August 15, 2025 • 41 mins
On this week's episode, we're ranking all of the albums in Mobb Deep's discography! Let's talk about it!
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Support on CashApp: $Vegasworldinc77
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Jipop Now. Potts.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
If you from the future, you know what you do,
show as out of my back life, so disrespect.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
To leg like hip hop is say to today, Let's
get right into the business. What up, y'all?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I am your host Vegas and this it's hip Hop
Now Podcasts, another podcast specifically designed to keep you called
out on all things hip hop, music and culture that
happened throughout the week. And today we have a special show.
You know, it's a bonus episode like we do. It's
another ranking, y'all, another ranking of albums, a tear list,
(00:46):
if you will. I've done a number of these over
the course of a couple of years. So if there's
albums missing from some of those videos, just know they
were done a while back. And you can ask me
in the comment section what I think about newer albums.
But I've done Tearless, ghost Face, Ray Kwan, Daylon Soul,
(01:06):
eminem Snoop Dogg, Nas and jay Z, Common, Redman and
Method Men, Smith and Wesson recently. But today we are
going to go over and cover one of the greatest
hip hop groups of all time. Debate your mama. I
didn't say the greatest, I just said, one of the
(01:29):
greatest can't really be denied. But I'm talking about mobb
Azy DC mob Deep straight out of Queen's Bridge Man.
Definitely one of my favorite groups. Might be top five
for me. But I'll explain a little bit later why
(01:50):
I sound shaky on that.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Shaky on that.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Not that they shouldn't be, not that they shouldn't be
in your top five, It's just that, you know what
these tear lists are, these rankings that I do. I
don't just go and gather all the album covers and
hop in here and try to go off for memory
and what I think and what I like and all
of that. I go back and listen to all of
the albums. So yes, I started at the first album,
(02:15):
Juvenile Hell, all the way up to what I believe
was their last official album on Gen Unit Records. So
we're going to talk about all that good stuff. But
what I need you to do is just to know,
just to know that you can subscribe to this podcast.
Whether you listening audio form on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Or you're right here on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Hit that subscribe button because it helps, that like button,
because that definitely helps.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Comment.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I try to read all the comments and try to
engage everybody. But you know, sometimes brother be busy, and
you know, things are kind of busy, and that's a
good thing. You know, progress we should say productive, I
should say progress making progress while being productive.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
There you go. But also, if you see on the ticker.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Right here on the video Hip Hop Now podcast YouTube
channel has officially set up memberships, that's right.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That means you.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Whether you are somebody who supported back in the day
on Patreon or you saw the.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Cash happy hey you go bether whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Again, I cannot stress this enough when it comes to
me in this content, I don't eat off of this.
I don't make any money. It's not really monetized. You know,
YouTube didn't stop. But nevertheless, over the course of the
years of this podcast, all the proceeds have gone back
(03:51):
into the podcast to improve upon it, from lights to
microphones to software. Sometimes let's just say you are the
only one given five dollars a month. Your five dollars
goes towards promoting this podcast on Instagram, on Facebook, and
(04:12):
I'm talking about via ads, not me posting. So all
of those things add up. They help the podcast grow.
So if you would like to become a member, there
are perks to being a member, access to exclusive content,
access to videos early.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I have some things up my sleeve, come a little
bit later, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
So those people who really are engaged with this content
and would like to hear, you know, my thoughts, or
hear from my guests, or hear the topics, whatever it
may be, this is your opportunity. So the link to
find out all about memberships right here on the channel,
including super chats when I do live streams. The link
(04:55):
will be in the description of this episode, and I
think I'm also going to pinn the link going forward
in the comment section right at the very top. So,
without further ado, let's get right into this now. Looking
at the screen, you see what it is. You see
(05:16):
what it is. Looking at the screen.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Hold up.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I need to change some things because I didn't I
didn't really do this correctly when I set up this podcast.
So you're about to get a little bit of behind
the scenes work.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Going on here a little bit. Let's let's let's do
this right. Let's do this proper right.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
So we're keeping the logo, but also we want to
add an official background, and I just happen to have
one that may work properly for y'all. You know, fans
of Mob Deep, leave your comments in a comment section below.
You know what it is that kind of does a
(06:01):
little bit of justice. But maybe we changed the logo too,
just to keep it abuck, you know, let's just keep
it a buck to change the logo. But did the logo?
Oh we didn't change yet. Boom, there we go. I
don't think that looks better.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Okay, so let's just go back to the way we
had it. Okay, but you saw the thumb now, so.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Again phantom mob Deep, leave your favorite records who you
prefer out the crew? You feel Mob Deep top ten
on time your favorite albums because we're getting ready to
talk about it and not doing a bunch of mixtapes
inside joints. The only one that I'm choosing to include
(06:46):
in their catalog is Free Agents because it was an
album that dropped when I think, what were they a
loud basically in between their deals. But we'll talk about
the album and definitely why I consider it a part
of this lineas but let's start with Mob Deep's actual Well,
(07:09):
first of all, what am I doing? Man, I'm messing up? Okay,
you seeing the categories I gotta explain this to people
because they don't know. So we going from the top
being the greatest to whack. But because we're doing the
tail list for Mob Deep, we had to give them
different themes. Right, we're not putting goat and all that
(07:30):
hot and mid and all. We ain't putting that trash there.
This is how we're going to do it. A great album,
a goat album, a classic. You speaking the thumb language,
Philly done.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
A great album? How about that?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
A great album, not a classic, but a great album, infamous?
How about that? A good album? And nothing wrong with
a good album. You know, some good, some bad on there,
but overall it's a good album.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Mobb. That's what we're going with that category.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Now we start to get to the point where it's like,
it's cool, but I really don't like it, not that much.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
It's a couple of joints, it's three joints, but I.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Really don't like it. Lift you off your feet like
ski lifts. Okay, that's that category. In the last category,
you don't want to be there because that just means
it's trash. But in the essence of the thumb language,
start punching ninjas in their face just for living, y'all
could continue on Rest in Peace Prodigy. So there you
(08:34):
have it. Those are categories from Hies the Lowest, and
we're going to start with mob Leg's actual debut album
entitled Juvenile Hell.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
When this album was released, yo, they were.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Kids, they were teenagers, and on this album you could
hear it. And one thing I'd like to point out
is the fact that the sound of the music is
nothing like the Infamous, nothing like anything infamous and forward,
and that has a lot to do with the times
(09:10):
right like around those times in hip hop. Let me
make sure I officially get the date going right here
on my phone, because I definitely don't want to miss
quote anything.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Real quick.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yes, I listened to Juvenile Hell in its entirety. I
also bought the cassette back in the days, which is
also crazy because I don't remember doing that, but I
think I bought the cassette for Juvenile Hell after Infamous
because I thought they were so dope that I was like, man,
I must have missed something. Naw, I didn't miss anything.
