Mobb Deep
Interview By Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol. 8# 5
What are your thoughts on the “Infamy” album in general?
Prodigy: To put it plain and simple, it’s just straight innovative shit. The shit is mad innovative, creative. It’s like a colorful, ill painting. If I had to describe it, it’s like a colorful painting. Just mad ill joints on there, thugged out shit. We’re taking beats to new levels, we’re taking rhymes to new levels. It’s crazy.
Havoc: This album right here, I worked hard on it with the production and shit. Me and P, spittin’ them ill lyrics... it’s crazy. It’s getting crazier. It’s street shit, violent.
It’s interesting that you say this album will be innovative. This is your fifth full-length album. How do you manage to stay innovative? Haven’t you done it all already on the past albums?
Prodigy: Nah. I mean, it don’t ever stop. It’s endless. Once you tap into that, it’s over. You’ve just got to be creative. When I say that, you’ve just got to sit there and be different. You’ve gotta do things that nobody’s doing. You’ve gotta say things that nobody’s saying. You’ve gotta have a sound, a beat, that nobody has. You’ve gotta be innovative. We’ve got shit that can’t nobody produce or make.
Mobb Deep has always had a real distinctive style both in its lyrics and production. What are some of the topics you address on the “Infamy” album and how do you come up with the things you talk about?
Havoc: We’ve got a song ‘Pray for Me.’ That’s like when you go out in the streets and there’s love. We’ve got ‘Kill Or Be Killed,’ we’ve got ‘Crawlin.’ There’s various topics. It’s gangsta. It’s straight street, straight hungry shit. Basically, I’m just letting people know about the life I led and lettin’ them know they could either go this way or go that way. You’ve gotta watch your surroundings and be smart to get ahead.
Prodigy: I mean, most of it is just from real life experiences – shit that we’ve been through, are still going through or know somebody close who has been through the shit. It’s like we just try to take the reality of shit, bring it to the forefront and make people go, ‘Shit, damn, hell yeah! I’ve been going through that. Damn, hell yeah! That shit happened to me one day too.’ It’s happening shit that niggas can relate to, but at the same time it’s shit that muthafuckas are forgettin’ about. It’s things that other niggas ain’t even talkin’ about it.
Could you give me an example, maybe a song from the album that talks about real life experiences? I’m sure there are a bunch of them.
Prodigy: The whole album, man. You’ve gotta listen to the whole album and just feel it out. It’s all over.
Havoc: They’ll be able to know what I’m talking about without me saying it. And maybe they’ll have to speculate.
Is the song “Handcuffs” based on a true story, so to speak?
Prodigy: I mean, ‘Handcuffs’ is just talkin’ about a situation with chicks and certain shit that happens with the chicks. The chorus goes, ‘I’ve got the keys to them handcuffs,’ and basically what we’re saying is that we’ve got the keys to them handcuffs — handcuffs meaning when a nigga got a girl on lockdown. He’ll keep her in the house. That’s his wife. He don’t let her look at nobody, he don’t let her talk to nobody. She can’t go out, can’t do this, can’t do that. We’ve got the keys for them handcuffs. We take them kind of bitches from niggas. We can break shortie out of there. Niggas be thinkin’ they got their shorties on lock, and we’ve got them master keys. So it’s talkin’ about relationships, and that’s how relationships are. That’s how things get when you’re dealin’ with shorties and dealin’ with niggas. We’re just kickin’ reality. It’s the blunt reality of things.
Your first single from the “Infamy” album is called “Burn.” What are you talking about on that song, which features Big Noyd and Vita on the chorus?
Prodigy: On ‘Burn,’ we’re just talking about how we’re just burning niggas up with our rhyme style, our flow, our presence when we walk in a room, our jewelry, our clothing, our attitude — everything. We’re just burning niggas up. They just can’t take it.
Havoc: It’s just about getting busy. I’m getting some shit off my chest and I’m just kickin’ it.
Havoc produces the majority of the new album. What can you tell me about the production on “Infamy”?
Havoc: I did my thing. I used the MPC-3000 and all that. But the loops and the samples and the drum, that’s my specialty.
How do you manage to get that real dark sound in your production, the Mobb Deep sound?
Havoc: I go for them dark samples, records, dark drums. I go for the drums that can touch the lower soul. They can touch your inner soul. Those are the drums that I like — not just regular drums.
