Album Review: Mobb Deep – Hell On Earth

As a self-professed Hip Hop Head, I’ve had many favourite rappers over the years. During my mid-to-late teenage years, Hip Hop was becoming a major passion of mine and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony was the first group I gravitated towards. Speed rapping was very impressive to me at the time, and Bone Thugs are some of the best to ever do it. However, in my final year of high school, Lil Wayne dropped a little album called Tha Carter III becoming the hottest rapper in the world, and I jumped STRAIGHT on the band wagon! One year later, in 2009, Eminem (who later changed his name to “Marsh”) released his comeback album Relapse, and I had never heard anything like it. The album meshed seamlessly with my rap sensibilities, specifically when it came to the extreme horrorcore elements as well as the astounding technical aspects of his rhyming.

Somewhere along the way, I came across the early solo albums of Ice Cube at which point Death Certificate became one of my favourite albums of all time. However, it was André 3000 of OutKast who snatched the title and is currently my No. 2 favourite rapper of all time. To me, 3 Stacks is like a fine wine in that he only gets better with age. Although he REFUSES to release a solo album, every guest verse he drops is an event and he almost ALWAYS outshines his host. Yet as gifted an emcee as André 3000 is, there is still one rapper who I hold above all others in the pantheon of Hip Hop. The late, great Prodigy of Mobb Deep is my favourite rapper of all time.

Prodigy embodies everything I love about the art of Hip Hop. He was the grittiest, grimiest emcee to ever grace a microphone. His street tales were so vivid and detailed that you could effortlessly visualize the pictures he was painting in every verse. Listening to a Mobb Deep album was like going on a tour through the streets of Queensbridge. He delivered threats with such menace that you could FEEL the danger. His verses were ICONIC and he was the MASTER of opening lines (“There’s a war going on outside no man is safe from….”). But above all else, every single rhyme he ever wrote felt honest and true. That was the magic of Prodigy.

Now I won’t go as far as to say that Prodigy is THE greatest rapper of all time. He is just my personal favourite. However, I could make the argument that between the years of 1995 and 1996, Prodigy WAS the greatest rapper alive. I’d be willing to make that argument because those two years saw the release of two classic Mobb Deep albums: 1995’s The Infamous, and the subject of today’s review, 1996’s Hell On Earth.

Let me provide a brief background on the album before we dive into the review. It’s 1996 and Mobb Deep are riding high off the massive success of their critically acclaimed sophomore album The Infamous. Wasting no time, they jump straight back into the studio to record their highly anticipated follow-up album Hell On Earth. Havoc decides he wants to handle all of the production duties on his own this time around, resulting in Q-Tip (who had three production credits on The Infamous) being shown the door. Nas, Raekwon and Big Noyd all returned to provide guest verses, along with the considerable addition of Method Man to the proceedings. Unfortunately, a few unwanted weed carriers managed to worm their way onto the album as well.

Despite all the success, fame and fortune they were experiencing off the back of The Infamous, Mobb Deep was unfortunately subjected to a great deal of grief and turmoil during this time. First there was a major car accident in which one of their close friends was killed. Around the same time, Havoc’s brother Killa B committed suicide. If that’s not enough, ANOTHER one of their friends was murdered by a blow to the head with a baseball bat, and to top it all off, Prodigy’s father passed away from AIDS. ALL of this happened during the recording process for Hell On Earth and that is largely reflected in the music. But with all that being said, the stage is now set and we can finally get into the review!

