In 1993, hip hop was at the height of its Golden Age. The Wu Tang Clan released Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). That same year, A Tribe Called Quest put out Midnight Marauders, and earlier that year Tupac Shakur released Strictly For My N.I.G.G.A.Z. Then came Illmatic, Nashir Jones aka Nas’ ground breaking LP and the Notorious B.I.G.’s equally influential Ready To Die. Things were also moving on the West Coast–Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre had just taken G-Funk mainstream with “Nuthin’ but a G Thang” reaching number two on the Billboards, and who can forget Souls of Mischief’s ’93 Til Infinity.
Only nineteen at the time, the duo Havoc and Prodigy of Mobb Deep were knee deep in the movement, right when hip hop was breaking into the mainstream, when gangster rap was cultivating, multiplying, feeling out its footing, they were there, making tracks with Nas, Cormega and Raekwon. Their 1993 album, Juvenile Hell, together with the rest of the 93-ers, reflected the distinctive energy moving underground hip hop culture to the forefront and getting it recognized for what it was––socio-political commentary on working class America.
But what made Mobb Deep stand out from the rest was their authenticity. The opening line of “Shook Ones Pt.II,” “I got you stuck off the realness,” is by some opinions one of the best opening lines in hip hop, and certainly codified “realness” as one of rap’s core values. Growing up in the Queensbridge projects, Mobb Deep were involved in a lot of street struggles from a young age, as fans will recall from the line, “I’m only 19 but my mind is old.” Their beats further distinguished them–dark, eerie, and soaked in that distinctive New York soul, cleverly sampling Motown artists like Willie Hutch.
Now, 20 years later, Havoc and Prodigy are looking back at their success and cataloging. They’re in the midst of a North American tour and are gearing up for an album release. The Infamous Mobb Deep, set to be released on April 1, will include their breakthrough 1995 album as well as previously unreleased tracks from the era and new tracks.
Recently, star struck and nerve-racked, I talked with Prodigy about Mobb Deep’s beginnings, what they’re doing now, and more
This interview has minimal edits, including snippets of conversation which I believe enhanced the portrayal his overall personality. See published version also by me on the Opening Ceremony Blog.
Grace Wang: You guys met at the High School of Art and Design, which Marc Jacobs and Pharoahe Monch also attended. What were you each studying or interested in?
Prodigy: Havoc was going to school for architecture and I was going to school for like designing clothes or what not. I liked this place in Queens called the Shirt Kings, and they used to make these shirts with like the cartoon characters on it with big, gold ropes on the cartoon characters, so that’s where I got the inspiration to do what I was doin at school.”
What other fashion were you into at the time? You definitely talk about clothes in some of your lyrics. In “Peer Pressure” for example, there’s the line “Buyin’ new gear, nuthin but the best / Forget Levi’s, strictly Polo and Guess.”
Yeah, we talk a lot about the fashion at the time. You know back then in the early 90s, late 80s, it was like Benetton, Nautica, Polo, some things like that. Word.
In 1993 you guys were dropped by your label Island, then picked up by Loud Records, making you label contemporaries with Wu-Tang Clan. Can you talk a bit about that transition?
Yeah I mean, when we first got signed, we was only like 15, 16. We was still kids, mentally. We wasn’t really taking the business and the you know the craft of making music serious, so that I guess had to happen to us, you know what I mean? For us to get it together, to put the reality ahead, like, yo, you gotta take this shit serious man, you can’t play with it, so word.
Is that where the line “I’m only 19 but my mind is old” came from?
I say “I’m only 19 but my mind is old,” because back when we were young kids, we was doing things that other kids wasn’t doing. You know we was involved in a lot of street situations and [had] just gone through a lot of shit. We was always hanging out with older dudes, you know, we was always with fake IDs in the club. I was like 14, 15, in adult clubs, partying with adults. That’s where that line come from.
“Shook Ones Part II” was a track that defined New York in the 90s so well. Can you tell us how it was birthed?
We at the studio in Hav’s crib in Queensbridge, and you know, it was just a regular day. I was outside with a few of the homies, and we had went upstairs to see what Hav was doin and he was working on this beat. And we was like, “Yo that shit is fire, kid!” Hav didn’t really like it too much. We had to convince him to keep it, and it ended up being “Shook Ones Part II.”
