Mobb Deep
Hell On Earth (2x12")

19958414691
Columbia
199- A1: Animal Instinct (feat Ty Knitty & Gambine) (3 25)
- A2: Drop A Gem On 'em (4 12)
- A3: Bloodsport (3 30)
- A4: Extortion (feat Johnny Blaze aka Method Man) (3 29)
- B1: More Trife Life (3 40)
- B2: Man Down (feat Big Noyd) (4 37)
- B3: Can't Get Enough Of It (feat General G) (5 18)
- C1: Nightitme Vultures (feat Lex Diamonds aka Raekwon) (4 23)
- C2: GOD Pt III (5 07)
- C3: Get Dealt With (3 55)
- D1: Hell On Earth (4 30)
- D2: Give It Up Fast (feat Nas & Big Noyd) (3 53)
- D3: Still Shinin' (4 03)
- D4: Apostle's Warning (3 57)
Queensbridge duo Mobb Deep were already untouchable by the time Hell On Earth arrived, but this was the record where Havoc and Prodigy stopped sounding hungry and started sounding completely numb to everything around them. The production is brutally spare. Tiny piano fragments repeat for minutes at a time while drums hit with the force of metal doors slamming shut somewhere down the corridor. 'G.O.D. Pt. III' still feels poisonous nearly 30 years later, Prodigy rapping with such flat menace it barely even registers as performance anymore. 'Drop A Gem On 'Em' turns a diss track into psychological warfare, and then 'Nighttime Vultures', alongside Raekwon, moves through the album's nocturnal haze with exhausted precision. Even now, the whole thing feels airless in a way few rap records manage.