(09:50):
Juvenile Hell dropped in.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Nineteen ninety three East Coast nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Three, versus when Infamous came out nineteen ninety five to
totally different worlds Right ninety three. Sure, Mob Deep is
dropping this album, but trip called Quest is on their
second album, I mean not the second album, the third album,
Midnight Marauders, dropping the same day as Wu Tang's debut
group album. But the vibe on the East Coast was
(10:19):
kind of rapping like this, like the songs I like,
like the peer Pressure remix, Large Professor remix, like they
rapping like you gotta deal with the pressure, Gotta got
the deal with the pressure, gotta got it. It was
it was the early nineties yard everybody was like routine
and yeah it wasn't wasn't that great. But don't get
(10:43):
me wrong, this album had a couple of joints on head,
like hit It from the Back was cool, locked up
a Sparford. Peer Pressure, like I said, hold Down the
Fort was cool also, But in general at that time,
there was just something about this album that wasn't good enough.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So juvenile. Hell I lift you off your feet like
ski lists, don't play with me. Okay, shorty, y'all too young, Okay,
it was too young for the game.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
And I've said this on my podcast numerous times. That
shout out to w NYC where I used.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
To work public radio.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
If you don't know, they, w w n y C
Studios produced a podcast about Prodigy and the backdrop was
about his health and living with sickle cell, but also
they were telling his story and they had a lot
of archive interviews and things like that from him. And
(11:52):
one thing he said about the transition from their debut
Juvenile Hell to their more album The Infamous, was that
they made the record they made it reflected the times,
but they didn't understand why it wasn't catching on in
a way they thought it should. And then in nineteen
(12:15):
ninety four they heard Ellmatic and they heard Nods and
it was like, I see what we did wrong. So
you come to their sophomore album, The Infamous, and this
is the thumb language. You already knew, classic classic material,
front to back, not one skip whatsoever, not on this one,
(12:38):
not on this one, and you hear it. You hear
the difference. Not only are they a little bit older, right,
one album releasing in ninety three, the other one in
nineteen ninety five, but you hear the growth. Some people
don't grow in ten twenty years. Jim Jones did I
say that some people don't. Some people don't look to
(13:03):
grow and adapt. Well, let me take that back, Jim
Jim Jones has improved as MC. But we you know
what I mean, not Jimmy, y'all, y'all know what I mean.
But I just look at it like it was so remarkable.
It wasn't even like it was the same group, because
I remember mobdep when they dropped Juvenile Held, But when
(13:28):
they dropped The Infamous, I didn't realize it was the
same young cats like at first, because I didn't their
name didn't resonate because that first album didn't really do
anything for me. So it was just like, oh, you know,
another typical nineties you know, you know, they had low haircutts,
(13:48):
almost like ball heads and all that. ONX remember ONX
was hot around ninety three ish and all of that.
So it was unremarkable to me though they were songs
I kind of like, but it was whatever.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
But when The.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Infamous dropped, forget about it, forget about a complete classic,
y'all know the record Survival of the Fittest Shook one's
part two. Everybody knows that give Up the Goods. Temperatures
Rising is one of my favorite. I Love that Joint,
Give Up the Goods featuring Big Noise. Big Noid had
(14:25):
excellent performances on this album throughout Right Back at You
with ghost Face and Ray Kwan. Remember the WU was
just out not that long ago. Now here they are
on this album. One of the greatest posse cuts of
all time. I four and I Your Beef is Mine
(14:46):
Dope track Mob Deep spits Nas probably has the standout
performance a drug Dealer's dream Stash cream Keys on the
Triple Bean Fire under this sl Green ninety five Nickel
Glen Condominium Dove dressed like a gentleman tailor made Ostrich
(15:08):
for Chanel.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
For my women friend. It's been a while, but.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Just an excellent album and Q tip on the Alley
you really helped have it. Get his production together, you know,
especially the drums and drums on this album and the
snaires they like they're sharp, especially temperatures rising. It's almost
like two sharp. But again the infamous. You know it classic.
(15:38):
But how do you follow up a classic?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Right?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
You don't have a sophomore slum because your first album
wasn't that great.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
But now Small Deep they're known, you follow it up
with another classic.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Hell on Earth dropped Wind the Hell on Earth drop
nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Next year, two classics in a row. You see what
I'm talking about again, Juvenile Hell, even though it had
some joints for the time, it was kind of misplaced
because hip hop East Coat hip hop was shifting. Mob
Deep was like, we're shifting too, and they dropped The
(16:20):
Infamous and then Hell on Earth. Hell on Earth was
an album that I.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Wasn't able to get right away because I was in college.
And excuse me, when I was in college, you know,
that took away my like almost like weekly trip to
the record store because I was doing all these things
and you know, either you was taking a bus to
(16:47):
a mall or getting a ride, or if there was
a record store around, I don't know if they had
it or their prices were high.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
It was just all these things.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
So I was listening, you know, I was in hustle
and from other people and getting copies, and I remember
when my sister bought the CD and that was the
first time I gave it like a really good listen.
What makes this album a classic is everything the Tupac
Shots Rest in Peace, Tupac Prodigy, but Prodigy would drop
(17:20):
a gem on them. I had the whole New York
State aiming at your base, which you think you can't
get bucked again once again.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Back in the house.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Havoc on the beats, This is like prime Havoc as
far as being a producer and prime prodigy with the
bars like so so many dope records, so many quotables
on this whole album. I don't even talk like that.
(17:53):
Talking about it gets me excited. So there are people
who love The Infamous, and I'm one of them, but
Hell on Earth was like like a really it was
like a darker version of Mob deep, like we're made.
We're no longer street soldiers. We made guys, now, Okay,
(18:13):
That's what it felt like listening to this, And havoc
sound was really refined on this album versus The Infamous,
because if I was to describe what Havoc does best
when it comes to Havoc's brand of boom back, he
made beats that sound like horror movies but they hip hop,
(18:35):
so they have a darkness to him. And you know,
you kind of you kind of like not and like yeah,
what we what we about to do?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
And one of those records for me is like Godfather
Part three, Like it's called Godfather Part Part three, but
he actually sampled uh Scarface if I'm not mistaken, Yeah
for that. But again, Method Man's on here, Ray Kwan's
on here again, uh Nas and Big Nooid on give
(19:09):
it Up, fast dope songs like still Shining.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Just a really really really dope album.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
And again when you hear cats talk about the nineties
and get excited because it was such a time where.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Beats, rhyms rollouts, you know, even collaboration, everything was competitive
and everybody was sharp lyrically. It was a special time
and Mob Deep dropped two classics.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Then after that they had a follow up and the
tease to this well, for me personally, the situation with
this album, which was their fourth album, Murder Music, was
that you had heard that Prodigy was going solo first,
and on one of the mixtapes, or probably several mixtapes,
(20:09):
there was a song put out called quiet Storm and
it was only Prodigy rapping. When I tell you, I
know people love keep it thorough, But the original quiet
Storm is the one that hands down, that's the one
that's that's peak Prodigy.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Doing what he does.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
When you open a record that says I put my
lifetime in between the papers lines. I mean that in
itself was like, oh oh, this isn't just shooting on
the block. This is a man reflecting off of two classics.
