No 90s Hip Hop Album has Stood The Test of Time Quite Like Mobb Deep’s The Infamous - GOAT Album

[mobbinfms]

I'm from the era where we didn't know (or care) about record sales. That didn't factor in how we viewed an album or elevate one over the other. If OP is from the era when The Infamous came out, he is too.

But, if you're going to cop pleas about record sales and attribute it to a fledgling record label......have to explain the sales from label mates who released their album ahead of yours.

I’m not copping pleas for the record sales. Infamous actually performed really well for what it was at the time.
That being said, it wasn’t a commercial juggernaut in contrast to every album ahead of it.

 

[mobbinfms]

The OP comment about Loud being two cubicles directly implied that they were a fledgling label without the budget to promote the album. Though the House that Wu built was clearly in better shape in '95 than in '93 when they released/promoted Enter the Wutang.
Pretty straight forward.

That is what you inferred. I explained in an earlier post why I said what I said.

I understand your confusion. I get it. But that’s not what I was getting at. At all.

 

[mobbinfms]

I didn't mean that Tip was picking out samples, or making beats uncredited or anything like that.

I meant that his influence is felt in that Havoc, being new to the scene and learning a LOT from Tip, drew a lot of influence from him in his early production style (horns on QU Hectic for example is a nod of sorts to Tip). Tip produced a few cuts on the album, and Havoc while creating his own beats likely tried to match that style to some extent, while creating his own, darker-twist.

Tip being very jazz inlfuenced in his production style, and being in the studio w/ them meant Havoc was more likely to lean that way as well for this album. By the end, Tip said he wasn't needed at all and Hav was doing his own thing completely, that's likely were some of the darker, less jazz/horn-influenced beats came in, but i'm not 100% sure.

Funny b/c to me, despite Tip, The Infamous sounds less refined than Hell on Earth, and I prefer it b/c of that less polished, more organic sound. HoE still top 10 ish to me. Maybe that's b/c Mobb was newer at the time? Maybe that's due to 1995 as a whole sounding less refined than 96 (compare OB4CL or LS to Ironman for another example)?

Hav learned from all the greats. Beatminerz. Large Pro. Primo. Tip.

Great point about 95 vs 96. I wonder what the reason for that was? Mobb clearly wasn’t going for a more refined sound with HOE. But you’re right.

 

[Whips-n-Chains]

Hav learned from all the greats. Beatminerz. Large Pro. Primo. Tip.

Great point about 95 vs 96. I wonder what the reason for that was? Mobb clearly wasn’t going for a more refined sound with HOE. But you’re right.

Ive been meaning to make a thread on this subject bc I've always wondered why 1995 to 1996 sounds so much different...the jump is a lot more significant than 94 to 95...or 93 to 94

There was a significant jump from 91 to late 92 with the chronic

Part of it is natural evolution of the industry...more money was getting invested, more artists were getting money and Wu Tang for example, by the time Ironman came out, they'd been in the game 3 years so their style was evolving, they had more money and resources by the time Ironman came out.


More money meant the lyrical content evolving from street corner dealers to the more mafiosi era rap of 95-96. Thus the production style becomes less grimey/gutter and a little more refined and sinister/darker instead of more gutter beats. By later in 95, They wanted to be portrayed as mobsters, kingpins, importers/traffickers rather than dope dealers on the corner, the sound accompanied the "classy" gangster vibe.

This happened with HoE lyrically too, they went from dudes hustling on the benches to more full fledged hitmen (I think one of the album reviews, maybe the Source mentions this specifically)

CNN - The War Report too, was more about a crime syndicate than just peddling

Illmatic to IWW

(Granted WR was 97 and Illmatic to IWW was a 2 year jump)

Theres probably more too it than that, maybe different recording technology? New sampling machines? That influenced the production sound.

 

[JustCKing]

What I’m saying is that Loud records wasn’t some powerhouse label. So if people are going to try to claim that The Infamous is streaming like crazy now because Loud dumped 30 million into marketing and promotion and that’s the reason that people are streaming the album now, 27 (now nearly 29) years later, then I am preemptively calling bullshyt.

The Infamous got the same push that any other dope underground NY album got around that time.

If you disagree and believe that Loud records (which is and has been defunct for quite some time) is the reason that the album is streaming now, then post receipts.

Regardless of the label, it is still putting up great streaming numbers. We don't know why any of the albums the 90's have high streaming numbers. All we can deduce from the ones that are top streamers from the 90s is that all of them were considered great albums (some classic and even iconic) before streaming became a thing. Does streaming speak to the timelessness of these albums? To a degree it does, but if we use the metric to measure how timeless these albums are, its erroneous to say Infamous was most timeless as that distinction would either go to the album that streamed the most or the oldest album with the most streams.

 

[JustCKing]

And its laughable to consider Infamous some underground album. This wasn't Sun Rises In The East, Living Proof, or something like that. "Shook Ones Pt. 2" and "Survival of the Fittest" were huge. And since we're talking commercial juggernauts, those songs charted higher than "Still Dre" in the 90's.

 

[Goat poster]

Hell on Earth is better though

I'll never understand how people think this

 

[god shamgod]

Classic album.temperatures rising ,the intro & right back at you my favorite joints

 

[mobbinfms]

Does streaming speak to the timelessness of these albums? To a degree it does, but if we use the metric to measure how timeless these albums are, its erroneous to say Infamous was most timeless

I agree. And that’s not what I’m claiming or what this thread is about.

 

[mobbinfms]

And it’s laughable to consider Infamous some underground album. This wasn't Sun Rises In The East, Living Proof, or something like that. "Shook Ones Pt. 2" and "Survival of the Fittest" were huge. And since we're talking commercial juggernauts, those songs charted higher than "Still Dre" in the 90's.

Infamous wasn’t underground? What was it then? Commercial? Mainstream?

 

[Whips-n-Chains]

I remember I wrote an album review for The Infamous on DubCNN crica 2000 or '01 (I found sohh through that site back in 2000), and pretty much gave every song a 5/5 and the west coast heads were like "nah breh, this album can't be that good" but after listening a bunch of them came back like

It was funny to me that classic albums still had fans of hip-hop that had never heard them before just b/c of what coast the artists were from...and this was in 2000/01 not 1995/96. I don't think The Infamous had achieved "universal" classic status (a la The Chronic, 36 Chambers, Illmatic) as of yet back when I wrote that review but it would seem preposterous nowadays to question The Infamous' place in the hierarchy or to not have heard it.

 

[JustCKing]

Infamous wasn’t underground? What was it then? Commercial? Mainstream?

It doesn't have to be either. It sounded like what mainstream grimey NY Hip Hop sounded at the time without being underground with it if that makes sense.

 

[Hannibal Fox]

The Infamous..... Isn't underground now?

 

[JustCKing]

The Infamous..... Isn't underground now?

Explain how The Infamous is underground.

 

[mobbinfms]

It doesn't have to be either. It sounded like what mainstream grimey NY Hip Hop sounded at the time without being underground with it if that makes sense.

That doesn’t make sense.