Mobb Deep

Mobb Deep is a hip-hop duo from the United States, performing in s hardcore rap style. The group consists of two members - Havok (Havoc) and Prodigy (Prodigy). Bright guys, a truly cult collective, no matter how worn out this word may look. They are said to be the cornerstone of New York hardcore. Their name - Mobb Deep - is reminiscent of the bully word "mob" that plunges most young rappers into panic. Overseas rappers can hardly be intimidated by pseudo-patriots, characters such as Prodigy and Havoc will scare any guardian of the purity of the white race themselves. These guys will quietly and measuredly promise to make you hell on earth and clearly demonstrate what killing music is. Prodigy and Havoc meet at the prestigious Art School in Manhattan. Presumably, there would be no place for stupid ghouls-scumbags in an art school. So we can do without clichés about the narrow-mindedness and universal criminality of black rappers. Pi and Hev are out of this cliché. The first half of the 90s was a strange time for America. While the fathers were celebrating victory in the Cold War, their children were severely depressed. And if white teenagers were killed by heroin under the growl of grunge, then their black peers preferred crack and the darkest rap. Mobb Deep's "Juvenile Hell" was one of the first to capture this mood of despair and emptiness.

The refined style acquired by the group in the mid-90s is not yet visible, at times, at times, it was not in tune with the tempo, but the general outlines of the future Mobb Deep are already being drawn. The hometown of Queensbridge was a lavish gift of ideas, and Pee and Hav turned them into poems that made the most impressionable listeners uncomfortable. Young talents fell under the tutelage of Queensbridge comrades in arms - those who are older. Among the guardians was, by the way, Large Professor, who did a lot to promote Queensbridge - the success of the first Nas album has a lot of merit of this person. The result of their work in 1993 was published by the label 4th & Broadway and had, let's say, local success. Deciphering - almost no money and very little attention from the audience. Not surprising, given the youthful immaturity of the material and the small possibilities of the label. So, a great success should be recognized the subsequent signing of a contract with the now legendary record company Loud, which made a name on the albums of Wu-Tang, and in those years made the first steps in the rap business. It was a great success for Mobb Deep, who gained wide popularity from the Loud, and a great success for the label - after all, the subsequent albums sold superbly. The benefits were mutual.

In 1995, Mobb Deep released the phenomenal album "Infamous". This time they independently wrote all the music for the disc, except for a couple of tracks, the production of which was the work of Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest (by the way, a year earlier he worked on the legendary debut of Nas, the album "Illmatic"; it looks like the guy has good taste and participates only in projects that are destined to "change style"). "Infamous" turned out to be one of the most realistic gangsta albums ever. Tough horror stories about the surrounding troubles - garbage, evil scum from the quarter ... A naturalistically reproduced hostile atmosphere of Queensbridge, where every quarter is a war zone. Only tar-thick dark tones, gloomy music and heartbreaking stories from the streets of his native area. Almost like in the song - "In the black-black city on black nights / black ambulances with black doctors ..." - one hundred percent chernukha !!! The measured reading of Prodigy and Havok - quiet and almost without intonation - became their hallmark. Combined with a well-defined rhythm (thanks to the "protruding" drums) and a minimum of instruments, it had a hypnotic effect. The hit "Shook Ones, Pt. 2" became a real manifesto of its time. The doom and despair of a confused generation: "Sometimes I wonder do I deserve to live / or am I going to burn in hell for all the things I did."

In 1996, Mobb Deep fans, and there were many of them, lined up for the new release of the Kings of Queensbridge. Thanks to their efforts, the album, called "Hell on Earth", climbed to 6th place on the Billboard chart - in the general chart, where their sales were compared to various Michael Jackson and Madonnas. The result is impressive. However, after the success of "Infamous" it could not be otherwise. Prodigy and Havok continued to whine about the fatigue of "life like that" and rap's transformation into a bloody sport. For greater commercial appeal, tracks were recorded with Nas (a fellow in the area), Method Man and Raekwon (like-minded people in hardcore style).

The next album had to wait a long time - the pause was taken for three years. Not everything went well: the release date was repeatedly postponed, then the working version of the disc with three dozen tracks fell into the hands of the pirates. Fans of Mobb Deep were not embarrassed by the poor sound quality, and the bootleg began to rapidly spread across the States. Here we had to hurry up and release "Murda Muzik" as soon as possible. Despite all the efforts of the pirates, the disc reached number three in the charts and brought the duo platinum. The hit "Quiet Storm" from this album is considered one of the program tracks of Mobb Deep, "It's Mine" with the participation of Nas sounds great. While Havok's production skills on "Murda Muzik" are worthy of the highest praise, this release marks the first time that Mobb Deep is actively seeking help from third-party beatmakers. Nevertheless, this does not prevent them from maintaining their signature sound - the strict beat of Mobb Deep had already become a trademark by that time. Which they playfully abandoned on the next disc.

The album "Infamy", released in 2001, shocked the fans of the duo. It wasn't Mobb Deep at all. Deadly realism disappears somewhere, the sound becomes softer, and the album's main hit is the melodic ballad "Hey Luv (Anything)" featuring soul quartet 112, known for working with artists on the Bad Boy label - "Betrayal of the Motherland". All this was called the expansion of the audience, in fact - a change of reference points in creativity, adjustment to a more relevant format. If you look closely at the hardcore scene, you will realize that not only Mobb Deep have done this. The duo of Queensbridge murderers were among the first hardcore renegades. Another interesting fact is the amazing tolerance shown by members of Mobb Deep towards Jay-Z. The Brooklyn rapper mixed them with mud on the track "Takeover", unveiled shortly before the release of "Infamy". Previously, Pi and Hav have already got into similar situations and always gave a decent answer, even 2Pac got his own in the track "Drop a Gem on 'Em" from the album "Hell on Earth". And here they were silent ...