(20:52):
So Murder Music, which dropped in nineteen ninety nine, So
they waited three years for this one because again it
felt like there was a Prodigy solo coming. But what
changed it, I think was the fact that that record
was so dope. That beat sampling White Lines from I
(21:15):
was gonna say, funk Masterflex Grandmaster Flash of the series
five white Lines, sampling it in a way again have
it with the dark, thoughtful, dangerous sounding beats, and then
the remix with Little Kim just brought it home and
it became a mole deep album. And I'm telling the
(21:37):
story like I know that's what happened, but that's how
it unfolded for me. So Murder Music not a classic
to me, but infamous.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I like it a lot. If someone said they had
three classics in.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
The row, I would not argue to you, because I
think people love Hell on Earth so much that they
discount what's on Murder Music, And I think it has
to do with a pattern you're gonna see starting with
murder music of Mob Deep seeing commercial success on a
(22:15):
real level, right like Shook One's Part two was a
club banger. A couple of their records were club bangers,
but Quiet Storm Remix.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Was a club banger, but a couple of standout joints.
What's your Poison?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
This was the first time when I was like, oh, Cormega,
I see why they That's what cor Mega could spit.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
He got busy on that record. But then there are.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Other records that probably drove some people crazy and this
is why they don't like them.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
But I thought most of it was cool.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Chinky's on the album eight Balls, on the album from
a Ball and MJG.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Not to say that they're not good.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I think there were just a lot of Mob fans
who are accustomed to them collaborating with certain emces. I
know some people are so thirsty to say, oh, just
New York MCEs. Obviously Mob Deep didn't having a discrimination
because of who they worked with, but I think some
people were just used to the Wu Tang collaborations, the
(23:23):
Queens Braids collaborations. The Queens like all of that, and
Mob Deep was spreading their wings because around this time
nineteen ninety nine, the game had changed drastically.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
From nineteen ninety six, it was a.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Bad boy done ruled with the dancing and the shiny suits.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Rockefeller was following suit like.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
It was like, you either got bangers for the clubs
or you don't. And I think this was their attempt
to do so. But I wasn't mad at most of it. Again,
Ray Kwan's on this album again, Chinky's on here twice.
That did that did surprise me? On a joint called
thug music. I like thug music. I like the beat,
(24:09):
I hate the hook.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Probably well.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
NAS's on here obviously, Little Kim, But one of the
best features of.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
All time on here is Kuji rap on the Realists.
If you haven't heard that ever, please go do yourself
a favor and go listen. You want to talk about
a dude who.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Is timeless, who is the father of Coke lap, It's
Cougie rap. Okay, uh So, moving on from that because
we don't want to spend too much time here to
an album that released two years later, Infamy and I'm
not gonna hold y'all. I'm not gonna hold y'all, but
(24:54):
this one is lift you off your feet like ski lifts?
Who am I kid? And this one is I'm gonna
start punching in their face just for living Now. I
know what you're saying, right, because I like them too.
I know what you're saying. I could point out Getaway
was a very dope record. Oh by the way, in
(25:15):
between this time, I believe Murder Music. Starting with Murder
Music Alchemists was like an official member of Mob Deep
producing beats and get Away was one of his, along
with the joint with Kuji Rap on Murder Music The Realists.
(25:36):
But I liked Getaway right. I liked the learning with
Big Noid. I thought that was dope. There were other
records I liked on here, but guess what infamy is
the album one they took that we have to make
(25:59):
club record. Its way too far considering the amount of
albums that had dropped before then that established the sound.
And I think this was where Mob Deep shifting backfire, right,
because remember with Juvenile Hell, they was like this ain't
(26:23):
really it, let's switch and then they dropped two classes
and a great album after that.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
That's three.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
That's three joints, you know, to basically let's put it
this way. You like three and one in the nineties,
and now it's the two thousands, and all these things
have happened. Pop Shot and killed Big Shot and killed
other rappers emerging like DMX again, Rockefeller, Eminem and fifty
cent and all of them around the corner. You know,
(26:51):
they're not dead there yet, but they around the corner.
So Mob Deep being teenagers in ninety three or like
you know, okay, well we're established.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
But the other thing that happened, and.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
This album didn't help, was that jay Z said I'll
kill you, I'll crush you.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
What do he say, I'll crush you? Mother ants with
a sledgehammer, and.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
He was talking about Mom Deep and he put Prodigy
up on a Summer Jam screen. He said, you was
a ballerina. I got the pictures that seen you at
Summer Jam. People went crazy. It wasn't a ballerina.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
He obviously was in a dance studio his I think
his grandmother owned the dance studio. But it worked because quite.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Honestly, jay Z wasn't jay Z when he was a
kid either, like just because you dancing, like come on, man, But.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
At the time he was a Ballerina. We were like, oh,
and what made it worse was this album should have
been hardcore mob deep, and it was trying to be
two step mob deep, and the records weren't hitting that.
(28:09):
Mob Deep's club hits were always the joints.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
That were like the hardcore songs also, you know, but
it was a different time where some of that stuff
wasn't flying, you know, like christ Stone remix with Little
Kin was lightning in a bottle and this song had
I mean, this album had joints, right, like some people
like that joint with one twelve.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I think it's cool.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I think that's the only thing they should have made
like that because everything else kind of sound corny. And
then jay Z tried to make them look corny. And
what made it extra worse was we were used to
a certain level of rapping from Prodigy, and I was
waiting for the Prodigy response again on a Hell on Earth,
(28:59):
his response to had me like, whoa, this is a response.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
His response to jay Z on Infamy was like, I
peel that fruit.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
It just wasn't it, man, An album wasn't it. So
that's why it happened the way it happened. But then
after that I believe now I don't know, to be honest,
but oh okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Don't forget
(29:34):
to subscribe. If you like comment, let us know what
you think about all these albums, the rankings, current rankings
that we're having here.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Put your rankings in the comment section. I want to
check them out.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
But America's Nightmare dropped and I'm not gonna hold y'all
when it dropped again?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
What year was that?
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Two thousand and four, right, so a couple of years
after Infamy. At the time, I didn't really get to
hear the album. And again, I'm not trying to be
no hip hop snob, but I feel like a lot
of when a lot of my favorites had great albums
(30:13):
early on, I'm talking about even if you had a
handful of them, if a decade is probably passed, I
don't know if I'm checking for you in the same
ways now i'm checking for you. I'm just not like, mom,
let me go get it. Because Infamy left a bad
taste in my mouth. I was like, why would they
(30:35):
do that? America's Nightmare? I had to listen to it
in its entirety, probably maybe a decade ago for something else,
and I was like, it's not bad. This was a comeback.
