Mobb Deep

Hardcore hip-hop rarely comes at you swinging and spitting quite like Queens duo Mobb Deep. In many ways, Havoc and Prodigy evoke the titling of their moonlit, streets-is-watching single "Quiet Storm," through songs that are bleak and ominous with a 99% chance of heavy rain (or, in this case, rhymes). That doesn't mean they aren't accessible, though — quite the contrary as the pop subtleties of Infamy and a recent debut for 50 Cent's G-Unit label/crew, Blood Money, show in spades.

Juvenile Hell was the jump-off point for Mobb Deep, but The Infamous remains their undisputed '90s NYC rap classic right alongside Nas' Illmatic and Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt. Hear why via the handclap haze of "Right Back at You," the bullet-riddled cop chase of "Cradle to the Grave," and the baiting beats and rhymes of "Give Up the Goods (Just Step)." Nearly a decade later, Mobb Deep came the closest to matching their definitive work through the eternal darkness of Amerikaz Nightmare.

Are you an up-and-coming rap producer looking for someone to scuff your tracks up a bit; maybe even leave them bloodied and bruised? Look no further than Mobb Deep, as exhibited in these guest spots for the Alchemist (the punchy piano keys of "Dead Bodies," the street-level soul of "Ticket Tock"), bumping right alongside dream pairings with 50 Cent (the furious funk of "You a Shooter") and Nas (the spare beats and buried horror-movie keys of "Self Conscience").

It's hard to imagine anyone turning Thomas Dolby's playful synth-pop song "She Blinded Me With Science" into the backing track of a dread-laced rap song, but that's exactly what Mobb Deep excels at (see "Got It Twisted") — flipping the light switch off on everything they touch without ever sounding like a gangsta rap caricature. It's hard to tell if they'll ever top the prime time narratives of 1995's The Infamous, but if the bounce-back tracks of latter-day work, like Blood Money and Amerikaz Nightmare, are any indication, we certainly haven't heard the last of Queens' creepiest Scarface emulators.