2. Mobb DeepThe Infamous
I’m not a hip hop head, but by 1995, jungle had gone through its ragga, dancehall influences and started taking hip hop influences on, and that’s how I discovered Mobb Deep. This is a real summer album but also it’s dark as well.
It reminds me of that peak of summer where it’s really hot and there can be an edge of violence in the air, especially in the inner cities. There’s a crisp, clean quality to the production, and I sample quite a lot of it for my Basic Rhythm side project. The amount of times I’ve sampled Prodigy or Havoc just saying “Yeah” is ridiculous. Even now, it still stands the test of time. It’s a solid album from beginning to end.