1. Animal Instinct (feat. Twin Gambino & Ty Nitty)

Mobb Deep waste no time here. No skits, no spoken word intros, just straight to the music. Havoc’s beat is the first thing we hear and it essentially announces to the world that Mobb Deep is not here to fuck around.  The production on “Animal Instinct” not only carries the entire song but also sets the tone for the rest of the album. Buckle yourselves in, because what you’re about to hear on Hell On Earth is 14 tracks of the most sinister, gritty New York Hip Hop you have ever heard in your life. Havoc does a fine job with the opening verse of the album, and while Prodigy’s verse is far from his best, wasting the first four bars shouting out his entire crew, he STILL comes out on top (“It's P, live and direct, stab ya neck/ Ice-pick bloodied up ya whole entire shit”). Unfortunately the track doesn’t end there, as two weed carriers – Twin Gambino and Ty Nitty – are graciously permitted to jump on the track and both fail to impress as expected (side note: Twin Gambino’s brother Scarface was the one who died in the car crash). Despite the contributions from Twin Gambino and Ty Nitty, this is a 5 star song.

2. Drop A Gem On 'Em

Havoc proves that all you need is a simple piano loop combined with some hard-hitting drums in order to create a timeless classic. The timeless classic in question, otherwise known as “Drop A Gem On ‘Em,” is one of the greatest (and most underrated) diss tracks of all time. The beef between 2Pac and Mobb Deep originated while 2Pac was still in prison on sex abuse charges in 1995. That year, “Survival Of The Fittest” was a hot song for Mobb Deep, but what’s important here is that the words “thug life” can be heard in the background during the hook. 2Pac decided to take this as a sign of disrespect because HE claimed to have originated the Thug Life movement himself. As a result, 2Pac spared a few bars at the end of his classic diss track “Hit ‘Em Up” to throw a few shots at Mobb Deep, specifically mentioning Prodigy’s sickle cell anaemia. Now Mobb Deep wasn’t about to take this whole beef lying down, and so they went straight in the booth with a vengeance and recorded the viciously wicked “Drop A Gem On ‘Em.”

Havoc is first up to bat, and he sounds pissed off from the jump (“Sick and tired, ugly fake crooks need to retire”). He gets off a few good shots at 2Pac, claiming that he’s a snitch and got raped in prison. But this here is the Prodigy show, and he’s about to demonstrate for the first time on this album why he’s one of the greatest rappers of all time. Throughout his spectacular verse, Prodigy makes it abundantly clear that he is simply NOT someone you want to go to war with, because he LIVES for that shit. He has more soldiers than you, he has bigger guns than you, and he will not hesitate for a second to use everything in his power to destroy you. Every single line he spits is quotable, but I’m particularly amused by his threat of fucking up 2Pac so brutally that he’ll need “two G's worth of stitches/ To reconstruct [his] face and learn how to speak again.”

“Drop A Gem On ‘Em” was actually the first single to be released from the album. It played on the radio for about three weeks before the tragic death of 2Pac on the 13^th of September 1996. When he died, Mobb Deep pulled the record from the radio out of respect for 2Pac and his family.

5 stars.

Havoc, Biggie & Prodigy

3. Bloodsport

This is not my favourite Havoc beat on the album as I find it slightly lacking in melody. Speaking of Havoc, I’m of the opinion that “we blowin’ niggas” is an unfortunate choice of phrasing. I can obviously see his intention, but the juvenile part of my brain wants to laugh mockingly at those lyrics, which is a shame because his verse on the whole goes quite hard. Prodigy manages to steer clear of any such innuendos while making the bold claim that “me and my man pioneered this violent nigga rap shit.” Now obviously violent gangsta rap existed prior to Mobb Deep’s arrival on the scene, but I would certainly say that they played a significant role in taking the genre to new and dizzying heights. Gotta give credit where credit is due. While “Bloodsport” is FAR from a bad song, it is not a song I return to often. 4 stars.

4. Extortion (feat. Method Man)

I like this beat more than “Bloodsport” but I still don’t LOVE it. For what the song requires though, it does the job. Prodigy’s verse is sandwiched between two shorter Havoc verses, and both rappers deliver fine performances. Prodigy begins by detailing a drive-by shooting that he orchestrated and the subsequent getaway, but it’s his colourful use of similes that serve to enrich the storytelling (”Like the motion picture, this nigga Gone With The Wind”). However, it’s the Method Man feature which truly elevates this song to 5 star status. Meth rides the beat like only Method Man can, with one of the smoothest flows in game. Method Man infamously said in an interview that halfway through writing this particular verse he “lost interest” because he was all “fucked up” from smoking blunts. Well he could have fooled me, because I love his performance on this track! 5 stars.

