Also, we ALL flip flopped a lot last year. I mean, there was so much great music. I slept on a lot of shit I should have paid attention to, and bought a lot of albums on the first day of release that I could have just downladed.

I flipped like nuts on Indigoism. It was lower on my list than IANAHBII until I woke up and realized it was absolute fucking fire. Also, I didn't like Long.Live.A$AP at first!!!!! I was like "well, LVL is tight... But..." Man, what was I fucking thinking?!

I even think Magna Carta got the shaft. People were way too hard on that album. I listen to it now, and it's thoroughly enjoyable. It's no Blueprint/Blueprint III, or Black Album, or American Gangster, but it's better than at least half his albums.

Oh, and we all missed Dopplegangaz completely. We should be pretty ashamed about that. :)

I'm confused by this bro, you're gonna have to clear it up for me. I just got this, and it appears to be a deluxe reissue of the absolute 90s gangsta classic, "The Infamous..." with no new material on it.

Am I misreading something? It looks like the first disc is the album, and then there's bonus shit. I haven't listened yet, or even scoped out the track list, but all signs tell me this is a standard reissue.

Whatchutallinabout new Mobb Deep?! Lol

Yeah, The Infamous... is one of the defining records of East Coast hip hop of that time man. Up there w/ Illmatic or Enter The Wu for sure. I don't even care, I still listen to Infamous wayyyyyyy more than Ready To Die.

The Infamous... was released in 1995.

The Infamous Mobb Deep was released in 2014.

(Confusing, I agree). But the idea is this - instead of re-issuing the 1995 album, that everyone surely has, why not just give everyone a 'companion album' 20 yrs later? So think of it like a deluxe reissue w/o the original disc.

EDIT: And actually, apparently, if you buy it digitally from Amazon, you'll get the original album as the 3rd disc...

Also interesting is that it's 2 discs... Disc 1 is a brand new album recorded over the past few years with the intention of revisiting the mid-90's sound. Think of it as Mobb Deep's homage to that era of their work. What would it sound like if we made this album in 2014?

Disc 2 is even more interesting of course, as it's referred to as 'the 1994 Infamous Session" and features a bunch of demos/outtakes/etc - basically an alternate version of the 1995 album. Guests including Ghostface, Rae, Nas, etc.

I had trouble picking it up yesterday, but I'm dying to get this thing. It kind of came out of nowhere, but it's suddenly the first record that I'm really excited about this year.

sad but true.

not even our fault, Yeezus just made everything else seem wack. ;)

seriously though, sometimes it takes more than a few listens to "get" an album.

--

i can't really see why a Jay fan wouldn't enjoy the first half of Magna Carta.
Picasso Baby, Tom Ford, FuckWithMe, Somewhere in America, Crown.. clearly far from Jay's best, but still solid.

i like the Drake/Jay comparsion. i also like how they're competing with each other these days.

people don't remember featured verses and random track releases.. they remember albums. Jay knows that. so hopefully that'll give him some motivation to cook up something great.

it took Kanye 5 attempts to make his magnum-opus. he did it just when nobody expected it too.

in fairness, I was repping Magna Carta on first listen kids. :D

DJ Frankie Knuckles has died at age 59. https://music.yahoo.com/news/frankie...ing-stone.html

These mufuh's are becoming one of my favorite acts in hip hop. I cannot wait for them to drop a proper album. Put this shit on the shelves! It's just hood enough for harder rap fans, and just arty/intelligent enough for backpackers and the like.

A new release is coming out this year, but I don't know if it's going to be an album or another mixtape. I guess it doesn't matter, but they deserve to be up there wit' Rocky. They should tour together.

is that a new mixtape? I don't recognize it?

http://pitchfork.com/news/54627-rza-...e-as-one-copy/

It might not be wishful thinking. In an interview with Billboard, RZA claims that the group has already received an offer of $5 million for the album. "I've been getting a lot of emails: some from people I know, some from people I don't know, and they're also emailing other members of my organization," he said. "So far, $5 million is the biggest number."

Anyone else up on Lucki Eck$? He's like the Chiraq answer to A$AP. I've been listening to this project for a minute, and while I think it could use some work it shows a huge amount of promise.

Ya'll should check out the big homie Fat Tony.
Not only does he make awesome, forward thinking southern rap, he's a really cool guy. Bro works at my favorite record store in Houston and is always a blast to chat rap and punk rock with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSkTLc4w9Rw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk3gtMw3O0E

fuck new Mobb Deep is dope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eadPjCzBVw

Yeah, I'm all too familiar with the original album as well. I was just being snarky by phrasing it as a question. But I DID think that this was just a reissue, plain and simple.

... Until about 12:00 today when I threw it on at work and was like - "Whaaaaaa???"

So my apologies. I've never been a hard core Mobb Deep fan, but a few of their albums are among my all time favorites. They were so goddamn influential... I don't even think it's been recognized by the public just how big of an impact their take on street rap had on the emergence of post-gangsta artists, who rapped about street issues, but did so thoughtfully and articulately.

I had no idea there was a new album out. It makes all of my excitement over Schoolboy, Rick, and even DZA seem rather quaint by comparison.

(I'm so glad I'm friends with a record store owner.)

dood. Yeah. This new Mobb album is great. Right?

In 2007, when Prodigy put out Return of the Mac, I was like "damn, I wish Mobb Deep could make a new album that's THIS solid." Well... they just did. I love it.

Hey Louder... NR... Where the hell are you guys?

I wanna talk about stuff!

Shit, the first quarter of the year is over, and no mention has been made of who's on top of our respective lists! It seems like whenever I'm posting, it's just me, for pages. But when I'm gone, yall are like"where's Sev yo?"

Right here, ninjas.

Yeah, that album was much better than Blood Money. And that was a fine album, good by the standards of most artists, but for Mobb it was like a "guys, call it quits, you're going all REM on us and just making albums to make albums."

But this new Infamous Mobb Deep (yes, really confusing title, especially with the Life of the Infamous Mobb Deep out there) is fucking on point.

NR- I wouldn't have even know about this if you hadn't mentioned it. Thank you!

np dood. I think so much of it is title confusion. You're not the only one to tell me "what? There's a new album? Thought it was jsut a reissue!"

Thing is - I think when it was first announced it WAS meant as a reissue. But it seems only the SUPER DELUXE digital copies come w/ the OG album as disc 3. So like I said, this is like a deluxe edition 2CD set of bonus shiz. Haha.

But what's crazy is, yeah originally I was more excited for the 1995 outtakes. But now I'm just amazed at the new record. The only dud for me is "Low" but there's just so so much good stuff. Production is so tight. I'm just really happy to hear them finally make another album this solid.

And like you sev, I really give them more credit than most critics. All of their past albums have good stuff. But this just feels so focused as a whole album.

HYPNOTICTHUGLIFE!

btw, so far I've been really underwhelmed w/ 2014 albums. So now list from me. My favorite albums of the year so far have been Mogwai, Crosses, and now this Mobb Deep.

New Beck is good, but a little too same-y.

Oddly, I like SGP's Intoxxxicated mixtape quite a bit.

Also, really happy that the D'Angelo live album came out this week. I had the EP for years. But it's great that they finally released it domestically and expanded it to the full show.