Mobb Deep first made their appearance, accompanied by Nas & Raekwon where everyone spits a verse while rocking Wu Wear. I think it's amazing that Nas & Rae sound like they're absolutely thrilled to spit alongside the Mobb even though it should be the other way around. Still, a skit is a skit.

GET IT IN BLOOD
This song houses Prodigy's other Gusto verse. This verse is equally as potent as the one previously heard on the last song. I have a very strong suspicion that Havoc did not write his rhymes on here, as the imagery present very clearly screams Prodigy. Plus, there's the fact that he spits a verse that we just heard from Prodigy on the fucking previous skit! Props to his beat, though.

GIMME THE GOODS (FEATURING BIG NOYD)
I stopped every thing I was doing once I heard Havoc's beat on here, as this alternate version of Give Up The Goods (Just Step) blows the album version out of the motherfucking water. I cannot stress enough how much this song is flat-out better: The menacing beat, for one, is another one of those addictive beats that you'll hear in your head for months to come. All of the verses are the same, except for Big Noyd's, who unleashes a full-blown crime saga with one long-ass verse with proper attention to detail. His verse alone makes this song my preferred version by a fucking light year.

IF IT'S ALRIGHT (FEATURING BIG NOYD)
Sampling Gil-Scott Heron's Winter In America, this telling Havoc beat houses another collaboration with Noyd, one that the group chooses to speak on the hardships of the ghetto. I must say, either P is writing Hav's rhymes on this disc, or Havoc is a stupid motherfucker for leaving these rhymes on the cutting room floor instead of using them on the final product. That's how much better he is on here. Prodigy is his usual poetic self, of course. So, yeah, this song was the tits.

SKIT MOBB 1995
Another throwback interview, although this one's useless.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST (FEATURING CRYSTAL JOHNSON)
This remix to a goddamn staple of hip hop doesn't really add up, and yet I still fucking love this song. Maybe it's because Crystal Johnson is present on here, although she doesn't really contribute much. The same cannot be said however for both Havoc and Prodigy, who add a ton of new rhymes to the ones already burnt into our brains, and they pull it off in typically awesome fashion. This time, the beat is a more obvious sample of Al Wilson's Medley: I Won't Last a Day Without You/Let Me Be the One. I approve greatly.

TEMPERATURE'S RISING (FEATURING CRYSTAL JOHNSON)
The same Patrice Rushen sample that graced the original does so accompanied by the infamous beginning seconds of the ESG UFO sample for this slightly altered remix, as the end of Prodigy's Now-PG-13-but-still-fucking-awesome verse is a little different and Crissy here brings a different yet better interpolation of Leon Ware's vocals. Other than that, this song's very much similar to its original.

THE BRIDGE (FEATURING BIG NOYD)
The fabled remake of MC Shan's most famous song. Havoc supplies a mellowed out beat with hard-as-fuck drums for the Mobb and guest to wreck shop over. And, even though Hav spits his fairly decent verse from DJ Frankie Cutlass' Know Da Game and Big Noyd raps his ass off again, this is the Albert Johnson show all the way, as he spits one of the coldest fucking verses I've ever heard from the man. Ever.

SKIT
There's a video on YouTube of this skit as Big Noyd spits his verse from Right Back At You with fucking Agallah beatboxing. I didn't know he was down with the Mobb! Still, skip this skit.

THE MONEY
The rhymes we hear here are later used on Das EFX' banging-as-fuck Microphone Master remix, except for an extra Havoc verse that's neither here nor there. The beat, however, is typical early Havoc material, as he works in the Rakim sample between the Funkadelic sample transformed ingeniously by Havoc into an ominous loop. Then the beat simply rides for an additional three minutes while the Mobb chat with the fabled Killa Black among others, which we really didn't need to hear.

THE MONEY (VERSION 2)
Same song, but with a shitty beat and no phone dialogue.

WE ABOUT TO GET HECTIC (FEATURING TWIN GAMBINO)
This was what ended up as Q.U.-Hectic?! This is a completely different song! Seriously, the James Brown Payback sample just does something to a song that massively amps up the energy level, especially if left in the hands of producers like early Havoc. Speak of the devil, His flow on his long-ass verse here is the best I've ever heard from him. By far. Thing is, he's too confused by his verse's own length. Which results in a failed attempt to impress the listener. Oh well, He can find solace in the fact that Gambino didn't do much better. Prodigy, on the other hand, shines in another home-run display of skill. The end product wasn't half-bad.

THE INFAMOUS
The second time P uses this verse on the album, with the first being the Eye For An Eye prototype earlier. Havoc uses his now-famous verse from the final version of Eye For An Eye. We're also treated to a verse unheard from Prodigy which, of course, is dope as fuck. The beat is minimalist in a way that serves the song well. That's all I got.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
This was fan service at its finest, as Mobb fans will find plenty to dissect here. Whether it be listening to verses unheard or reintroducing oneself to verses featured on other acts' songs. All the while listening to good beats from a time long past in the Mobb's layered history in this industry. Is it better than the end product? Mostly, fuck no. Except for that Gimme The Goods joint. That should've made the fucking album.

WORTH IT?
Oh hell yes. Listening to these songs in raw form offers an entirely different listening experience when you've heard the material on something equally good. Don't miss it.

TRACKS TO TRACK DOWN:
SHOOK ONES
The real song that started a revolution in hip hop music. This was originally released as a promotional single in 1994, then later added to later pressings of Hell On Earth, not The Infamous. Which was pretty stupid. Anyway, this is the darkest Mobb Deep song in their canon, and the way Prodigy sets it off has already become legend. Havoc uses the verse that later ended up on Part 2 but he flows better here. The instrumental is, once again, stuff of nightmares. This song is perfect for workout music simply for the emotions that it brings out of you. You literally feel like you glossed over into whatever demon dimension your favorite Japanese video game houses. In short: this was awesome. And we're done. I have slaved over this post, I tell you.

More Mobb Deep to be found here.