5. More Trife Life

As the song title suggests, this is a sequel of sorts to “Trife Life” which appeared on The Infamous but with one notable exception: Prodigy is nowhere to be seen! That’s right, this is the only solo joint on the entire album, and it belongs to Havoc. Surprisingly though, Havoc is quite the storyteller. Here’s my issue with the song though: if you’ve heard the original "Trife Life," is this song even really necessary? The message is exactly the same (“don't ever go see a bitch”), except this time Prodigy decides to sit this one out. I guess even he knows there’s no point in telling the same story twice. For the lack of Prodigy and the unoriginal story, I’m gonna give this one 4 stars.

6. Man Down (feat. Big Noyd)

Thankfully, Prodigy returns from his brief hiatus with a killer verse (“My nigga's laughin’, blood bathin', the world's greatest/ In-famous, crimes heinous/ To interfere would be dangerous/ Plain and simp', stand clear, save your strength”). With just four bars he is able to convey the ruthlessness of his crew and the futility of going up against him. He also takes another jab at Def Squad, but I’ll get back to that in a second. Havoc is up next but it’s a hard act to follow and he barely registers. Big Noyd returns from his song-stealing verse on the previous album’s “Give Up The Goods (Just Step)” and injects some life back into the proceedings. I guess Big Noyd subscribes to the American History X school of thought, and the idea that “someone else has already said it best. So if you can't top it, steal from them and go out strong,” because he straight up jacks Prodigy’s classic opening line from “Eye For A Eye (Your Beef Is Mines).”

Noyd then picks up where Prodigy left off and proceeds to throw some shade at Def Squad when he says “first of all, them tight niggas with that spaced-out shit/ I stick a rocket up in they ass and give ‘em a lift.” This whole beef with Def Squad – made up of the rappers Redman, Keith Murray and Erick Sermon – can be traced back to “The Infamous Prelude” in which Prodigy takes some subliminal shots at “all them rap-ass niggas with [their] half-assed rhymes, talking about how much [they] get high, how much weed [they] smoke, and that crazy space shit that don't even make no sense.” Although he didn’t directly name any names, it was widely assumed that Prodigy was talking about the Def Squad crew because they were known at the time for rapping about drugs and getting high. This beef eventually resulted in a physical confrontation outside a New York City nightclub where Keith Murray, surrounded by his clique, managed to single out Prodigy and give him a beat down. This beef continued on wax for many years but was eventually squashed before Prodigy’s untimely passing. ANYWAY, 5 stars!

7. Can't Get Enough Of It (feat. General G)

Havoc kicks things off with another competent verse, but it’s nothing to write home about. General G – a.k.a. Illa Ghee, another Mobb Deep weed carrier – is given a chance to make his mark on the album and squanders it like the weed carriers before him. And once again, we’re apparently “blowin’ judges in the trial.” I mean that’s certainly one way to get off (no pun intended!). But here comes Prodigy like a knight in shining armour to save this track from the clutches of mediocrity. “You overlooked the part with some unified terrorists/ Pirates, straight off the ship, and mad starvin'/ Anchored to land and now we runnin’ wild poundin'/ On imbecile niggas who ain't got they feet grounded.” So now him and his crew are fuckin’ Pirates of the Caribbean now? Only Prodigy can make that shit sound gangsta as fuck. The weed carrier brings this track down slightly but I can’t give this song anything less than 4 stars.

