Why is Mobb Deep’s The Infamous on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Stripped down, subtle, sinister, superior hip hop.
What does Mobb Deep’s The Infamous mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
There’s a thing with acting that’s a little bit counterintuitive where, when people are really good at it, it doesn’t seem like they’re doing it. That is, the performance feels so natural that you forget that they’re acting. It feels real.
It’s not a perfect analogy, but that’s what I think about when listening to “The Start of Your Ending (41st Side),” the first track on Mobb Deep’s The Infamous. The music, the production, the “performances” by Havoc and Prodigy feel so real that they don’t feel like performances. “Keeping it real” is the cliché, but it holds here in the truest sense.
And the rest of the album is much more of the same. “Survival of the Fittest” is my favorite track on The Infamous. The super subtle, foreboding piano sets a musical backdrop that is nothing less than sinister. The hip hop flow is top notch, with the lyrics telling us about life in the projects in Queens, New York.
“Right Back at You” features Wu-Tang Clan alums Ghostface Killah and Raekwon, as well as Big Noyd, and has a little bit of a vibe of a slowed down Wu-Tang track in a way that absolutely heightens the tension level. It’s fully compelling.
Some stats & info about Mobb Deep – The Infamous
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rap, Hip Hop, East Coast Rap, Hardcore Rap, Gangsta Rap
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #369
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was The Infamous released? 1995
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #726 out of 1,000
Mobb Deep’s The Infamous on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.