Your albums “The Infamous” in 1995 and “Hell on Earth” in ’96 both went gold and have each sold well over 750,000 copies. Your last album “Murda Muzik,” went platinum. And Prodigy’s solo album “H.N.I.C.,” went gold. Do you feel like you’ve changed as people with all the success you’ve had over the years?
Prodigy: Ain’t nothin’ changed. We’re the same niggas, same flesh and blood, same hands, same muthafuckin’ bodies. I ain’t changed. It’s not like I changed like a werewolf or something. I changed into a different creature. I’m the same person.
Out of your thousands of fans, most probably haven’t had the chance to meet and get to know you. How would you describe yourself as a person?
Prodigy: I’m quiet when I want to be. I’m very aware of my surroundings. I pay close attention to everything going on around me, and I’m just real laid back and cool. And that’s that. If niggas do somethin’ to offend me, I’m gonna step upfront about it. But other than that, I’m just laid back, chillin’, doin’ me.
Havoc: I’m an on-point kind of person. I’m laid back. I feel good with my people, with my inner circle. Because when you get into stuff like this, you’ve gotta be careful, baby. You’ve gotta know who’s your friends and who’s not. That should be for everybody.
The name of your new album is “Infamy,” and six years ago you released “The Infamous” album. Why is Mobb Deep infamous?
Prodigy: I mean, we got the name from just bein’ us. Just goin’ out, hangin’ out — it just came up. Infamous. That’s just how to describe us, the things we did, and how we used to just be wild and havin’ fun back in the day. We just called ourselves The Infamous ’cause we were ill like that. That’s how we looked at ourselves. We were like, ‘Fuck that. We’re The Infamous. Nobody’s fuckin’ with us.’ Now, in 2002, we’re like boom! What were we gonna name this album after ‘Murda Muzik? ’Cause ‘Murda Muzik’ was a strong-ass title. And it’s kind of hard to come behind something strong like that. We were like, ‘Yo, we’ve gotta have something powerful just like ‘Murda Muzik.’ ’ We were like ‘Infamy’ because that describes us. That’s the state of being infamous. So that’s us, that’s what the album is, that’s what we’re all about. We’re just being us. We’re doing us. ‘Infamy.’
Your last album, “Murda Muzik,” was so heavily bootlegged that you went through several different track listings before actually releasing the album. How have you managed to avoid the problem of bootlegging so far with “Infamy”?
Prodigy: We just held it tight and it didn’t get bootlegged. And it worked. The album’s about to drop in a couple weeks, so we’re good. It’s just good that nobody gets to hear nothin’ until it drops. It’s like when a nigga wants to fuck that bitch, but she don’t let you fuck her so fast. You know what I’m sayin’? She makes you wait.
When people buy the “Infamy” album, what will they hear? Is it a lot different from past Mobb Deep albums?
Prodigy: It’s just gonna be some more Mobb shit, some ill shit for a nigga to play in his car on the block or wherever he plays it at. It’s some ill shit for you to play, some ill shit for you to listen to and analyze. It’s like, ‘Yo, these niggas ain’t playin’ no games. Mobb Deep is ill. These niggas make ill beats. These niggas need to be recognized for their production and their production is retarded! Nobody’s fuckin’ with their street beats; nobody’s fuckin’ with their rhymes. These niggas are ill. They’re gonna be well-respected.’ That’s what this album is gonna make happen.
Havoc: They’re gonna look at it a little different. They’re gonna be like, ‘They talkin’ that thug love.’ I just want all my albums to do good. And I want them to go further. That’s the bottom line.
Mobb Deep represents Queens, N.Y. What does that mean to you?
Prodigy: I don’t know. It’s just a place. It don’t really mean much. It’s got a lot of history to it. Like Run-D.M.C. is from Queens, LL ... there’s a lot of rap history in Queens. But it’s really just a place. It’s definitely special to us because that’s where we were brought up. That’s all we know. But to anybody else, it’s just a regular place on the map.
Has Queens changed a lot over the years? What was it like when you were growing up there compared to how it is today?
Havoc: Growing up in Queens, it was projects like everywhere else.
Prodigy: Growing up, it was a little more wilder than it is now. Definitely. Shit used to be crazy. Now, it’s calmed down some. It still be crazy, but it’s not as crazy as before.
What was the rap scene like in Queens when you were growing up and as you entered the rap game?
Prodigy: I would say like LL, Kool G. Rap — like them. Just listening to their music and how that shit was sounding and what they were talking about and hearing the beats, I was like ‘Yeah, that’s me. That’s what I want to do.’ ’Cause I found myself repeatin’ their lyrics and everything, so I just grew up off of that shit.