8. Nighttime Vultures (feat. Raekwon)

Prodigy’s verse on this track received the Hip Hop Quotable of the month from The Source Magazine, which was a highly coveted award for any rapper to receive back in the day. His performance on “Nighttime Vultures” truly demonstrates everything that makes Prodigy one of the greatest of all time. He begins with a display of incredibly vivid storytelling, painting a picture with such mastery that you feel like you’re actually there, hiding behind the wall while Prodigy is crouching next to you, popping off shots at his enemies. Halfway through the verse he transitions seamlessly into his deadly braggadocios rap style (“Durable, physically fit, raps articulate/ You get your whole skeleton cracked somethin’ ridiculous”). If someone were to ask me why Prodigy is my favourite rapper of all time, I could easily point to this verse and rest my case.

Havoc’s lyrical contribution is reduced to hook duties. He must have heard Prodigy’s verse and thought there was no point trying to follow that. Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan gives it his best shot though, slinging his signature criminology slang which admittedly can be hard to decipher, but by God does it sound good. I know he’s weaving some kind of narrative into his verse, some of which I can pick up on, but a lot of it is going over my head. His presence on the track is a welcome addition though. 5 stars.

Mobb Deep, Raekwon & Nas

9. G.O.D. Pt. III

Now here’s a big pet peeve of mine. If you’re going to have a skit that is almost a minute long on your album, PLEASE have the decency to make it its own track so I can easily SKIP IT! And if you MUST attach it to an actual song, PLEASE place it at the END of the song so I don’t have to manually fast forward just to listen to the actual MUSIC! With that being said, I guess the skit transitions nicely into the main song, which appropriately samples music from the 1983 movie Scarface starring Al Pacino. Plus, all is soon forgiven because Prodigy absolutely MURDERS this track with another verse that is jam-packed with quotables.

The message is quite clear: you do NOT want to fuck with Prodigy on ANY level, whether it be lyrically or on the streets. He will FUCK YOU UP. I mean what else can you say about a man that will “slice” you from the “back of your head to ass crack” and have you “running for dear life, so far you might fall off the map”? All you can do is “step aside, stand clear” and watch as Prodigy brings “apocalypse to this game called rap.” Havoc is left with the impossible task of following up Prodigy’s monstrous verse. The track has been officially murdered and Havoc is on clean-up duties. However, Havoc actually manages to spit a GREAT verse as well (“Body casting raps to get your back snapped in half and severed/ Impossible pain beyond measure”), yet still pales in comparison to his overshadowing partner in rhyme. 5 stars.

10. Get Dealt With

Havoc decides to follow his classic beat formula once more, placing his signature drums over a simple piano loop to create something beautiful. It works every time! We catch Prodigy up to no good, brutally torturing and ultimately murdering an unidentified victim, and every member of his squad has a role to play. In my humble opinion though, they slit the guy’s throat way too early. Amateur mistake. One thing I did want to mention is Prodigy’s adlibs of shots whizzing past an earlobe are SPOT ON. He even perfected the art of the gunshot adlib on this album! Of all the gun-related adlibs I’ve heard over the years (and I’ve heard a LOT), I would have to say that this particular one is my favourite.

Havoc delivers a solid verse, complete with card gambling metaphors and cold-blooded murder. The one line that sticks out most for me though is “that's how it is, and how it is is kinda fucked up”. You could stick that line at the end of any verse on this album and it would be a perfect summation.  Everything Prodigy and Havoc rap about on this album comes from a real place, from experiences they have had or seen or heard about, or just their general state of mind at the time. That was their life growing up in Queensbridge, and that’s fucked up, but that’s also what makes this album so powerful, as it brings you face-to-face with a reality you would never want to experience for yourself. 5 stars.

11. Hell On Earth (Front Lines)

Another piano loop over some hard hitting drums, but the production here is much more sombre in tone than the piano-driven beats we have heard previously on the album. Prodigy uses his first verse as a warm up, not to say that it isn’t still brimming with his trademark style and use of language (“Blood flood your eye, fuck up your optics”), but his best verse on this track is yet to come. Now here’s something that I would like to address before we go any further: taken out of context, every verse that Havoc writes for this album ranges from decent to good, even great at times. He is a very solid rapper in his own right. But he happens to be sharing the spotlight with an emcee who has reached the absolute zenith, the apex, the PINNACLE of his lyrical CAREER! Of course he is going to be overshadowed at every turn, and of course the only verses you are going to remember from this album will be Prodigy’s. With ALL THAT being said, Havoc was good here. But let’s talk about PRODIGY! He steps back up to the plate and knocks it right out of the park! The “Phantom of Crime Rap” has quotables for days, and as much as I would just love to post slabs of quotable lines from this closing verse, unfortunately the review is already long enough as it is. Needless to say, 5 stars.

