Dec. 11, 2001, will be a day, which will also live, in Infamy …according to Mobb Deep.
Because on that date, Havoc and Prodigy, grouped as that “Infamous” duo, are scheduled to release its fifth album, Infamy.
“I feel that, amongst all the rap albums in history, it’s going to be labeled as a classic,” said Havoc last Friday in the Campus Center Basement, where Mobb Deep came to sign autographs and promote the new record. “We worked hard on it on every track – from the lyrics to the beats. We was like, ‘yo, we gotta come out with a bangin’ album.’ We ain’t been out together in a while so our mentality was just to make incredible, incredible type music.”
“I feel the album is in a class by itself,” Prodigy concurred. “It’s definitely going to stand out. It’s one of a kind.
“It’s a whole new album, kid. It’s on and poppin, Infamy.”
Mobb Deep is characterized by an intense passion for its script of life on the streets. One of the darkest duos in the history of rap, the Mobb’s particular way of delivering urban folk tales has always been remarked by critics as definite musical triumph. It’s the flair of relaying harsh figurative language over distinctive Mobb beats that has brought the twosome to the top of the industry and caused critics to chart the group’s development.
From 1993’s Juvenile Hell (their first record) to now, Havoc and Prodigy have established themselves as some of the East Coast’s all-time greatest thug poets.
“You just grow with time,” said Prodigy, who released his first solo album H.N.I.C. last year. “It’s just a naturally progressive thing.”
“Things change, but as much as they change they still stay the same.”
Two years ago, the Mobb released Murda Music, its fourth album, which The Source ranked just a half-mic (4.5/5) away from perfection.
“Hav and P have done it again,” read that May 1999 issue of The Source, the magazine that first brought attention to the duo in 1991 in its “Unsigned Hype” column. “The Mobb specializes in one thing, and the albums title says it all…Yeah, the tough talk persists, but not without more of the same self-scrutiny characteristic of the thinkin’ thug…”
Before that release, the Mobb put out Hell on Earth (1996) and The Infamous (1995). The Infamous, with the hit single “Shook Ones Part II,” pushed the Mobb into the stardom while Hell on Earth proved that boys from Queensbridge, N.Y. were for real.
“The message we basically trying to get out, is like, ‘boom, this is how Mobb Deep feel about it,” Prodigy said. “Boom, this is how Mobb Deep feel when we make a beat. This is what you should be spending your money on, because this shit is a work of art. That’s how we feel, that’s the message we trying to put out to the world.”
On Dec. 11, when Infamy hits the shelves, Mobb Deep promises its fans they won’t be let down. Tracks such as “Kill or Be Killed (featuring Ronald Isely)” and “Clap” will proclaim more of the Mobb’s street-combat classics, while tracks like “Handcuffs” will show the group’s diverse melodic background.
On “Handcuffs,” Havoc, who produced a majority of the album, experiments with Southern bounce and a fast rhyme scheme.
“That’s how I was feeling one day,” said Havoc about the “Handcuffs” track. “I was making the track and it just came out. I like all types of music, so that was just another branch of my feelings at that time. From rap to alternative, country, rock – we just open minded musicians.”
But the open minds of the Mobb have been challenged recently. On Jay-Z’s “The Takeover,” Jigga fires a couple shots at Deep, questioning the “straight gangsta” grind that Havoc promised on Infamy.
The Mobb returns the favor on the new album in the form of the track, “Crawling.”
“Music, to us, is an art form, so it’s going to be personal, because it comes from you,” Prodigy said. “I’m creating something from my mind, something from me. So it’s definitely personal.
“It’s rap music. And rap music is personal to me.”
