Mobb Go Deeper But Come Up Short On Firepower (Murda Musik - Mobb Deep)

Member Name: Sugar Matty O

Product:	Murda Musik - Mobb Deep
Date:	11/09/01 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Still one of hip hop's best tag teams, Where Your Heart At is a must listen - quite brilliant, Occasional glimpses of their former dead-on form

Disadvantages: Some very sloppy moments not normally associated with MD, An insistence on going 'ghetto fabulous' creeps in slyly, Just lacking that certain pazazz that made their last two LP's so storming

The long-awaited fourth album from Queensbridge's finest eventually pacified those wanting to get their teeth into hostage-taking hip hop. Havoc and Prodigy, with their familiar stance of New York gang-banging and heat-holding, instead resort for a more laid-back relaxed style of ghetto insights instead of the heavy-hitting dissin’-by-the-dozen joints that dominated their last two albums. It could have proved a disastrous move – initially it seems it is indeed murda to listen to. Fast-talkers in step back to mellow mode? Surely some mistake?

Following their less than spectacular introduction to the hip hop scene way back in 1993 with the debut LP `Juvenile Hell’, the Mobb’s ascent to the top of the game has been as rapid as the way Hav and Pee fly through their lyrics. The bass-heavy `The Infamous’ is undoubtedly an all-time great and `96’s `Hell on Earth’ took a more darker but just as productive route, both boasting killer tunes with razor-sharp lyrics over cynical doom-laden creativity that totally reflected the darkness that for them descended all too regularly over their backgrounds. Those expecting the gunshot beats akin to a `Cradle To The Grave’ or a ‘Shook Ones’ are in for a shock. The Mobb Deep of `99 are relying on subtle menace that threatens without ever really exploding into action.

As in the past with their previous long-players, the opening track has proved to set the standard for what goes after. Here, `Streets Raised Me’ with its piano keys descending down over a minimal breakbeat and female-chorus courtesy of Chinky, proves to be an inauspicious beginning. `What’s Ya Poison’ tempers this with the idiosyncratic crackling over another piano-fuelled tale of doom and gloom, although the beats are tougher and tighter and Cormega does a nice job with some fast-flowing words reminiscent of Prodigy in his prime, who on this outing seems rather subdued and
doesn’t really seem to get going lyrically. Havoc retains his gruff low-key poetics, relying on sharp rhyme schemes over lyrical finesse. Familiarity continues as the duo promote spreading `love not war’ on `Spread Love’, the Rza-style symphony taking centre stage as the conducting Havoc finally seems to have hit the mark production-wise. Then the quality suddenly hurtles back downhill - `Let A Ho Be A Ho’ is a lazy and ultimately lame workout describing a rather too graphic bedroom scene -`she tried to turn me on with edible thongs’ is as clean as it gets - followed by a totally pointless ansaphone interlude; while `I’m Going Out’ featuring Lil’ Cease loses the plot completely – lyrically supreme recollections of weapon warfare undermined by a truly terrible 80’s keyboard-bass best left unspoken about. Two Infamous tunes for all the wrong reasons.

Thankfully the duo start shooting straight and the rest is pure Queensbridge quality. `Allustrious’ is a real return to form with its organ-kickdrum combo working well for a straight-up slice of pure hip hop. `Adrenaline’ follows suit with the same minimalism and equal effectiveness, while the much-touted `Quiet Storm’ kicks up exactly that – deep menace on a low-riding wave of threats and urban war stories. The remix ropes in a rather superfluous Lil Kim, but by this time faith has been restored and we realise it’s still Mobb Deep through and through. The mellow vibes begin to sound more viable when the quite beautiful `Where Ya Heart At’ nullifies the anger with an absolute tear-jerkin’ life and death insight, with Hav’s production proving he’s a real softie at heart – flamenco guitar riffs and violins in the style of the Gravediggaz’ `Never Gonna Come Back’, this should have been a surprise hit and probably wasn't owing to MD fans being forced into doing double takes when e
mbarking upon this underrated classic. Raekwon does his standard solid job on the shimmering `Can’t F*ck Wit’, while the previously out-of-place sounding female chorus of Chinky makes more sense on the jangly Infamous Mobb-fronted `Thug Muzik’; more instances of packin’ guns punctuated by a vocalist showing the effectiveness proved by the Wu’s Tekitha Washington, whilst giving a generous nod to Mos Def’s `Next Universe’ along the way. Veteran Kool G Rap still proves a tough nugget by taking principle-rhyming role on `The Realest’, while the `Phenomenon’-esque `U.S.A (Aight Then)’ keeps the attitude over some up-tempo beats and a well-conceived piano-string section. Nas chips in on `It’s Mine’ with a suitably thug-personified take on Brandy & Monica’s `The Boy Is Mine’ as the Mobb finish strongly after an unconvincing opening.

Undoubtedly this isn’t Mobb Deep’s finest seventy minutes. You keep waiting for the one killer joint to blow up the spot, but the brashness never arrives having been substituted for some true subtle genius – in this case, `Where Ya Heart At’ rules the roost. Mobb fans will need to persevere with it but will ultimately go home satisfied with the continuing themes of the duo’s self-coined `trife life’, while new-comers will probably find the uplifting slyness an original backdrop to the gun-toting lyrics Hav and Pee continue to churn out. Murda Muzik is unlikely to torture souls but sadly only reminds its followers that maybe the pair's best years are already behind them...

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