Were the two of you in high school when your debut album, “Juvenile Hell,” came out April 13, 1993?
Prodigy: We dropped out of high school. That was Art & Design High School. We knew what we wanted to do. When we dropped out of school, we knew we were gonna do rap.
Mobb Deep has been together since at least 1992. Back then you were called Poetical Prophets. Why do you think you have worked so well together for so long?
Prodigy: ’Cause me and Hav was tight. We got tight in school. We had a little crew. We used to be robbin’ niggas every day, beatin’ niggas up, wildin’. We had a little team in school, a little gang and shit. So we just got tight.
What do you think of the “Juvenile Hell” album looking back to when it came out?
Havoc: I would say I was an amateur backed then. My skills hadn’t fully developed.
Could you tell me how you got the names Poetical Prophets and Mobb Deep?
Havoc: Poetical Prophets, we were in high school — freshmen, sophomores, whatever. And at the time, we were like, ‘Fuck that. We’re prophets, we’re poetical, we’re ill.’ We just came up with that name. We were young and shit. But then after we did our first album and we started on the second one, we were like, ‘Yo, we need to do this and call out how it is. We roll deep and we’re all tight together.’ So that’s how we became Mobb Deep. We never released nothing under Poetical Prophets.
What were your earliest concerts like?
Prodigy: Crazy. A lot of alcohol, fights. They were in small, little ghetto hole in the walls. We played all over the place in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, other states — in Connecticut, everywhere. We played in little sweat boxes. (Since then), we’ve done major tours with Limp Bizkit and all that — 20,000 people a night. But when we sort of came up, we were doing the little sweat boxes. We still do the little sweat boxes and shit. We shot love to the hood because in the hood all they’ve got are those little, tiny-ass clubs. They don’t got nothin’ major. So you’ve got to go in there and show love to them niggas. We’ll tear it down. But we used to be buggin’ back in those days. Just a lot of drinkin’, drug usin’, a lot of adolescent shit happenin’.
Do you think your involvement in music kept you out of trouble?
Havoc: Oh, definitely. This has given me something to do, something I like at the same time. I got into music early, before I could get into any real trouble. I got arrested here and there, but I was lucky. I could have been doing some serious time for the shit, but I stuck with the music. I started rapping when I was like 15, 14. I just remember music since I was a baby. My pops, he was a deejay. So I used to go to sleep around music ever since I was 2.
Do you ever look back and feel thankful for your success or even for the fact that you’re alive?
Prodigy: Yeah. Hell yeah. All the time. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m gonna make it, or how far we’re gonna make it. All we’ve got to do is just keep going.
I know, at least for Havoc, Large Professor and DJ Premier had a huge influence production-wise. What did you learn from them?
Havoc: When they were making beats and shit, I was looking at their music like ‘This music is ill.’ When I had a chance to work with Premo, I was just looking at him and checking him out. I looked at how he was making beats and he was ill. Large Professor, he’s a fucking genius. So being around them, of course you’re gonna pick shit up. I just learned a lot from both of them.
Back when you released the song “Shook Ones, Pt. II” as the single off “The Infamous” album, did you expect that it would be such a big hit?
Prodigy: That right there was just like redemption, because we got dropped. And that was our way of proving ourselves to the world like ‘Are you crazy? We’re fuckin’ Mobb Deep. We’ll sell fuckin’ millions of these records. You niggas are gonna like us. You’ve got no choice.’ That’s what it was like.
Do you feel like you've been getting better with each album you’ve put out?
Prodigy: Once we settled in, once we sold the amount of units of records that we wanted to sell, we said ‘All right, cool. We’ve got these niggas’ attention.’ Then we just went even harder to really show these niggas. We were like, ‘Yeah, now we’ve got their attention. But a lot of these niggas are sleepin’. Let’s show these niggas even more.’ So that’s what we started doing. We made ‘Murda Muzik’ and we gave them a little more. And now we’ve got ‘Infamy’ and we’re giving them even more. We’re really takin’ it to the extreme.
Mobb Deep has gained the respect of fans and artists who represent straight hip-hop and gangsta rap alike. How have you managed to gain universal acceptance?
Prodigy: It’s mainly because we come from the streets. We did. That was us — the streets. So everything we talk about, niggas from the streets can tell that ‘Mobb Deep, they’re kickin’ that real shit. They really know what the fuck they’re talkin’ about.’ Because the things we’re saying, you can’t know it unless you’ve been through it. That’s what makes us stand out too.
