Mobb Deep’s Havoc visits Engine Room Audio in New York City, where he sits down with host Angel Diaz to give some insight on the making of what is likely to be Mobb Deep’s final album. The legendary producer tells Billboard how he and the Alchemist crafted the project around the late Prodigy’s vocals and the emotions he felt when making it.
Angel Diaz: Angel Diaz here, hip-hop editor at Billboard, and I’m sitting down with the legendary, living legend Havoc to talk about this upcoming Infinite album.
Havoc: Yep.
Right?
Yep.
That you and Alchemist put together.
Yeah.
So, yeah, let’s, let’s get into it, man, talk about the timeline, right? Like, when did you decide to do this album? Was it, were you already, were you and Peter already, uh, thinking about doing another Mobb album? Or was it after he passed, where you decided to do this?
Well, you know, the last time Mobb Deep did an album was in like, 2014 right? So by the time he passed, the year that he passed, three years had elapsed, um, I don’t think we was talking about a Mobb Deep album at that point yet, you understand what I’m saying, because we was just touring and stuff like that, and touring the new material that we had.
But when he passed away, you know what I’m saying his untimely death, I knew that we had unfinished business. You understand what I’m saying. So it was always in my mind. You know what I mean? But I don’t own Prodigy’s verses right? And the family, you know, rightfully so they have this a grieving period, you know what I mean, where they have to grieve, get their business in order. So, you know, things take time, and it wasn’t something that I could rush, even though, you know, I was all for a Mobb Deep project. You know what I mean, I probably wanted to do it maybe like, you know, four years past Prodigy’s, you know, passing, I was like, you know, let’s do a Mobb Deep album, but had to really get everybody on the same page.
I mean, I could imagine, because it’s not like he passed … like it was like a sudden thing, right? So, like, everybody you were in shock — the family’s in shock, yeah?
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