Mobb Deep has a discography that grew along with the two violently skilled poets that masterminded the whole operation. Prodigy and Havoc have made careers of crafting verses that paint brutally honest and vivid imagery of their realities, holding nothing back with stories of street life laced with head-spinning rhyme schemes. Their legacy is sprawled across a plethora of high-octane studio albums and underappreciated mixtapes, all leaning on the natural chemistry of the duo that flows through each harmonized chorus.
A legacy as prevalent as Mobb Deep’s needs to start somewhere and 30 years ago today (4/13/93), Prodigy and Havoc introduced themselves to the world with a smirk and the confidence of veterans. Juvenile Hell, the duo’s debut album, was released in 1993 and captures the duo carrying themselves with the knowledge of their immense talent, a talent that the world would stay ignorant of throughout the 14 tracks presented on Mobb Deep’s first outing.
30 years later, the name Mobb Deep evokes a feeling of excitement in hip-hop fans, although the reception of their debut would suggest otherwise. After slinging their demos outside of corporate offices and pushing the earliest version of Juvenile Hell’s closing track, “Flavor for the Non-Believers” onto anyone that would listen, Mobb Deep positioned themselves for the coveted 90’s record deal. While their initial endeavors didn’t pan out, the small label known as 4th and B’way Records saw the untapped potential of the duo and brought them on board to record their now-infamous debut (no pun intended).
We specify that Juvenile Hell is now considered a classic because, at the time, it was ultimately what got them dropped from the label. Singles like “Hit It From The Back” and the album as a whole failed commercially and the same people that saw Mobb Deep’s potential were quick to give up on the two. In retrospect, a track filled with sexual innuendos about specific positions was not the proper representation of Mobb Deep or their debut album but the idea that their heart and soul went into the project only for it to be seen as a failure adds to the history of the LP and gives it more of an anti-authority feeling.
Juvenile Hell is far from the peak of Mobb Deep’s discography, although you wouldn’t tell from the way the duo presented themselves. Their self-confidence acts as a cornerstone of the LP with both Havoc and Prodigy being no older than 19 during the recording process but still sounding like giants over these conventionally minimal instrumentals. The duo raps like they’ve been here before, they fearlessly approach these spine-tingling verses and lofty concepts with an enlivening gusto that sits predominantly atop their adolescent voices. The duo injected their youthful glow into Juvenile Hell and their topics of choice suggest that the title of the LP is more of an accurate description than some sort of metaphor.
Mobb Deep used the platform provided by their debut album to exercise their storytelling abilities. Each song introduces a new scenario to the listener but to the two youths writing them, they are all too familiar. Colorful imagery is laced with the dark tones of the daily lives of teenagers brought up in unimaginable situations, situations completely out of their control. Havoc and Prodigy viewed their lives as poetry, good or bad, every moment can be flipped into these mesmerizing verses that are more akin to photographs than the written word. Even in the darkest moments, they use their art and words to create a glimmering silver lining that gives them something to latch on to. While that idea is essentially the foundation of hip-hop when it is filtered through the unfiltered imaginations of Mobb Deep, we receive a refreshing take on the genre that refuses to leave out even the most graphic of details.
In the context of Mobb Deep’s legacy, Juvenile Hell is far from their best work although it is hard to argue that another album of theirs makes as bold of a statement. For their first outing as Mobb Deep, Havoc and Prodigy ignored the pressures of a debut and fully committed themselves to creating a project that accurately represents where they stood during the recording process. Over the course of just 40 minutes, we are introduced to two young, dedicated artists who were beginning to find their sonic footing while still coming off as 40-year veterans. Juvenile Hell will forever stand as a snapshot of Mobb Deep’s youth captured over neck-breaking drum patterns while doubling as a precursor to one of the most legendary discographies in hip-hop history.