So mbab America's Nightmare is a good album. It was
(30:57):
mob deep course correcting once again. Now they didn't course
correct into a classic, but it felt like what they do,
what they should be releasing. And I and I loved
a lot about it, Like winn a loss on head,
(31:19):
Come on, man, that record is dope. Another record I like.
That is the type of club banger I'm talking about.
It's got it twisted, That's what I'm talking about. My
d having verse on there. Crazy catch me in the
(31:42):
club with a double a benger. I'm the wrong one
with now I know the promoter. I'm in with the musket,
something weed and a pound of Dutchess high to the
coton mouth.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Make the wrong move and gass is that.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
I'll mash you out. Have it got busy on that record,
I'm telling y'all. But again, there's a couple of joints
on here, like I like on the Run and like
we up real n words flood the block like I like.
(32:21):
I even like the Nate Dogg feature on here. But
now I don't like real gangsters with Little John. They
don't have nothing to do with Little John. But at
some point it was like Little John must have moved.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Into Queensbridge because between this and the Brave Heart song,
and I think the Brave Heart song with Little John
was a hit, it was just like, nah, man, why
are we doing this? Like while we doing this.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Collaborate with somebody who fits your style, so it sounds
like it works. But then also they did a guy
that twisted rebix with Twist, and that's dope. So that's
what I mean. Take the collaborations that work. Forget about
where people are from and all that stuff. If you
hear the music and you like YO, that mixes Mob
(33:08):
deeped and cool, all right, So there you have it.
I think America's nightmare is MLBB. And I know a
couple of Mob fans who never even got to that one,
and I was one of them at one point.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
All right, two more so at this point I'm assuming
either Mob Deep's.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Contract was up or they got dropped. I don't know.
Leave the comments in the comments section below. But in
between looking for a new deal, and they've talked about
this in interviews. Before they got to G Unit, they
put out a project called Free Agents and I'm not
gonna hold you man.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
This is infamous.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
The album consists of I guess, a couple of Lucy's
it's a it was a double CD also, but a
couple of you know records that they had on the
cutting room floor, probably some new joints they made specifically
for this, and then a bunch of freestyles over their
old beats.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
And it's just really good.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
It's just really dope because it's like a side mission
from their album releases.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
And sometimes side missions with artists don't be a good idea.
Sometimes it's a terrible idea. But with Mob Deep, it
fits right in line with what you expected from them,
especially when it came to infamy, right, Infamy was a disappointment,
like crazy, And again I said it before. Of course
(34:35):
there's joints on end some all times joints on end,
but it's like it's like a roller coaster, you know
it is it just hiss.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
So there you have it. And then finally Mob Deep
got a deal, got some money. You know what I'm saying.
Fifty cent took care of them. Fifty cent was hot
at the time. Quick did I even say yes? In
two thousand and four, I believe Free Agents was two
(35:05):
thousand and five, But in two thousand and six, Mob
Deep dropped their Gen Unit album and what I consider
their final album because there's been mixtapes and lost and
founds and hits and misses and stuff like that. But
Blood Money dropped on G Unit Records.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I was hyped because I.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Just assumed, like, y'o, this is going to be crazy
because fifty know what Mob Deep is and he's not
going to try to change them, but he kind of did.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Now had me out. This album to me is that Mobbi.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
But the reason why it can't get any higher and
it's kind of stuck there is because with the records
that are on this album, there's so many that are
so but it feels like Mob Deep did not belong
with G Unit or Gen Unit Records because the influence
(36:09):
is heavy. It felt like the majority of the beats
were beats.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
That you know, Fifty and.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Banks and all of them were rapping over which were
dope beats because they knew how to pick beats. But
it wasn't Mob Deep. You know how I described Havoc's
production earlier. It wasn't enough of that. Now they did
have a record when it because it was one of
the first records I heard put them in their place
where I was like, yeah, it's Mob Deep. But when
(36:40):
the album dropped the G Unit feature. First of all,
fifty is on one, two, three, four, five songs, five
songs with fifty on it. Then Young Buckets on a
song that's only trash too give it to me, and
that doesn't everything we know now that whatever. Lloyd Banks
(37:06):
is on the record, but you know, Banks could could rap,
and he sounded like he would be on a g
and the joint again Tony yayo, that song wasn't bad.
And even in some of the fifty joints, like I
love Pearly Gates, the infamous, I think that's the record
where fifty got busy. Like then there's you know, Mary J.
Blige is on here, but that's not the biggest issue.
(37:29):
Nate Dogg's on here. I kind of don't like that record.
And then again, uh, really it's an album that's my
And this is the other thing.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I know. It's real quick.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
It felt like previously Mob Deep records, the majority of
time almost always started with Prodigy rapping first and at
some point, and I didn't go back to the albums
to see if I would catch that past, but I
think it was there on some of those later albums
(38:03):
where Havoc was going first. Now to me, Haavoc got better.
He was better than Prodigy at some point as an
MC on these albums, right, it was like Prodigy lyrically peaked,
like after Murder Music, and then Havoc took over for
(38:24):
the other albums as the lead MC.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
I told you that verse on God It Twisted is crazy.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
But on this album it just felt like they didn't
belong over there. It felt like g Unit was a
thing that was happening and it had a specific sound
and even some of the hooks or like if you
take Havoc's voice out and you put Fifty's voice in there,
it sounds like gen Unit stuff. And I like g UNIT,
(38:53):
but I like g Unit for g Unit. Mob Deep
is different Mob Deep syncred.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Okay. So there you have it.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
That is my ranking, just to recap. When it comes
to the classic section of Doune Language, their sophomore album,
The Infamous, their third album Hell on Earth, hands down
to me classics. Great albums from Mob Deep's collection that
(39:22):
I rate Infamous, Murder Music and The Double CD mixtape
kind of sort of free Agents.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
Then two good albums in the catalog MBB.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
That's the category, America's Nightmare and Blood Money. Regardless of
everything I said, the majority of is dope just doesn't
give you those Mob Deep vibes that you're accustomed to
on the previous albums. Juvenile Hell Mob Deep's actual first album,
(39:56):
It's not great. Probably got three or four decent songs
for the time, but you had to be there. You
listen to those songs. Now, after listening to all those
other albums, you're gonna be like, who is this? But
if you were there, you'd be like, nah, I remember
when they used to rap like that.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
And lastly, Infamy right ironically in for Me, an.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Album that I was anticipating and it wound up being
the exact opposite of what I.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Thought it was gonna be. And the song Burned was
like Food's gold, Like you know what I'm saying, Like
they were tricking you, because when you're I heard burn
I'm like they back then I started hearing other records
like what's this? So there you have it. That's my
ranking again. Leave your comments in a convers section below.
