April 25th, 1995 is the anniversary of Mobb Deep’s The Infamous. An undisputed rap classic, the album is essential listening for anyone who considers themselves a fan of ’90s hip-hop. That’s why we got down with Prodigy and Havoc as well as Executive Producers Schott Free and Matt Life a.k.a. Matty C—in fact, pretty much everyone else involved in making the album to do “The Making of Mobb Deep’s The Infamous.”
Although our previous piece was well received, it was a an epic undertaking that ran over 10,000 words. Needless to say, that’s a lot of reading. So just for all you ADD sufferers we decided to take a quick trip back to QB and cherry pick the most interesting parts of the piece and put together 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Mobb Deep’s The Infamous.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published on April 25, 2012]
Angel dust is a hell of a drug. As it turns out, Prodigy was sprinkling dust in his weed when he wrote one of the most vicious verses in rap history (“Rock you in your face, stab your brain with your nosebone” is still one of the most amazing threats in the history of rap). “We wrote that in the crib high on drugs,” said Prodigy. “Probably weed, probably was some dust in there, mad 40s, getting twisted.”
In fact, he wasn’t the one only puffing dust blunts at the time. Method Man once told us that he was puffing that PCP when he wrote “Tical.” What’s that shit that they be smoking?
One of the great things about mid-’90s New York rap was how connected everyone was to each other. Havoc had gone to school with Nas, Schott Free was A&Ring for Mobb Deep but he was cool with Wu-Tang, and Mobb’s other A&R, Matty C, was cool with The Notorious B.I.G.
“Me and Biggie used to kick it every day and he used to always push, ‘Yo, y’all should make [‘Temperature’s Rising’] the single,’” said Matty C. “But they didn’t want to be that group that had to go that route. Biggie was an artist that was being made to take that route. True, “Temperature’s Rising” is pretty amazing, but come on, “Shook Ones” is the jam!”
Despite Q-Tip’s crucial contributions to the making of the album, Prodigy didn’t really appreciate his verse on “Drink Away The Pain.” Since Tip isn’t really a drinker, he discontinued the song’s liquor theme and opted to rap about clothes instead. “When I heard it I was like, ‘What the fuck is he rapping about? It doesn’t match the song,” said Prodigy. But thanks to the insistence of others, P let the verse ride and it eventually grew on him.
According to Staten Island native and Mobb Deep A&R Schott Free, he hit up Ghostface Killah to come through for a remix of “Eye For An Eye.” Although Ghost did spit a verse, for whatever reason, it was never released. However, the same Ghost verse later popped up on Mobb Deep’s “Real Live Shit.”
Q-Tip Had A Bigger Hand In The Infamous Than You Think
As we were putting together “The Making of Mobb Deep’s The Infamous” last year, one thing became abundantly clear: Q-Tip doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the role he played in making the album what it was.
Although he’s credited with producing three songs, he mixed, mastered, and remade many more of the beats on the album. Furthermore, he mentored a young Havoc and helped him come into his own as a producer.
When you consider that Tip had an incredible run making jazzy, laid-back records with A Tribe Called Quest and then worked on a gritty, dark album like The Infamous, you’ll see just how versatile a producer he really is. The Abstract already gets a ton of accolades, but deserves even more.
Nasty Nas has spit a litany of incredible verses throughout his career but there’s no denying that “Eye For An Eye” is one of his best. Opening with the lines, “A drug dealer’s dream/Stash cream, keys on a triple beam,” it definitely finds Nasir in Escobar mode.
However, according to Matty Life a.k.a. Matty C, Nas did two different verses for the song. We have no idea who has the lost reel—or if it even exists anymore—but if anyone wants premiere it on the Internet, we know a dope website that can help you out (Hint: It starts with a C and ends with an X).
Sometimes, we just miss the’90s. Nowadays, a rapper has to at least have a song go viral or put out a dope-ass mixtape to be buzzing enough to catch a check. But back then, one dope verse could score you a recording contract. It worked for AZ and it worked for Big Noyd too. As he told us, “I got a record deal for $300,000 just for [my verse on] ‘Give Up The Goods.’”
Although Schott Free helped set up the successful collaboration between Mobb Deep and Wu-Tang, he also set up a not-so-successful collaboration between them and another act from Staten Island.
At the time, Hype Da Madman was an up-and-comer in the hip-hop scene who was cool with Free. He was featured on the original version of “Right Back At You.” “P was just like, ‘I want him to say something else,’” said Free. “‘Just tell him to come to the studio and lay down this other shit.’ Hype—being the type of dude he was—was like, ‘Fuck that. Fuck you. I’m not changing shit.’
Due to their creative differences, Hype’s verse was scrapped and Free kept it Shaolin, recruiting Raekwon and Ghost to replace him. Betcha Hype wishes he would have just changed his verse.
If you look through the booklet of The Infamous album (Dear children: A booklet is the thing that comes inside of the CD case and has liner notes and stuff) you’ll see Mobb Deep and just about every single one of their friends from the Queensbridge Projects.
But the one person you don’t see is Big Noyd, even though he was on several songs on the album. Why wasn’t he there? Well, it turns out his whole “three different faces, I’m going to court for three cases” line was all too true. Noyd missed the photo shoot due to a court date.
As previously noted, the New York rap scene in the ’90s was all in the family. According to Matty C, Mobb Deep wanted to sign with Loud because they knew Wu-Tang was signed there but they paid it back to the Wu. “It was amazing because off of the making of The Infamous, they started making [Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…],” said Matty C. “They kept mentioning they got the charge off of The Infamous.”