12. Give It Up Fast (feat. Big Noyd & Nas)

Mobb Deep and Nas are a lethal combination. Throw in Big Noyd and now we’ve got ourselves a party! Havoc’s beat is cinematic, and Nas sets things off just right by weaving a narrative like only he can. Havoc makes a snitch dig his own grave and then pisses on it which is always fun. Big Noyd makes his second appearance on the album and once again something weird is going on: “This tough guy screwing me? I guess he got plans to ruin me/ He wanna do me, slowly but surely I peeked his fast ass a bit early.” One of two things is happening here, but I’m going to give Noyd the benefit of the doubt on this one. Lucky last we have Prodigy and…. “abstrusely”? He definitely learned that word the same day he recorded this song and wanted to use it in his rhymes. This verse is Prodigy at his most laid back, smoking weed, drinking cognac, surrounded by women, but he also has time to squeeze in a few hellish images (“Some rapper nigga playing thug tried to approach me/ All I remember was I shot for his throat, G/ You see big guns in 3-D, it's haunting”). I like how each rapper’s verse (with the exception of Nas) leads seamlessly from one to the other. Havoc shouts out Big Noyd before his verse, and Noyd shouts out Prodigy before his. I feel like everyone is having fun on here because they’re all happy to be on a track together, and if they’re happy, I’m happy. 5 stars.

Mobb Deep & Nas

13. Still Shinin'

We finally get a juicy soul sample from Havoc that persists throughout the entirety of the track’s running time and it’s a beauty. Prodigy uses the selling of drugs as a metaphor for selling albums and it’s quite effective (“Keeping these rap fans like crack fiends/ Until we re-up, and put more Infamous up on the rap scene/ Mix the coke rhymes with beats just like baking soda/ Albums is G-Packs selling across foreign waters”). Havoc spends his airtime devising a plan to sleep with an enemy’s wife for information in order to find and eliminate them. Finally, Prodigy reappears in order to provide the listeners with his official mission statement regarding the album: “to voice a clear picture of this life of crime.” Mission accomplished. 5 stars.

14. Apostle's Warning

So we’ve finally arrived at the final track of the album, and Havoc knows exactly what to do. He gets the hardest-hitting drums he can find, writes the shortest verse he possibly can, and then gets the fuck outta the way because Prodigy is about to tear this motherfucker down! Just like the snake metaphor that is woven throughout this one-verse wonder, every lyric he lays down on this track is LACED with venom, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll “take a toke of this deadly rare vocalist” and “let the venom soak in.” This is such a fantastic song to close out the album with as it exemplifies everything that makes Mobb Deep great: the stellar production of Havoc and the lyrical GENIUS of Prodigy. 5 stars.

Final Thoughts

If it’s not completely obvious by now, I absolutely ADORE this album. Sure, The Infamous may have had higher highs (“Shook Ones Pt. II”, “Survival Of The Fittest”) but it also had lower lows. Hell On Earth is a fantastic album from start to finish. With Havoc handling the entirety of the production on this album, Hell On Earth has a very consistent and cohesive sound. But what makes this album a truly special listening experience is the lyrical MIRACLES being performed by Prodigy on almost every single song. It was only after hearing THIS album that Prodigy cemented his place as my favourite rapper of all time. If The Infamous is the album that exposed Prodigy’s incredible potential to the world, then Hell On Earth is the album that fulfilled it. Prodigy truly was a one of a kind emcee and he is sorely missed. R.I.P. Prodigy.

Album Rating: 5 Stars