Leave your album ranking below It's about sharing our thoughts.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
So share your thoughts, hit the like button, subscribe button,
follow me on social media at Vegas.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Wheld, I and C.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
And most importantly, know this, When you hit that share button,
share it with people you know would enjoy this kind
of content. Until next time, y'all. I'm not a critic,
I'm a fan. Peace y'all can continue on
Welcome to Jipop Now. Potts.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
If you from the future, you know what you do,
show as out of my back life, so disrespect.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
To leg like hip hop is say to today, Let's
get right into the business. What up, y'all?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I am your host Vegas and this it's hip Hop
Now Podcasts, another podcast specifically designed to keep you called
out on all things hip hop, music and culture that
happened throughout the week. And today we have a special show.
You know, it's a bonus episode like we do. It's
another ranking, y'all, another ranking of albums, a tear list,
(00:46):
if you will. I've done a number of these over
the course of a couple of years. So if there's
albums missing from some of those videos, just know they
were done a while back. And you can ask me
in the comment section what I think about newer albums.
But I've done Tearless, ghost Face, Ray Kwan, Daylon Soul,
(01:06):
eminem Snoop Dogg, Nas and jay Z, Common, Redman and
Method Men, Smith and Wesson recently. But today we are
going to go over and cover one of the greatest
hip hop groups of all time. Debate your mama. I
didn't say the greatest, I just said, one of the
(01:29):
greatest can't really be denied. But I'm talking about mobb
Azy DC mob Deep straight out of Queen's Bridge Man.
Definitely one of my favorite groups. Might be top five
for me. But I'll explain a little bit later why
(01:50):
I sound shaky on that.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Shaky on that.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Not that they shouldn't be, not that they shouldn't be
in your top five, It's just that, you know what
these tear lists are, these rankings that I do. I
don't just go and gather all the album covers and
hop in here and try to go off for memory
and what I think and what I like and all
of that. I go back and listen to all of
the albums. So yes, I started at the first album,
(02:15):
Juvenile Hell, all the way up to what I believe
was their last official album on Gen Unit Records. So
we're going to talk about all that good stuff. But
what I need you to do is just to know,
just to know that you can subscribe to this podcast.
Whether you listening audio form on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Or you're right here on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Hit that subscribe button because it helps, that like button,
because that definitely helps.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Comment.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I try to read all the comments and try to
engage everybody. But you know, sometimes brother be busy, and
you know, things are kind of busy, and that's a
good thing. You know, progress we should say productive, I
should say progress making progress while being productive.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
There you go. But also, if you see on the ticker.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Right here on the video Hip Hop Now podcast YouTube
channel has officially set up memberships, that's right.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That means you.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Whether you are somebody who supported back in the day
on Patreon or you saw the.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Cash happy hey you go bether whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Again, I cannot stress this enough when it comes to
me in this content, I don't eat off of this.
I don't make any money. It's not really monetized. You know,
YouTube didn't stop. But nevertheless, over the course of the
years of this podcast, all the proceeds have gone back
(03:51):
into the podcast to improve upon it, from lights to
microphones to software. Sometimes let's just say you are the
only one given five dollars a month. Your five dollars
goes towards promoting this podcast on Instagram, on Facebook, and
(04:12):
I'm talking about via ads, not me posting. So all
of those things add up. They help the podcast grow.
So if you would like to become a member, there
are perks to being a member, access to exclusive content,
access to videos early.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I have some things up my sleeve, come a little
bit later, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
So those people who really are engaged with this content
and would like to hear, you know, my thoughts, or
hear from my guests, or hear the topics, whatever it
may be, this is your opportunity. So the link to
find out all about memberships right here on the channel,
including super chats when I do live streams. The link
(04:55):
will be in the description of this episode, and I
think I'm also going to pinn the link going forward
in the comment section right at the very top. So,
without further ado, let's get right into this now. Looking
at the screen, you see what it is. You see
(05:16):
what it is. Looking at the screen.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Hold up.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I need to change some things because I didn't I
didn't really do this correctly when I set up this podcast.
So you're about to get a little bit of behind
the scenes work.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Going on here a little bit. Let's let's let's do
this right. Let's do this proper right.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
So we're keeping the logo, but also we want to
add an official background, and I just happen to have
one that may work properly for y'all. You know, fans
of Mob Deep, leave your comments in a comment section below.
You know what it is that kind of does a
(06:01):
little bit of justice. But maybe we changed the logo too,
just to keep it abuck, you know, let's just keep
it a buck to change the logo. But did the logo?
Oh we didn't change yet. Boom, there we go. I
don't think that looks better.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Okay, so let's just go back to the way we
had it. Okay, but you saw the thumb now, so.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Again phantom mob Deep, leave your favorite records who you
prefer out the crew? You feel Mob Deep top ten
on time your favorite albums because we're getting ready to
talk about it and not doing a bunch of mixtapes
inside joints. The only one that I'm choosing to include
(06:46):
in their catalog is Free Agents because it was an
album that dropped when I think, what were they a
loud basically in between their deals. But we'll talk about
the album and definitely why I consider it a part
of this lineas but let's start with Mob Deep's actual Well,
(07:09):
first of all, what am I doing? Man, I'm messing up? Okay,
you seeing the categories I gotta explain this to people
because they don't know. So we going from the top
being the greatest to whack. But because we're doing the
tail list for Mob Deep, we had to give them
different themes. Right, we're not putting goat and all that
(07:30):
hot and mid and all. We ain't putting that trash there.
This is how we're going to do it. A great album,
a goat album, a classic. You speaking the thumb language,
Philly done.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
A great album? How about that?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
A great album, not a classic, but a great album, infamous?
How about that? A good album? And nothing wrong with
a good album. You know, some good, some bad on there,
but overall it's a good album.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Mobb. That's what we're going with that category.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Now we start to get to the point where it's like,
it's cool, but I really don't like it, not that much.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
It's a couple of joints, it's three joints, but I.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Really don't like it. Lift you off your feet like
ski lifts. Okay, that's that category. In the last category,
you don't want to be there because that just means
it's trash. But in the essence of the thumb language,
start punching ninjas in their face just for living, y'all
could continue on Rest in Peace Prodigy. So there you
(08:34):
have it. Those are categories from Hies the Lowest, and
we're going to start with mob Leg's actual debut album
entitled Juvenile Hell.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
When this album was released, yo, they were.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Kids, they were teenagers, and on this album you could
hear it. And one thing I'd like to point out
is the fact that the sound of the music is
nothing like the Infamous, nothing like anything infamous and forward,
and that has a lot to do with the times
(09:10):
right like around those times in hip hop. Let me
make sure I officially get the date going right here
on my phone, because I definitely don't want to miss
quote anything.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Real quick.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yes, I listened to Juvenile Hell in its entirety. I
also bought the cassette back in the days, which is
also crazy because I don't remember doing that, but I
think I bought the cassette for Juvenile Hell after Infamous
because I thought they were so dope that I was like, man,
I must have missed something. Naw, I didn't miss anything.
