Revisited; MOBB DEEP - "Murda Muzik" [Advance]

Many would argue that Mobb Deep's last truly great album was "Murda Muzik", and although the thugged out Queensbridge duo has released plenty of good music since, I would have to agree that they have never come close to those "first" three albums. It also remains their best selling album ever, which should have made them realize that their biggest successes come from sticking to their script, rather than watering down their albums with super lame cuts like "Handcuffs". Released in 1999, it was the time of Napster, as in the time where digital downloads and bootlegged albums rapidly become a reality. This caused serveral projects leaking way ahead of time, resulting in the artists going back in to the studio to try and "freshen" up their projects, deleting some of the old and throwing on something new. That was most of the time a rush job due to deadlines, which often resulted in the final product not behing at all as dope as originally intended. The most talked about, and widespread bootlegs, at the time were Nas' "I Am... The Autobiography", Jay-Z's "Vol. 3: The Life & Times of S. Carter", Inspectah Deck's "Uncontrolled Substance" and, of course, The M-O-B-B's Murderous Music.

When I first posted this about a year ago, I had gathered all the songs from that promo tracklist and put them together in the correct sequence. Luckily, the good man Fritz was nice enough to send me the real deal; the actual promo CD, a group rip straight from the source, which means that all tracks are now heard in good quality, and are exactly the way magazine reviewers got to hear the album before its release. The only downside is that most of the tracks are watermarked with that girl early bootleggers will remember so well - "For press release only...." haha. Besides the quality, the differences from the one I have posted before are that there's no Nas on "U.S.A. (Aight Then)", the original "Quiet Storm" is only two minutes and so is the original "Streets Raised Me". You can still check out the version I originally posted to get those songs.

The changes you'll hear include an alternative verison of "Quiet Storm", a track originally intended for "H.N.I.C.". "Mobb Coming Thru" is an underground Mobb classic sometimes known as "Perfect Plot". Next new song is the track "Fuck Her (Sheisty)" which to me is not one of the better songs on the album although it's definitely okay.  "Feel My Gat Blow" is a true Mobb masterpiece, which really makes you wonder why they left that off the final product; it did however appear on the first "Violator" compilation. "Nobody Likes Me" is a similiar, dark joint that's overall simply terrific. One of the real gems, however, comes in the form of "Pile Raps", an unbelivably dope and powerful Prodigy solo, where he rhymes straight through, no hook or breakdowns. Havoc's somber but hard hitting beats really works very close to perfection. and are further proof of why Hav and P always made best music together those days. Luckily, the track didn't go to complete waste, since the Mobb revisited it for the "QB Finest" compilaion as "Power Raps", although with a brand new beat. On "Murda Muzik", Havoc's production was still dark and sinister, with some of the tightest rhythm in the game at the time and his inovative use of samples made the musical aspect of the LP both raw and rugged, yet more polished than the two previous LPs. On top of that, P totally spazzed out on the entire disc. There's so many quotables all over this, like "This is Heavy Metal for the black people, it's rock and roll but it's hip-hop though/ my drug music, thereaputic to the user - you SLAM DANCE to it" just to name one.  And that aside, his delivery/flow here were close to unbeatable, and for me "HNIC" and this might be the last two Prodigy apperances as one of the greatest emcees in the game. It's also good to hear Big Noyd deliver three crazy verses on this advance, Make sure to grab this while you still can and give it a thorough listen and feel free to drop a comment ob your opinion, e.g.which version you prefer, and why. Enjoy and TURN IT UP!!!

01. "Quiet Storm"
02. "Allostrous"
03. "Mobb Comin' Thru" (Ft. Big Noyd)
04. "Guns, Money, Pussy (Adrenaline)"
05. "The Realest" (Ft. Kool G Rao)
06. "Fuck That Bitch" (Ft. Big Noyd)
07. "Feel My Gat Blow"
08. "Where Ya Heart At?"
09. "How You Want It? (What's Ya Poison)" (Ft. Cormega)
10. "Murda Muzik"
11. "Streets Raised Me" [OG Mix] (Ft. Big Noyd & Chinky)
12. "Pile Raps"
13. "Nobody Likes Me"
14. "Hoe Gonna Be A Hoe"
15. "U.S.A. (Aiight Then)"
16. "Where Ya From" (Ft. 8-Ball)
17. "Thug Muzik"

MOBB DEEP - "MURDA MUZIK" [ADVANCE]