As if “Verbal Intercourse” wasn’t ill enough, the Gods connected again for the little dunns incredible third LP. For some reason which I can no longer recall, I was a little disappointed with Hell On Earth in the wake of the awe-inspiring (not to mention very influential) The Infamous album. Truth be told, this was a more refined version of the same shit. The beats were sparser and darker, the raps were more paranoid and violent – the Mobb were at the top of their game. Prodigy, who can barely string two words together these days, delivered his most impressive lyrical performance outside of “Shook Ones” on the supreme mathematics that is “Apostle’s Warning”. And who can forget that “interactive” CD-ROM crap that let you pretend you were walking around the Bridge, with the secret code to unlock the song dissing Keith Murray. Good times all round.
Mobb Deep feat. Nas and Big Noyd – “Give It Up”
Mobb Deep feat. Raekwon – “Nightime Vultures”
Mobb Deep – “Apostle’s Warning”
I will always say…best verse I ever heard Prodigy spit was on Apostle’s Warning.
That beat is bananas, and dude gives a vocal performance of a lifetime.
I really enjoyed that Hell On Earth album. “Bloodsport” is still my shit. Havoc really defined his sound on that album.
They fell the fuck off though.
I was kind of disappointed with the Hell On Earth sound. Since just previously they had dropped Still Shining and Noyd’s Recognise & Realise with more of the Infamous vibe to both tracks, I was expecting an lp along those lines.
HOE was a good lp and I realise most artists stress the need to grow and evolve their sound but it didn’t touch the Infamous sound or rhymes wise.
ALSO, P’s rhymes on Infamous were criminally minded but always had parts where he expressed the futility of street life. WITH HOE and onwards he went on to never again refer to the downside of that lifestyle.
Example – QU Hectic (Infamous) – “But wildin’ ain’t the way to be living, you’re only gonna end up bloody on the floor shivering, or locked up, caught inside the beast.”
Oh yeah, obviously most people have these tracks but are you gonna be streaming from now one, rather than letting people download, Robbie?
That’s a shame, it was always nice to get tracks or mixes I never had before.
^ If you click on the Divshare logo, it’ll take you to the download page for each song. My bandwidth can’t handle all the traffic anymore.
I really dug Hell On Earth’s grimey, super minimalist production. It was Havoc making the most out of the least and I don’t think he ever hit that balance again as well as he did right here. It’s so stark and depressing. The perfect soundtrack to the fall/winter months, sitting outdoors, bundled up in a Carhart jacket, sucking in warm blunt tokes. This is my shit, dun.
It didnt sound like infamous cause Q-Tip didnt produce it…
Hey, the site’s back.
People have wondered about how much Tip actually did on the Infamous, but Still Shinin’ and Recognise & Realise had a very similar sound to the Infamous and Tip wasn’t involved with those tracks.
Didn’t Q-Tip only do a couple of tracks on the Infamous? Not the whole album.
Its funny how these brothas were the cream of the crop back of the day and now they are signed under other rappers who hold thier respective musical futures in thier hand…. Jigga>Nas, 50 Cent>Mobb Deep, Raekwon>Dr. Dre… shit is wild
T&B
I’ve always thought Hell on Earth was just about as good as The Infamous – my only complaint, ironically, is Give It Up, which I’ve never liked. Also Hell On Earth is a little one-note, you could say, everything’s so grim. The Infamous has a few upbeat moments (at least musically) – Right Back At You, Drink Away The Pain, Give Up The Goods – that kind of balance the whole thing out. You have to be in a certain kind of mood to want to listen to Hell On Earth. But for what it is, it’s almost perfect. Oh, and I’d actually say that Prodigy’s last verse on ‘Hell On Earth’ is better than his verse on Apostle’s Warning.
I agree with Drink Away The Pain and Give Up The Goods being upbeat musically, but not Right Back At You.
Maybe Temperature’s Rising instead of the last one.
Seeing as the the Keith Murray diss was mentioned (In The Long Run), I have to say that parts of P’s DJ Clue freestyle were hilarious, I’m sure it was all aimed at Murray – “Focus as klingons come left and right, faggot space n1@@az get mad and wanna fight.”
What the hell happened to his flow? Shit’s sad.
Hey Robbie, any chance of posting up that hidden track?? My PC was never able to unlock the hidden content!
I actually thought those songs like “Still Shinin'” and “Recognize & Realize” were hints of things to come. To me, they didn’t sound anything like The Infamous… it seemed like they were heading toward a different way of production w/ those two songs.
It took me a lil’ while to get into Hell On Earth, but once I did, I couldn’t stop playin’ it. This was like the completion of the change they were heading towards with the other songs they’d put out earlier that year.
But either way, yeah- these were some great days.
If nobody else does it I’ll up the hidden track and the Clue freestyle later today. BTW the track is on their recent Infamous Archives release.
Hadn’t listened to In The Long Run for a while, forgot he was dissing 2Pac as well.
Ain’t done the html thing before, 1st try:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/cbzs2q
http://www.sendspace.com/file/auo9pv
Does anyone have a version of LL’s I Shot Ya without P’s verse edited? I don’t think it exists although I’m probably wrong.
Also the Ego Trip book mentioned Nas had a verse removed from Noreaga’s I love My Life, has anyone got that?
re: ‘s verse on the I Shot Ya remix, do you mean edited as in uncensored or mean that there was a longer verse not on the official 12″?
Still Shining is my fave Mobb song that isnt Shook Ones. Even their more recent albums have a couple of tracks worth checking. Agree his flow fell off though. Him and Meth were 2 of the dopest out in 94/95 and look at em now!
Yeah I meant uncensored, if I remember right I think a few words were cut even on the 12, but I’m not sure though.
They should have made a video for Still Shining, that would’ve been the shit.
Media not working
>Prodigy, who can barely string two
>words together these days,
i may get laughed at for this, and i might be trippin’, but i like a lot of Ps flow on ‘return of the mac’. he’s clearly not the same rapper as the good ol’ days, but he’s not awful anymore, either. it’s as if he’s taken the awkward stumbling flow from the last decade and started to work with it. yeah, i feel like he’s trying again. anyone?
“ALSO, P’s rhymes on Infamous were criminally minded but always had parts where he expressed the futility of street life. WITH HOE and onwards he went on to never again refer to the downside of that lifestyle.
Example – QU Hectic (Infamous) – “But wildin’ ain’t the way to be living, you’re only gonna end up bloody on the floor shivering, or locked up, caught inside the beast.”
I agree w/ the statement above^^^In this time period P was also still heavily influenced by NOGE principals and the Supreme Mathematics.
One!
Nah, wasn’t feeling Return Of The Mac, although I know a lot of people were.
That’s just an example of how starved we are of decent hiphop that anything not totally shitty gets hyped up.
I’m waiting for Traum’s lp hoping he has something approaching Live From Hell on it (didn’t feel the recent Noyd joint he’s got on his MySpace) and I will PAY for NYOIL’s lp.
That’s about it for now. Oh yeah, I’ll purchase that recent Buckwild compilation and anything The UN drop.
There’s a mad drought going on in hiphop. The way NYOIL came out recently reminds me of Jeru’s second lp where he attacked most of the East Coast rappers of the time, just without the psedo 5% vibe Jeru was on.