(09:50):
Juvenile Hell dropped in.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Nineteen ninety three East Coast nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Three, versus when Infamous came out nineteen ninety five to
totally different worlds Right ninety three. Sure, Mob Deep is
dropping this album, but trip called Quest is on their
second album, I mean not the second album, the third album,
Midnight Marauders, dropping the same day as Wu Tang's debut
group album. But the vibe on the East Coast was
(10:19):
kind of rapping like this, like the songs I like,
like the peer Pressure remix, Large Professor remix, like they
rapping like you gotta deal with the pressure, Gotta got
the deal with the pressure, gotta got it. It was
it was the early nineties yard everybody was like routine
and yeah it wasn't wasn't that great. But don't get
(10:43):
me wrong, this album had a couple of joints on head,
like hit It from the Back was cool, locked up
a Sparford. Peer Pressure, like I said, hold Down the
Fort was cool also, But in general at that time,
there was just something about this album that wasn't good enough.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So juvenile. Hell I lift you off your feet like
ski lists, don't play with me. Okay, shorty, y'all too young, Okay,
it was too young for the game.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
And I've said this on my podcast numerous times. That
shout out to w NYC where I used.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
To work public radio.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
If you don't know, they, w w n y C
Studios produced a podcast about Prodigy and the backdrop was
about his health and living with sickle cell, but also
they were telling his story and they had a lot
of archive interviews and things like that from him. And
(11:52):
one thing he said about the transition from their debut
Juvenile Hell to their more album The Infamous, was that
they made the record they made it reflected the times,
but they didn't understand why it wasn't catching on in
a way they thought it should. And then in nineteen
(12:15):
ninety four they heard Ellmatic and they heard Nods and
it was like, I see what we did wrong. So
you come to their sophomore album, The Infamous, and this
is the thumb language. You already knew, classic classic material,
front to back, not one skip whatsoever, not on this one,
(12:38):
not on this one, and you hear it. You hear
the difference. Not only are they a little bit older, right,
one album releasing in ninety three, the other one in
nineteen ninety five, but you hear the growth. Some people
don't grow in ten twenty years. Jim Jones did I
say that some people don't. Some people don't look to
(13:03):
grow and adapt. Well, let me take that back, Jim
Jim Jones has improved as MC. But we you know
what I mean, not Jimmy, y'all, y'all know what I mean.
But I just look at it like it was so remarkable.
It wasn't even like it was the same group, because
I remember mobdep when they dropped Juvenile Held, But when
(13:28):
they dropped The Infamous, I didn't realize it was the
same young cats like at first, because I didn't their
name didn't resonate because that first album didn't really do
anything for me. So it was just like, oh, you know,
another typical nineties you know, you know, they had low haircutts,
(13:48):
almost like ball heads and all that. ONX remember ONX
was hot around ninety three ish and all of that.
So it was unremarkable to me though they were songs
I kind of like, but it was whatever.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
But when The.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Infamous dropped, forget about it, forget about a complete classic,
y'all know the record Survival of the Fittest Shook one's
part two. Everybody knows that give Up the Goods. Temperatures
Rising is one of my favorite. I Love that Joint,
Give Up the Goods featuring Big Noise. Big Noid had
(14:25):
excellent performances on this album throughout Right Back at You
with ghost Face and Ray Kwan. Remember the WU was
just out not that long ago. Now here they are
on this album. One of the greatest posse cuts of
all time. I four and I Your Beef is Mine
(14:46):
Dope track Mob Deep spits Nas probably has the standout
performance a drug Dealer's dream Stash cream Keys on the
Triple Bean Fire under this sl Green ninety five Nickel
Glen Condominium Dove dressed like a gentleman tailor made Ostrich
(15:08):
for Chanel.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
For my women friend. It's been a while, but.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Just an excellent album and Q tip on the Alley
you really helped have it. Get his production together, you know,
especially the drums and drums on this album and the
snaires they like they're sharp, especially temperatures rising. It's almost
like two sharp. But again the infamous. You know it classic.
(15:38):
But how do you follow up a classic?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Right?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
You don't have a sophomore slum because your first album
wasn't that great.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
But now Small Deep they're known, you follow it up
with another classic.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Hell on Earth dropped Wind the Hell on Earth drop
nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Next year, two classics in a row. You see what
I'm talking about again, Juvenile Hell, even though it had
some joints for the time, it was kind of misplaced
because hip hop East Coat hip hop was shifting. Mob
Deep was like, we're shifting too, and they dropped The
(16:20):
Infamous and then Hell on Earth. Hell on Earth was
an album that I.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Wasn't able to get right away because I was in college.
And excuse me, when I was in college, you know,
that took away my like almost like weekly trip to
the record store because I was doing all these things
and you know, either you was taking a bus to
(16:47):
a mall or getting a ride, or if there was
a record store around, I don't know if they had
it or their prices were high.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
It was just all these things.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
So I was listening, you know, I was in hustle
and from other people and getting copies, and I remember
when my sister bought the CD and that was the
first time I gave it like a really good listen.
What makes this album a classic is everything the Tupac
Shots Rest in Peace, Tupac Prodigy, but Prodigy would drop
(17:20):
a gem on them. I had the whole New York
State aiming at your base, which you think you can't
get bucked again once again.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Back in the house.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Havoc on the beats, This is like prime Havoc as
far as being a producer and prime prodigy with the
bars like so so many dope records, so many quotables
on this whole album. I don't even talk like that.
(17:53):
Talking about it gets me excited. So there are people
who love The Infamous, and I'm one of them, but
Hell on Earth was like like a really it was
like a darker version of Mob deep, like we're made.
We're no longer street soldiers. We made guys, now, Okay,
(18:13):
That's what it felt like listening to this, And havoc
sound was really refined on this album versus The Infamous,
because if I was to describe what Havoc does best
when it comes to Havoc's brand of boom back, he
made beats that sound like horror movies but they hip hop,
(18:35):
so they have a darkness to him. And you know,
you kind of you kind of like not and like yeah,
what we what we about to do?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
And one of those records for me is like Godfather
Part three, Like it's called Godfather Part Part three, but
he actually sampled uh Scarface if I'm not mistaken, Yeah
for that. But again, Method Man's on here, Ray Kwan's
on here again, uh Nas and Big Nooid on give
(19:09):
it Up, fast dope songs like still Shining.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Just a really really really dope album.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
And again when you hear cats talk about the nineties
and get excited because it was such a time where.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Beats, rhyms rollouts, you know, even collaboration, everything was competitive
and everybody was sharp lyrically. It was a special time
and Mob Deep dropped two classics.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Then after that they had a follow up and the
tease to this well, for me personally, the situation with
this album, which was their fourth album, Murder Music, was
that you had heard that Prodigy was going solo first,
and on one of the mixtapes, or probably several mixtapes,
(20:09):
there was a song put out called quiet Storm and
it was only Prodigy rapping. When I tell you, I
know people love keep it thorough, But the original quiet
Storm is the one that hands down, that's the one
that's that's peak Prodigy.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Doing what he does.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
When you open a record that says I put my
lifetime in between the papers lines. I mean that in
itself was like, oh oh, this isn't just shooting on
the block. This is a man reflecting off of two classics.
