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The Queensbridge duo are back with their seventh album release, entitled ‘Blood Money’. Prodigy talks to The Situation on how 50 Cent enticed them to the G-Unit camp, his opinions on religion and the gun crime debate.
Prodigy
wants you to act like the last 15 years that Mobb
Deep have been in the game never happened, because in
the words of ‘P’, “I’m about to show y’all
a whole ’nother 15 years.” With that in mind, it’s time
to announce that the revered Queensbridge duo, Mobb Deep, aka Prodigy
and Havoc, are back. This
time the veterans have left the independent route stepping into 50
Cent’s game strong, G-Unit
fold. With the release of their G-Unit debut, ‘Blood Money’,
the pair total seven album releases in an illustrious rap career, trusting
the Infamous twosome straight into the commercial spotlight.
Renowned for their hellish depiction of street life and dark-edged lyrical content, sub-shaking classics such as ‘Shook Ones Part II’, ‘Hey Luv’ and ‘Quiet Storm’ gave East Coast rap a new dimension, and gave the Queensbridge gangsta rappers notoriety from a young age. Prodigy and Havoc were mutually residing in Queens when they first met whilst both attending the prestigious Graphic Arts High School in Manhattan. Both raised in the housing projects of Queensbridge, the tough grind of urban survival was enough to inspire their gritty reality rap lyrics. During the burgeoning hardcore rap scene of the Nineties, Mobb Deep rose to prominence with the release of their debut album ‘Juvenile Hell’ in 1993 and their breakthrough album, ‘The Infamous’ in 1995. Eleven years on from that pinnacle masterpiece, Mobb Deep are still reppin’ Queensbridge under 50 Cent’s established G-Unit umbrella.
Prodigy sat down and spoke to The Situation about the new project, life in the G-Unit camp and his opinions on the gun crime debate…
How
did 50 approach you, and what was your initial reaction to his offer to
sign you?
Basically, he called us and he was like ‘I wanna sit down and have
a meeting with y’all’, so we sat down with him and he was
like ‘Yo, I wanna f*ck with y’all niggas. I wanna see Mobb
Deep at the top where they’re supposed to be, so let’s make
a deal; let’s work something out’. It’s bigger than
just a record deal; we’re in business together. We’ve got
a lot of things happening with movies, books and all kind of things, so
when he offered us all that, we were just like, sh*t, we can’t refuse
that; that’s just what we have been looking for.
What
influence did 50 Cent have on the making of the album?
He was the executive producer of the album. He sent us a lot of different
tracks to pick from; a lot of Dr Dre beats, a lotta different other beats.
Basically he was like ‘Yo, y’all just go in and do what y’all
do, man. I’m not trying to change Mobb Deep or anything. I’ll
handle the marketing and promotion and you just go in and make the album
like you always do’.
How
did you find having the G-Unit influence on the album, and what did they
bring to the album’s sound?
They have got some gangsta sh*t so we were like, yo, we definitely wanted
a song with [Young] Buck,
[Lloyd] Banks,
[Tony]Yayo
and 50, you know what I’m sayin’? We wanted to get those tracks
done on the album. We’re feeling their music, so that was cool.
We kept it simple. We didn’t try and put everybody from G-Unit on
it. The only other artist we got on the album is Mary
J. Blige; she’s the only other feature.
What
was it like having Dr Dre producing the track, ‘Nightmares?’
It was really cool man, you know what I’m saying? Just seeing him
work, seeing how he does his thing, just to know we’re working with
Dre now, it’s just incredible; you got Havoc and Dre, working together,
you know what I mean? Havoc and Dre working together? That sh*t - a rap
fan need to loose his mind when he finds that out.
The album’s regarded as your major breakthrough album, which means
you’re likely to become household names. Do you feel any added pressure
because of that?
Nah, not really. The only pressure is when you think about it for a moment,
we were like, damn! We gotta stand up next to Eminem; he makes some big
sales, you know what I’m sayin’? Dr Dre and all that, so when
you think about that for a moment, y’all be like, ‘Wow’,
but other than that, nah, there wasn’t really no pressure man. You
know, 50 made us feel comfortable and said ‘Just do what y’all
do man’, and that’s it, you know what I mean, ‘Now you’re
straight’.
There have been some mixed reactions from your hardcore fans about you
moving to G-Unit Records. What is your message to those people who doubt
you will keep your same sound and flavour?
If they are our fans and they’re saying that they’re doubting
something, I guess they’re not really our fans. Because if you’re
a fan of Mobb Deep, and you know that we’re on G-Unit now, that
means your favourite group are on a major label, getting major touring,
airplay, video play; your favourite group is going to be everywhere now,
how can you be mad at that? Anybody that’s mad ain’t a real
fan, they’re just haters, so whateva you wanna call it.
Before
G-Unit you were signed to Jive Records. What were they not offering you
that the G-Unit crew is?
They didn’t promote our album right, they didn’t put no major
money up to promote ‘Amerikaz Nightmare’, so we were like,
we have got to get the f*ck away from Jive, they don’t give a f*ck
about Mobb Deep.
How
do you guys get on with Game?
No, we don’t get along with him, game over. He f*cked up.
What
was your reason for writing from the point of view of a non-believer on
the track ‘Pearly Gates’?
The reason I wrote that like that was that I don’t agree with a
lot of this sh*t they tell us about religion and that sh*t, you know what
I mean? I’m just speaking my mind about it. Basically I’m
not an atheist; I know there is a creator. What I’m trying to say
is, who are they to tell us who the creator is? If it’s a he, or
a she, or the one, or if there is lots of them? They don’t know.
In fact, I don’t want nothing they got, no information that they’re
feeding me. They enslaved my whole culture; a whole race of people. Why
would I take any information they giving us? I don’t want nothing
they’ve got to give. The only thing I’ll take is their money,
because I don’t have a choice but to take their money. Or else I’d
be f*cked up and dead, you know what I’m sayin’? So I’ll
accept their money, with everything else they can kiss my ass or stick
it up their asses.
What
are your opinions on the death of Proof from D12, and do you think that
gun crime in the media is as big a problem as what the media makes out?
I think gun crime in the world is a big problem. It don’t got nothing
to do with hip hop. I feel sad for Proof and his family and it’s
a sad situation with what happened, you know what I’m sayin’?
As far as the gun violence in hip hop, I feel that hip hop is not the
problem; I feel the problem lies in where the guns are coming from and
all that, you know what I’m sayin’? Because they don’t
sell guns in the suburban communities, but they bring truckloads of guns
into our communities. I’ve bought guns before and the gun has come
with a ‘Vote for Bush’ sticker inside the box. All over the
streets of Queens they’re selling those guns, so you tell me what
that’s all about, you know what I’m sayin’?
What
does the future hold for Mobb Deep?
I mean, we’re just getting started. Luckily we were little kids
when we first started 15 years ago, you know what I mean? A lot of people
don’t start poppin’ until they’re like 20-something
or whatever. We were 14, 15, when we first started poppin’, you
know what I’m sayin’? So right now, we’re more mature
and we are at the point where we’ve finally got a deal where we
can do something with all this sh*t we got. So it’s like, we’re
just getting started man. You ain’t seen nothing yet!
Mobb Deep’s new album, ‘Blood Money’,
is out on G-Unit/Interscope Records now. For more information
on Mobb Deep, visit their official website at: www.mobbdeep.net.
