Explain how it’s not.
Explain how Sun Rises in the East is underground but Infamous is mainstream.
No 90s Hip Hop Album has Stood The Test of Time Quite Like Mobb Deep’s The Infamous - GOAT Album
- Thread starter mobbinfms
- Start date
Explain how Sun Rises in the East is underground but Infamous is mainstream.
Because Infamous wasn't much different from other mainstream NY albums at the time that wasn't Ready To Die. Ready To Die was obviously commercial even though it had that grimey NY sound to a lot of the songs.
Sun Rises In The East had "Come Clean" as a single atypical of a single choice at the time. That song was real grimey and that leakey faucet effect throughout the song made it more unorthodox than it already was. Then you couple it with Jeru's rhyme style.
Shook Ones wasn’t real grimey?
What other mainstream NY albums are you talking about?
Name some other mainstream NY albums so we have an idea of what you’re talking about. So far you’ve said Sun Rises in The East and Living Proof were underground. You haven’t explained what differentiates them from the as yet unidentified mainstream NY albums (excluding Biggie per your definition).
Sugar Hill was commercial.
Fast Life was commercial.
Hey Lover was full on mainstream.
Nuttin But Love was commercial if not full on mainstream.
Feel Me Flow was commercial (that’s Jersey of course).
MVP Summer Smooth Remix was commercial.
Envy was commercial.
Some may say the Meth and Mary joint was commercial, but I disagree. Just having a girl singing on the track don’t make it commercial. Same with Take You There.
Last edited:
Mainstream and commercial aren't the same thing. Commercial is a product created for commerce or to sell and push a product. Mainstream is for mass consumption. Mobb Deep wasn't commercial, but definitely was for mass consumption.
Underground is more niche audience. It has little or no mainstream appeal at all.
The original Mary/Meth joint wasn't commercial, but the remix definitely was.
Are you using dictionary definitions for these terms?
This is one of the most bugged out takes I’ve ever seen on the Coli
What was the mainstream appeal of The Infamous? Identify the songs, the production techniques, the rhymes, the hooks. Anything. What was it?
I hear you on the Meth and Mary song.
Redwood
Superstar
Going to be 29 in three months 
Are you using dictionary definitions for these terms?
This is one of the most bugged out takes I’ve ever seen on the Coli
What was the mainstream appeal of The Infamous? Identify the songs, the production techniques, the rhymes, the hooks. Anything. What was it?
I hear you on the Meth and Mary song.
Breh, Infamous isn't some obscure album that dropped on an independent label. Infamous wasn't an against the grain album that defied mainstream standards. Grimey NY Hip Hop was mainstream in 1995 so much so that LL Cool J dropped "I Shot Ya". As commercial as Bad Boy was in 1995, Biggie still had to drop "Warning" and "Who Shot Ya".Now if we were talking about Juvenile Hell era Mobb Deep, I would concede, but it is laughable to paint Mobb Deep as an underground Hip Hop group. Has nothing to do with dictionary definitions.
An artist could make grimey Hip Hop and still be mainstream. Wu Tang Clan is an example of that. Wu is a universally known Hip Hop group who made grimey Hip Hop. Nobody would call Illmatic an underground Hip Hop album.
We have a whole thread on here about how artists had to switch their sound, look, and image to a more grimier style to fit. That 1993 thread talks about this, so the notion of being grimey automatically meaning underground is in error.
No one said it was an obscure album, so that’s a straw man.
Mobb Deep absolutely defied mainstream standards in 95. There was nothing about that album meant to appeal beyond the core audience of the underground NY sound. There was no single for the radio. No song for the girls. No attempt to appeal to other regions.
Grimey NY hip hop was not mainstream. I think the word that you’re looking for is uncommon.
It’s laughable to suggest that they were mainstream or commercial (I understand that you concede they weren’t commercial). They were an underground group that broke through pretty much as much as anyone excluding Wu. Selling records doesn’t transform the sound of the music nor take an artist from being an underground artist to a mainstream or commercial artist.
Wu was an anomaly and Illmatic was absolutely an underground album. Are you being serious right now?
What was mainstream or commercial about Illmatic?
Breh, by the time Mobb Deep dropped Infamous, Wu was already huge. They were a group in 1993 that defied mainstream standards and shifted the sound towards the grimier style that artists that came after would adopt and everybody else had to adapt. "Shook Ones Pt. 2" was a susccessful single.
Illmatic was not an underground album. Commercial and mainstream are not the same thing. Neither is a negative term nor a stigma. It is only viewed that way because purists have this view of anything that is commercial or mainstream is soft or not Hop Hop, which is not only wrong, but conpletely ignorant. Illmatic is for all intents and purposes a mainstream album that was slept on by the masses. Its less mainstream than Infamous because nothing on it has the catchiness of the hook of "Shook Ones Pt. 2". And this is where your understanding of what's mainstream is skewed. Hooks/choruses are a huge part of having mass appeal. Even the most casual Hip Hop fan knows the hook to "Shook Ones Pt. 2" if they know nothing else. That is a huge part of the song's appeal outside of the beat.