(20:52):
So Murder Music, which dropped in nineteen ninety nine, So
they waited three years for this one because again it
felt like there was a Prodigy solo coming. But what
changed it, I think was the fact that that record
was so dope. That beat sampling White Lines from I
(21:15):
was gonna say, funk Masterflex Grandmaster Flash of the series
five white Lines, sampling it in a way again have
it with the dark, thoughtful, dangerous sounding beats, and then
the remix with Little Kim just brought it home and
it became a mole deep album. And I'm telling the
(21:37):
story like I know that's what happened, but that's how
it unfolded for me. So Murder Music not a classic
to me, but infamous.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I like it a lot. If someone said they had
three classics in.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
The row, I would not argue to you, because I
think people love Hell on Earth so much that they
discount what's on Murder Music, And I think it has
to do with a pattern you're gonna see starting with
murder music of Mob Deep seeing commercial success on a
(22:15):
real level, right like Shook One's Part two was a
club banger. A couple of their records were club bangers,
but Quiet Storm Remix.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Was a club banger, but a couple of standout joints.
What's your Poison?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
This was the first time when I was like, oh, Cormega,
I see why they That's what cor Mega could spit.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
He got busy on that record. But then there are.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Other records that probably drove some people crazy and this
is why they don't like them.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
But I thought most of it was cool.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Chinky's on the album eight Balls, on the album from
a Ball and MJG.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Not to say that they're not good.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I think there were just a lot of Mob fans
who are accustomed to them collaborating with certain emces. I
know some people are so thirsty to say, oh, just
New York MCEs. Obviously Mob Deep didn't having a discrimination
because of who they worked with, but I think some
people were just used to the Wu Tang collaborations, the
(23:23):
Queens Braids collaborations. The Queens like all of that, and
Mob Deep was spreading their wings because around this time
nineteen ninety nine, the game had changed drastically.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
From nineteen ninety six, it was a.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Bad boy done ruled with the dancing and the shiny suits.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Rockefeller was following suit like.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
It was like, you either got bangers for the clubs
or you don't. And I think this was their attempt
to do so. But I wasn't mad at most of it. Again,
Ray Kwan's on this album again, Chinky's on here twice.
That did that did surprise me? On a joint called
thug music. I like thug music. I like the beat,
(24:09):
I hate the hook.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Probably well.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
NAS's on here obviously, Little Kim, But one of the
best features of.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
All time on here is Kuji rap on the Realists.
If you haven't heard that ever, please go do yourself
a favor and go listen. You want to talk about
a dude who.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Is timeless, who is the father of Coke lap, It's
Cougie rap. Okay, uh So, moving on from that because
we don't want to spend too much time here to
an album that released two years later, Infamy and I'm
not gonna hold y'all. I'm not gonna hold y'all, but
(24:54):
this one is lift you off your feet like ski lifts?
Who am I kid? And this one is I'm gonna
start punching in their face just for living Now. I
know what you're saying, right, because I like them too.
I know what you're saying. I could point out Getaway
was a very dope record. Oh by the way, in
(25:15):
between this time, I believe Murder Music. Starting with Murder
Music Alchemists was like an official member of Mob Deep
producing beats and get Away was one of his, along
with the joint with Kuji Rap on Murder Music The Realists.
(25:36):
But I liked Getaway right. I liked the learning with
Big Noid. I thought that was dope. There were other
records I liked on here, but guess what infamy is
the album one they took that we have to make
(25:59):
club record. Its way too far considering the amount of
albums that had dropped before then that established the sound.
And I think this was where Mob Deep shifting backfire, right,
because remember with Juvenile Hell, they was like this ain't
(26:23):
really it, let's switch and then they dropped two classes
and a great album after that.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
That's three.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
That's three joints, you know, to basically let's put it
this way. You like three and one in the nineties,
and now it's the two thousands, and all these things
have happened. Pop Shot and killed Big Shot and killed
other rappers emerging like DMX again, Rockefeller, Eminem and fifty
cent and all of them around the corner. You know,
(26:51):
they're not dead there yet, but they around the corner.
So Mob Deep being teenagers in ninety three or like
you know, okay, well we're established.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
But the other thing that happened, and.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
This album didn't help, was that jay Z said I'll
kill you, I'll crush you.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
What do he say, I'll crush you? Mother ants with
a sledgehammer, and.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
He was talking about Mom Deep and he put Prodigy
up on a Summer Jam screen. He said, you was
a ballerina. I got the pictures that seen you at
Summer Jam. People went crazy. It wasn't a ballerina.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
He obviously was in a dance studio his I think
his grandmother owned the dance studio. But it worked because quite.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Honestly, jay Z wasn't jay Z when he was a
kid either, like just because you dancing, like come on, man, But.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
At the time he was a Ballerina. We were like, oh,
and what made it worse was this album should have
been hardcore mob deep, and it was trying to be
two step mob deep, and the records weren't hitting that.
(28:09):
Mob Deep's club hits were always the joints.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
That were like the hardcore songs also, you know, but
it was a different time where some of that stuff
wasn't flying, you know, like christ Stone remix with Little
Kin was lightning in a bottle and this song had
I mean, this album had joints, right, like some people
like that joint with one twelve.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I think it's cool.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I think that's the only thing they should have made
like that because everything else kind of sound corny. And
then jay Z tried to make them look corny. And
what made it extra worse was we were used to
a certain level of rapping from Prodigy, and I was
waiting for the Prodigy response again on a Hell on Earth,
(28:59):
his response to had me like, whoa, this is a response.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
His response to jay Z on Infamy was like, I
peel that fruit.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
It just wasn't it, man, An album wasn't it. So
that's why it happened the way it happened. But then
after that I believe now I don't know, to be honest,
but oh okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Don't forget
(29:34):
to subscribe. If you like comment, let us know what
you think about all these albums, the rankings, current rankings
that we're having here.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Put your rankings in the comment section. I want to
check them out.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
But America's Nightmare dropped and I'm not gonna hold y'all
when it dropped again?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
What year was that?
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Two thousand and four, right, so a couple of years
after Infamy. At the time, I didn't really get to
hear the album. And again, I'm not trying to be
no hip hop snob, but I feel like a lot
of when a lot of my favorites had great albums
(30:13):
early on, I'm talking about even if you had a
handful of them, if a decade is probably passed, I
don't know if I'm checking for you in the same
ways now i'm checking for you. I'm just not like, mom,
let me go get it. Because Infamy left a bad
taste in my mouth. I was like, why would they
(30:35):
do that? America's Nightmare? I had to listen to it
in its entirety, probably maybe a decade ago for something else,
and I was like, it's not bad. This was a comeback.
