Mobb Deep “Infinite” Review

The place’s the road between honoring the previous and being caught in it? For Havoc, that grew to become the central predicament when approaching a brand new Mobb Deep album with out Prodigy by his facet. And but, only a week after Pitchfork’s 100 Finest Rap Albums Of All Time record positioned The Notorious on the high of the pack, Havoc—alongside longtime Mobb Deep collaborator The Alchemist—joined forces to ship followers a closing hoorah. It’s an effort that might’ve simply gone left in immediately’s technology-driven local weather. And fairly frankly, it wouldn’t have been all that stunning, contemplating that different artists who’ve launched albums beneath Nas and Mass Attraction’s Legend Has It sequence have already caught flak for his or her use of synthetic intelligence.

On Infinite, there’s a holistic method that channels the synergy between Havoc and Prodigy, even after the latter’s passing. Hav’s innate understanding of his partner-in-rhyme, paired with the steerage he supplied The Alchemist early on, creates a blueprint that captures all of the nuances and candy spots which have made the Mobb endure in a risky rap recreation. The best way the mission’s first two singles stumble on launch felt like a testomony to each the void of Prodigy’s soul in hip-hop and Havoc’s intuitive potential to hold his personal weight whereas honoring P as greatest as potential.

The woozy choral pattern of “In opposition to The World,” paired with its muted trumpet, feels triumphant however by no means overshadows the reducing presence of Prodigy’s cool as he slips into Havoc’s manufacturing. That chemistry—rekindled even after seven years with out recording collectively—captures the very essence of Mobb Deep. In a way, it carries the identical militaristic perspective that made songs like “Survival of the Fittest” and “Eye for an Eye” timeless, although now seen by the lens of reflection and aftermath.

The identical applies to “Taj Mahal,” which finds The Alchemist behind the boards and Prodigy navigating by the day whereas Havoc cleverly alludes to considered one of The Notorious’s strongest information. In each circumstances, it’s Prodigy’s sharp-tongued bravado paired with Havoc’s modern wordplay that make Infinite really feel just like the quintessential Mobb Deep mission followers have been ready for.

Maybe the most important problem of making an album from posthumous vocals lies find pockets that work outdoors of the late artist’s sonic wheelhouse. Infinite is a protected mission in some ways—it doesn’t essentially push past daring musical decisions, and maybe that’s intentional. There’s a sensitivity and mindfulness in how these Prodigy verses are dealt with. With that in thoughts, there’s not a lot of an evolutionary leap ahead of their catalog, nevertheless it’s not a regression both.

Nas and Havoc elevate mafioso rap right into a grown-man period, the place references to goomars and sneaky hyperlinks really feel extra aligned with the life-style of New York’s Italian mobsters than with avenue parallels. “Down for You” with Jorja Smith—and its sequel, “Love the Approach (Down for You Pt. 2)” that includes H.E.R.—enable the artwork of seduction to circulation by their wordplay. It’s grown and horny, but Prodigy’s presence feels mildly misplaced on the previous in comparison with the latter. On “Down For You,” Nas and Havoc’s steamy lyrical interaction will get slowed down by Prodigy’s dated braggadocio—champagne and watch manufacturers that haven’t been rapped about for the reason that early 2010s. Nonetheless, Havoc’s potential to intertwine the dreamy vocals of two of R&B’s most trusted voices expands his manufacturing palette with out sacrificing grit.

Infinite stays rooted within the underground purity of hip-hop—one thing Havoc has delved deeper into since P’s passing—but these moments enable for a broader attain. Finally, this album is in regards to the legacy of Mobb Deep: honoring their inception and the affect that’s seeped by generations.

Clipse proceed their impeccable 2025 run with their look on the hard-hitting “Look At Me,” the place Pusha T, Malice, and Havoc commerce verses like scenes from a criminal offense thriller bouncing between Virginia and Queensbridge. It’s that very same cinematic rigidity that made The Notorious resonate so deeply. The vitality carries by to “Clear Black Nights,” which reunites Raekwon and Ghostface with Havoc and Prodigy. Throughout the mission, Havoc flips attractive vocal melodies into hypnotic loops, and nowhere is that clearer than right here, as 4 giants commerce bars. Ghost and Rae—who additionally launched albums as a part of the Legend Has It sequence—ship vividly image-forward verses that paint each the luxurious and grit of New York’s underbelly. Their vitality doesn’t fairly mirror Havoc and Prodigy’s grounded gratitude for hip-hop, nevertheless it enhances it. The inclusion of Massive Noyd on “The M, The O, The B, The B” ties the mission again to Mobb Deep’s beginnings.

There’s a palpable rigidity between Havoc’s evolution as an artist and the timelessness of Prodigy’s voice that runs by the album. In some moments, it echoes the divisiveness of their G-Unit period—significantly on the platinum-tinged “Straightforward Bruh” or the patois-laced “Gunfire”—turning even their extra polarizing sounds into nostalgia. However then there’s “Pour The Henny,” which captures how prophetic Prodigy was as an MC, somebody whose consciousness of his legacy transcended his lifetime: “… I’ll die starin’ up on the cosmos / Laid out ’til my coronary heart come to a cease after which my eyes shut / I lived a full life, don’t cry for me.”

We could by no means know what a Mobb Deep album in 2025 would sound like if Prodigy had been nonetheless alive. However Infinite isn’t in regards to the “what ifs” of Mobb Deep’s legacy. It’s a physique of labor that ties up free ends and stands as a testomony to the perspective, affect, and basis Havoc and Prodigy constructed three many years in the past. And due to that, each considered one of Prodigy’s posthumous verses hits tougher, realizing they had been lastly introduced to the world beneath the precise context.

HotNewHipHop customers rated Mobb Deep’s Infinite 4.55 out of 5 stars, based mostly on 10 critiques. One consumer specifically praised the album as a return to type, writing, “Good album and a return to the Mobb Deep sound we love. The final time we had that constantly true Mobb Deep sound was on the album Homicide Muzik.” One other wrote, “rip prodigy, cant consider we received yet one more gem.”