Soul Strut 100: # 43 - Mobb Deep - The Infamous

[Controller_7]

ketan said:Jonny_Paycheck said:I always thought the drum programming was heavily influenced by Q-Tip, who had those huge snares all over Midnight Marauders and of course produced a number of the joints on Infamous





maybe Extra P too?




Interesting - I never thought of it that way. I was actually guessing that the Mobb co-production credit on Drink Away The Pain must have been to add the heavy snare texture that the rest of the album had to make the whole album more cohesive.




Interestingly, it's the chopped drums that kind of tire for me. They sound good and bump, but I could have used a break here and there. That is 100% personal taste. Sometimes the single kick single snare single (loud) hi hat thing tires for me.





This record is way up there for me, but I guess I spent more time with Cuban Linx and this never sank in as a full repeated listen. That's just me. More breaks please.

 

[Possum Slim]

I don't think Ridin Dirty is anywhere near as good as The Infamous but each to their own of course.

 

[The_Non]

I just went back to the list and saw Big Bear is on it and had to laugh. Plus I found this on the interwebs (I knew they'd exist). I'm buying a pair for HC as we speak:

 

[HarveyCanal]

Possum Slim said:I don't think Ridin Dirty is anywhere near as good as The Infamous but each to their own of course.




Look, you might not like Southern rap. But there is no way anyone should ever be saying that Ridin Dirty isn't as good as The Infamous. There's a lot of people who still need to catch up on such a fact, I know. But we've been waiting a loooooong time for y'all to do so.





And yes, saying they are on the same exact level is acceptable, as they both define certain brands of rap. But putting one beneath the other based on anything but personal taste is simply wrong.

 

[HarveyCanal]

The_Non said:I just went back to the list and saw Big Bear is on it and had to laugh. Plus I found this on the interwebs (I knew they'd exist). I'm buying a pair for HC as we speak:

Thanks, but my eyes are already shaped like that sans glasses.

 

[Jonny_Paycheck]

I think it's really hard to argue that Ridin' Dirty is not as good as The Infamous. Maybe it wasn't the soundtrack to your local euroman experience but it's a pretty damn good album by any metric. The rappers can rap, the beats are funky.... I mean, it's not dusty breakz yo(!), but Pimp's production is soulful as fuck and lays all sorts of groundwork for the current stuff that gets dap from the I-wish-today's-rappers-would-sample-moar crowd. Diss UGK and you diss yourself.

 

[batmon]

Lets stay on topic.





Could u present this list to someone and defend The Infamous being higher than The Chronic?





Or is this a strictly for us list?

 

[Jonny_Paycheck]

batmon said:Lets stay on topic.





Could u present this list to someone and defend The Infamous being higher than The Chronic?





Or is this a strictly for us list?




There are definitely east coast traditionalists that would rate it that way.





I don't think that is particularly defensible, but I remember people from NY dissing the Chronic bitd on some "it's ruining hip-hop!" biz.

 

[drbrownscelray]

Possum Slim said:I don't think Ridin Dirty is anywhere near as good as The Infamous but each to their own of course.




I CRAM TO UNDERSTAND THE BASIS BY WHICH YOU CAME TO THIS CONCLUSION B/W YEAH WELL THATS LIKE JUST YOUR OPINION, MAN. Two of the best rap records I can think of.

 

[bassie]

batmon said:





Could u present this list to someone and defend The Infamous being higher than The Chronic?










I could defend it a lot sooner than Marvin Gaye (and The Chronic and Hutson and Electric Ladyland and Hard to Earn and....) coming in lower than Big Bear...which I suspect got a higher rating based on the cover alone. Maybe we can get a moratorium on irony instead?

 

[batmon]

Jonny_Paycheck said:batmon said:Lets stay on topic.





Could u present this list to someone and defend The Infamous being higher than The Chronic?





Or is this a strictly for us list?




There are definitely east coast traditionalists that would rate it that way.





I don't think that is particularly defensible, but I remember people from NY dissing the Chronic bitd on some "it's ruining hip-hop!" biz.




I never heard anyone in NYC diss the Chronic. Cats were fully on board after Deep Cover.


The only ramblings/critiques i heard was that it was a little too polished. But that even died out.





What gave The Infamous one of its medals is that it gave NYC Hip Hop back some dirty steez challenging the G-Funk.

 

[batmon]

fusk

 

[batmon]

me

 

[yuichi]

batmon said:Overrated




Straight trippin'. I was about to call you out on calling "Temperature's Rising" as the hottest track on the album. LOL





So I'll do it now.





TRIPPIN'.

 

[yuichi]

HarveyCanal saidossum Slim said:I don't think Ridin Dirty is anywhere near as good as The Infamous but each to their own of course.




Look, you might not like Southern rap. But there is no way anyone should ever be saying that Ridin Dirty isn't as good as The Infamous. There's a lot of people who still need to catch up on such a fact, I know. But we've been waiting a loooooong time for y'all to do so.





And yes, saying they are on the same exact level is acceptable, as they both define certain brands of rap. But putting one beneath the other based on anything but personal taste is simply wrong.




You're trippin' too, cuz you were first to bring up another album is better. blah blah, bullshit.





The Infamous is a damn consistent album. nuff said.

 

[Possum Slim]

I prefer the gritty, claustrophobic sound of The Infamous to Ridin Dirty and The Chronic which of course is personal preference.

 

[LoopDreams]

personal preference.

personal preference.

personal preference.

personal preference.

personal preference.

personal preference.

how dare you

 

[Controller_7]

LoopDreams said:





how dare you




How Dare iz a Darkside you! Whut were you thinking.

 

[DOR]

edpowers said:Minus "Party Over" The Infamous is Hip Hop perfection.




Agreed. This is one of those records that will always have a place in my memory. When it dropped, I can remember selling thousands in the first year. And years later you could still bring in the record and it would constantly sell.





I've always thought if they never put a track like "Party Over" and had the ability to have been able to put, say "Back at You" on it, it would have been a certified classic no doubt.





I think some have issue with this album because of the production on the albums that followed seemed to not evolve much. So when they try to rate Infamous, they tend to be subconsciously including their other musical output into things.





And I have no issue of anyone hating on this album. Music is very subjective. You don't need to convince someone like Harv that Infamous is a classic. Just like Harv could never convince me that much of the music he identifies with is amazing.





IMO tho it's much better to like or hate something and have a discussion on it, than to have zero opinion on it either way. So I personally enjoy threads like this. One of the good parts of this board. Deep debate is great.





We should remember. This Top 100 list is more of a strut list above all. Not just a "best of list". Hence why Big Bear is on the it. Nobody is trying to say that album musically was the greatest. Just that that album was something special on this site.

 

[SIRUS]

so what did havoc do on the album? just shook ones?