Thematically, Mobb Deep wasn’t touching on anything that older groups like NWA or the Geto Boys hadn’t already pioneered, but it takes a certain gravitas to convincingly sell a street persona. On “Stomp Em Out,” Prodigy rhymes how “my knuckle game brought me fame in the project hallways, / I got mad props for killing cops,” while on “Flavor for the Non Believers,” Havoc raps that “the way that I survive is pumpin’ nickels and dimes, / pumpin’ rocks on the corner, pumpin’ rocks ’cause I wanna.” This might have been unremarkable if their subject material leaned the same way as many of their young contemporaries’ work had, but Juvenile Hell wasn’t interested in radio-friendly party anthems like Kris Kross’s “Jump” or even catchy swagger tracks like Special Ed’s “I Got It Made.” Mobb Deep’s debut was proto-horrorcore, with ultra-violent lyrics and imagery Havoc even appears on the album cover slinging a reaper’s sickle.Īcross the album’s dozen-plus songs, Havoc and Prodigy seemingly try to out-boast each other’s rap sheets. Havoc and Prodigy were technically adults when Juvenile Hell came out, but they still looked and sounded like teenagers. Under other circumstances, Mobb Deep might have joined that list. While some of the aforementioned teen rap acts eked out modest discographies, none enjoyed sustained success into their 20s. For every Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson able to navigate the path from adolescent fame to adult stardom, there are far more artists, like The Sylvers’ Foster Sylvers or The Five Stairsteps’ Cubie Burke, whose careers peter out with puberty. The inherent risk of capitalizing on youth is that childhood charm doesn’t always age well. Staten Island’s Shyheim was just 14 when his debut, AKA the Rugged Child, came out in 1994. That same year, Philadelphia’s Da Youngsta’s released their first LP, Somethin 4 Da Youngsta’s, when their three members were 14, 15, and 16. In 1992, Kris Kross (two 13-year-olds from Atlanta) become a short-lived commercial sensation with their debut, Totally Krossed Out. Before Mobb Deep, Brooklyn’s Special Ed released his first album, Youngest in Charge, in 1989 when he was 16. Hip-hop of that era was no stranger to using youth as a marketing gimmick. When the group signed to 4th & B’way Records soon thereafter, they changed their name to Mobb Deep and, playing up their youth, released a 1993 debut entitled Juvenile Hell. They were profiled in Matteo “Matty C” Capoluongo’s “Unsigned Hype” column in 1991, back when they were a pair of 16-year-olds known as the Poetical Prophets. I first encountered Havoc and Prodigy via The Source, rap music’s magazine of record in the early ’90s. Along with becoming one of hip-hop’s greatest sophomore albums, The Infamous also marked an unlikely second act for Mobb Deep and a key shift in hip-hop’s evolution.
When the album first appeared, the pair - and rap music itself - were at a crossroads. But prior to that album’s success, Mobb Deep’s Kejuan “Havoc” Muchita and Albert “Prodigy” Johnson were anything but locks for the hip-hop hall of fame. The Infamous, just reissued as a special 25th-anniversary digital edition, was a legacy-making release for Mobb Deep. II” and its associated album The Infamous, Mobb Deep’s second LP, are now embraced as consensus classics from hip-hop’s “golden era” of the early/mid-1990s. II” the ultimate homage by using it in the film’s cold open, a shot of auditory adrenaline jabbed into the heart of B-Rabbit as he prepares for an MC battle.Ī quarter century later, “Shook Ones, Pt. Eminem’s hit 2002 film 8 Mile paid “Shook Ones, Pt. Its dark, discordant track and violent braggadocio powered the single onto hip-hop mix shows, and the song sparked fights in rowdier nightclubs whenever it rumbled over the speakers.
II” was as spectacular as its arrival was understated. Those early promos came with little fanfare - no cover art, no liner notes, just a plain center sticker with the group’s name, song title, and record label logo. IN THE FALL of 1994, American radio and club DJs began receiving a promotional single in the mail: “Shook Ones, Pt.