Mobb Deep

Since the early 1990s, NYC duo Mobb Deep have been perfecting their craft and unleashing gritty street rhymes over haunting soundscapes. From Juvenile Hell, released when they were still teenagers, to their recent Murda Muzik, Prodigy and Havoc have refined the genre of East Coast "reality rap" with four albums telling of casual violence on the shady streets around the notorious Queensbridge housing projects. Just as evolutionary are their production techniques, (primarily Havoc's) that incorporate dusty records, paranoid piano loops, booming bass, and super-tight beats. Their tracks are designed to manipulate emotions, bringing fear to the listener, whether hard-rock thugs or sheltered suburbanites. If you dig straight street lyrics and sophisticated instrumentals on a higher plane, this is for you. Arguably one of the most influential groups in hip-hop today, the Mobb has many imitators, but no equal.