So mbab America's Nightmare is a good album. It was
(30:57):
mob deep course correcting once again. Now they didn't course
correct into a classic, but it felt like what they do,
what they should be releasing. And I and I loved
a lot about it, Like winn a loss on head,
(31:19):
Come on, man, that record is dope. Another record I like.
That is the type of club banger I'm talking about.
It's got it twisted, That's what I'm talking about. My
d having verse on there. Crazy catch me in the
(31:42):
club with a double a benger. I'm the wrong one
with now I know the promoter. I'm in with the musket,
something weed and a pound of Dutchess high to the
coton mouth.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Make the wrong move and gass is that.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
I'll mash you out. Have it got busy on that record,
I'm telling y'all. But again, there's a couple of joints
on here, like I like on the Run and like
we up real n words flood the block like I like.
(32:21):
I even like the Nate Dogg feature on here. But
now I don't like real gangsters with Little John. They
don't have nothing to do with Little John. But at
some point it was like Little John must have moved.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Into Queensbridge because between this and the Brave Heart song,
and I think the Brave Heart song with Little John
was a hit, it was just like, nah, man, why
are we doing this? Like while we doing this.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Collaborate with somebody who fits your style, so it sounds
like it works. But then also they did a guy
that twisted rebix with Twist, and that's dope. So that's
what I mean. Take the collaborations that work. Forget about
where people are from and all that stuff. If you
hear the music and you like YO, that mixes Mob
(33:08):
deeped and cool, all right, So there you have it.
I think America's nightmare is MLBB. And I know a
couple of Mob fans who never even got to that one,
and I was one of them at one point.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
All right, two more so at this point I'm assuming
either Mob Deep's.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Contract was up or they got dropped. I don't know.
Leave the comments in the comments section below. But in
between looking for a new deal, and they've talked about
this in interviews. Before they got to G Unit, they
put out a project called Free Agents and I'm not
gonna hold you man.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
This is infamous.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
The album consists of I guess, a couple of Lucy's
it's a it was a double CD also, but a
couple of you know records that they had on the
cutting room floor, probably some new joints they made specifically
for this, and then a bunch of freestyles over their
old beats.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
And it's just really good.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
It's just really dope because it's like a side mission
from their album releases.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
And sometimes side missions with artists don't be a good idea.
Sometimes it's a terrible idea. But with Mob Deep, it
fits right in line with what you expected from them,
especially when it came to infamy, right, Infamy was a disappointment,
like crazy, And again I said it before. Of course
(34:35):
there's joints on end some all times joints on end,
but it's like it's like a roller coaster, you know
it is it just hiss.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
So there you have it. And then finally Mob Deep
got a deal, got some money. You know what I'm saying.
Fifty cent took care of them. Fifty cent was hot
at the time. Quick did I even say yes? In
two thousand and four, I believe Free Agents was two
(35:05):
thousand and five, But in two thousand and six, Mob
Deep dropped their Gen Unit album and what I consider
their final album because there's been mixtapes and lost and
founds and hits and misses and stuff like that. But
Blood Money dropped on G Unit Records.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I was hyped because I.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Just assumed, like, y'o, this is going to be crazy
because fifty know what Mob Deep is and he's not
going to try to change them, but he kind of did.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Now had me out. This album to me is that Mobbi.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
But the reason why it can't get any higher and
it's kind of stuck there is because with the records
that are on this album, there's so many that are
so but it feels like Mob Deep did not belong
with G Unit or Gen Unit Records because the influence
(36:09):
is heavy. It felt like the majority of the beats
were beats.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
That you know, Fifty and.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Banks and all of them were rapping over which were
dope beats because they knew how to pick beats. But
it wasn't Mob Deep. You know how I described Havoc's
production earlier. It wasn't enough of that. Now they did
have a record when it because it was one of
the first records I heard put them in their place
where I was like, yeah, it's Mob Deep. But when
(36:40):
the album dropped the G Unit feature. First of all,
fifty is on one, two, three, four, five songs, five
songs with fifty on it. Then Young Buckets on a
song that's only trash too give it to me, and
that doesn't everything we know now that whatever. Lloyd Banks
(37:06):
is on the record, but you know, Banks could could rap,
and he sounded like he would be on a g
and the joint again Tony yayo, that song wasn't bad.
And even in some of the fifty joints, like I
love Pearly Gates, the infamous, I think that's the record
where fifty got busy. Like then there's you know, Mary J.
Blige is on here, but that's not the biggest issue.
(37:29):
Nate Dogg's on here. I kind of don't like that record.
And then again, uh, really it's an album that's my
And this is the other thing.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I know. It's real quick.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
It felt like previously Mob Deep records, the majority of
time almost always started with Prodigy rapping first and at
some point, and I didn't go back to the albums
to see if I would catch that past, but I
think it was there on some of those later albums
(38:03):
where Havoc was going first. Now to me, Haavoc got better.
He was better than Prodigy at some point as an
MC on these albums, right, it was like Prodigy lyrically peaked,
like after Murder Music, and then Havoc took over for
(38:24):
the other albums as the lead MC.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
I told you that verse on God It Twisted is crazy.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
But on this album it just felt like they didn't
belong over there. It felt like g Unit was a
thing that was happening and it had a specific sound
and even some of the hooks or like if you
take Havoc's voice out and you put Fifty's voice in there,
it sounds like gen Unit stuff. And I like g UNIT,
(38:53):
but I like g Unit for g Unit. Mob Deep
is different Mob Deep syncred.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Okay. So there you have it.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
That is my ranking, just to recap. When it comes
to the classic section of Doune Language, their sophomore album,
The Infamous, their third album Hell on Earth, hands down
to me classics. Great albums from Mob Deep's collection that
(39:22):
I rate Infamous, Murder Music and The Double CD mixtape
kind of sort of free Agents.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
Then two good albums in the catalog MBB.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
That's the category, America's Nightmare and Blood Money. Regardless of
everything I said, the majority of is dope just doesn't
give you those Mob Deep vibes that you're accustomed to
on the previous albums. Juvenile Hell Mob Deep's actual first album,
(39:56):
It's not great. Probably got three or four decent songs
for the time, but you had to be there. You
listen to those songs. Now, after listening to all those
other albums, you're gonna be like, who is this? But
if you were there, you'd be like, nah, I remember
when they used to rap like that.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
And lastly, Infamy right ironically in for Me, an.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Album that I was anticipating and it wound up being
the exact opposite of what I.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Thought it was gonna be. And the song Burned was
like Food's gold, Like you know what I'm saying, Like
they were tricking you, because when you're I heard burn
I'm like they back then I started hearing other records
like what's this? So there you have it. That's my
ranking again. Leave your comments in a convers section below.
Leave your album ranking below It's about sharing our thoughts.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
So share your thoughts, hit the like button, subscribe button,
follow me on social media at Vegas.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Wheld, I and C.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
And most importantly, know this, When you hit that share button,
share it with people you know would enjoy this kind
of content. Until next time, y'all. I'm not a critic,
I'm a fan. Peace y'all can continue on
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