Mobb Deep: Hell On Earth 2LP Vinyl

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set spreads the album over four sides, pressed in the EU. Hell On Earth debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and went gold.

This edition

2LP set
Pressed in the EU
Stereo mix

About the album

Following The Infamous is a tall order for any duo from Queensbridge. Havoc and Prodigy did it by going darker and colder, with Havoc producing nearly everything himself out of eerie piano loops, low strings and film-score samples with a real chill to them.

"G.O.D. Pt. III" and "Hell On Earth (Front Lines)" are the big singles, built on menacing loops and Prodigy's icy, cinematic storytelling. Method Man joins on "Extortion," Raekwon on "Nighttime Vultures," Nas and Big Noyd on "Give It Up Fast," and "Still Shinin'," the warm-up single from earlier in 1996, slots in near the end. "Animal Instinct," "Drop A Gem On 'Em" and "Apostle's Warning" round out a record that rarely lets up. Prodigy's verses are vivid enough to read like short stories, and Havoc's beats leave plenty of room for them.

Its reputation among hip hop heads has kept growing ever since, a quarter century and more after it first hit the shelves. The Source called them the most intense, authentic practitioners of East Coast hardcore in the 90s, and Q put it on its list of the 50 heaviest albums of all time, alongside rather a lot of guitars. Mobb Deep needed none.

Also at Kops: more Mobb Deep on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B