That one is everyone’s favourite, which is yours?
Um one of mine would probably be ‘Survival of the Fittest,’ from that album. I just like the beat, the beat is dope, you know it’s just real dark beat, put me in that type of mood.
Yeah the piano riff on that is very eerie it’s sick
Yeah that’s like one of my favourite beats from that album.
Where are some record stores you guys used to go to?
In Manhattan, we used to go downtown by West 4th Street. They got a bunch of old record stores down there. And then there’s a spot, like a Sanford and Son type junkyard spot in Brooklyn, that I bought a lot of records from. Real cheap records, stuff like people was just throwing away. I would go and get boxes and boxes of records; they would only charge like a dollar. There’s certain places that still got that. You just gotta know where to look.
Obviously with the Internet you have access to everything with a click of a youtube link. There are websites like Whosampled. How has your digging process changed?
Oh yeah. I mean, you can find samples on YouTube. You can go on the Internet. People still use CDs. Wherever the music is at! (laughs)
How do you distinguish between a beat you want to write rhymes to yourself, and a beat you want to collab with someone else?
Yeah I just listen to the beat and if I hear somebody’s else’s voice on it I reach out to the person or if I like the song too, and the concept of the record sound like somebody belong on it, I’ll reach out to the person you know what I mean?
Now it seems like you guys are in the process of archiving some of Mobb Deep’s past successes, what with this rerelease of The Infamous. Talk about that.
Yeah definitely. We’re independent right now, just so we can make sure we control our brand [and] control our masses. That’s how we pass it on to our kids. You gotta own the work that you did through all these years.
You say you want to pass it onto your kids. I see that Havoc has put out “The Infamous Producer Kit,” a starter kit for young producers with an USB drive of 200 signature Mobb Deep sounds used on classic recordings, a booklet of production tips and his two Beats Collection releases. Do you feel responsible, because of your successes and the reach you have, to educate young ones about music?
Yeah I mean, I don’t feel responsible to do that. I look at it like, my job is just to do my job, man, I do what I do. And hopefully what I’m doing inspires people and people can learn from it. I’m not actually doing it so that somebody can learn it, you know what I mean?
As young kids, you said seeing people like MC Shan and Roxanne Shante make it, who are from Queensbridge, was mad inspiring.
Yeah definitely, the whole juice crew.
You and the Alchemist are giving away musically are instrumentals from Albert Einstein to Send a Package. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Send a Package is a company that a friend of mine owns, and it’s a catalogue for prisoners in jail and I just understand what it’s like to be locked up and not have beats to write to, it’s kind of frustrating when you’re an artist when you’re in there you just wanna free your mind even your body’s locked up, that’s one of the things that I understood–the inmates need them beats to write to.
You have also has been collaborating with a number of new rappers like Domo Genesis from Odd Future and Action Bronson. What’s it like collaborating with new rappers?
It’s dope. I like a lot of new rappers [and] it doesn’t matter the age of the artist as long as it’s somebody I respect. And it’s been great. You know, Domo’s a dope artist and Action’s a dope artist, a lot of dope new artists out there that I’ve been working with.
How did the collab with Action Bronson happen? Was it a specific verse, track, that made you want to work with him?
Action from Queens and he work in our studio in queens a lot, and he was Alchemist homeboy and that’s how i met him we eventually hopped on some of the same beats and ended up doing songs together so its just like a natural thing.
Out of all the places in the world you guys have played, which has been the most memorable?
Probably London, just the crowd the energy, the crowd out there they really into that hard core hip hop, you know they really into Mobb Deep.
What do you think kept you guys together through all the ups and downs in the past 20 years?
It’s our love for the music we do, you know we understand the power [of] our music. And our friendship; we had good friends. And just seeing the fans, how they react to our music and we see how important it is to them so, you know, it keeps us going.”
A lot of fans will be hyped for the new tour–what can people look forward to?
Just you know that Mobb Deep shit that new music, some classic shit, we got a big show we got a lot of catalog back home, so they get to experience the whole catalog when they come to the show, live on stage!
And what about the re-release, that there’s gonna be 10 unreleased tracks from the infamous?
We went through the album masters from The Infamous and we found ten songs that we never put out, so we’re packaging it with the new album, so fans get to hear some songs that they never heard before from The Infamous album.
Grace Chi-En Wang 