You’ve had guest producers on your albums in the past. On “Infamy,” you have EZ-Elpee, The Alchemist and Scott Storch doing tracks. Is it tough for Havoc to step aside and have someone else produce an occasional track?
Havoc: I feel good when that happens. I don’t feel like I’m stepping aside because I’m still an artist too. I rap. I don’t care where the beats are coming from; if it’s gangsta, it’s gangsta. I feel like (the other producers) get down. Niggas put me onto them, and they get busy.
Do you have a favorite song on your new album?
Prodigy: My favorite song on the new album is probably ‘Bitches On My Back.’ That’s one of my joints. And ‘Pray for Me.’ I like two of them. Both of those songs are some real hard shit, some hardcore shit on the album. I like it because it’s so hard, it’s so straight to the point, that’s it’s invincible almost the way it’s sounding. When you listen to the rhymes, you’ll just be like, ‘God damn! These niggas ain’t playing.’ That’s all you
can say when you hear that shit. ’Cause we definitely ain’t playing. ‘Pray for Me’ is a song we did with Lil Mo. And that song is saying throughout all the trauma and shit, through all the good times and bad times and all the bullshit, we’re still out here. We’re gonna continue being everywhere — all over the streets. We’re still gonna do the little hole in the wall, little ghetto sweat boxes — the death traps. Mobb Deep is performing in all that shit. We’re gonna be everywhere. And the only thing I can say is ‘Yo, pray for me,’ because nothing can stop us from doing our job and layin’ it down. Nothing, nobody. We’re unstoppable. A bullet is gonna have to stop us. That’s the only thing — death. ’Cause nobody can stop us. We’re gonna blow up mad shows. We’re gonna blow up the streets, the hood. We’re gonna make these niggas respect us. They don’t have no choice because you can feel the soul shit in the music. You can feel it’s so real. You can feel like ‘These niggas don’t play when they do songs.’ These niggas don’t just go in the studio and say ‘What’s the fad now? Let’s talk about that. Boom, boom, boom.’ You better start sweatin’ when you hear our shit.
In addition to having the right attitude and mindset to succeed, it seems like you are very serious about putting out good albums musically. For instance, you have Ron Isley of the Isley Brothers featured on “There I Go Again” on your new album. How did that come about?
Prodigy: Because that’s what it’s all about — music. It’s not about attitude. Attitude comes along with it because that’s just natural. You’re naturally born with an attitude; every individual has their own attitude. But it’s about the music and the creativity. That’s what a lot of motherfuckers don’t have. We linked up with Ron Isley because we respect his music and we respect everything he does. We’ve got the love for that soul music. So we were like, ‘Let’s link up with Ron Isley and get him on some shit with us.’ The combination of the two ... Mobb Deep is like drugs, so some Mobb Deep shit with Ron Isley mixed together, that shit is like explosive. Shit like that, that’s how we be creative. That’s how we put our creativity down. We’re like, ‘How can we make this real ill, real special and different? All right, let’s call Ron Isley. Nobody would ever expect we’d put Ron Isley on the chorus.’ And the shit that he’s saying, you’ll be like, ‘Man, that’s Ron Isley with Mobb Deep? Oh, shit.’ It’s all about being creative. That’s how we put it down artistically — the love for rap music, the love for making beats and production. We’re extremists. That’s all.
From talking with you, it seems as though you’re just as hungry in the game as you ever were. Do you think that drive will ever go away?
Prodigy: I’ll tell you like this. I don’t feel no different. I still feel the same way as when I used to write rhymes back in the day. When I hear that beat and I’ve got that pen and pad on hand when I’m in the studio, I don’t feel no different. I don’t feel like, ‘Damn. Can I do it again? Damn, am I gonna be able to say another one?’ The thought never crosses my mind. I just do it. It’s not a game. That’s how I look at it. There’s no time to play, no jokes allowed.
Should Mobb Deep fans look forward to a Havoc solo album down the road?
Havoc: I think they should look forward to it definitely. I’m about to start on it. I’ve got tracks, but I’m gonna do some new shit and start fresh.
How do you want people to remember Mobb Deep years after you eventually retire?
Havoc: That we did our thing in this shit and we kept it real.
Prodigy: I want niggas to be like, ‘Yo, them niggas did it for a very long time. They did it so long that it was out of the ordinary.’ I want niggas to say, ‘Them niggas made some gutter shit for a long time.’ It ain’t that gutter shit, just some good quality music shit for a long time. We kept it going.
