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Interviews:
Although the hype surrounding Mobb Deep's recent Murda Muzik was tremendous earlier this year, a portion of the buzz was a direct result of the set being bootlegged and distributed illegally on the Internet. Artists such as Onyx and Brand Nubian have bemoaned potentially damaging bootlegging practices for years, yet Mobb Deep's Queensbridge Murderers Havoc and Prodigy have a decidedly different take on the situation.
"You've got to move up with the times," Havoc says. "As far as the bootlegging is concerned, it probably helped us more than it hurt us. If we was a group just coming out and our sh-t got bootlegged like that, we probably would have been in mad trouble. If you're a dominant artist, bootlegging is not going to hurt you as much as everybody says."
Prodigy concurs. "I don't have a problem with it," he says of bootlegging. "You've got to pay attention to it and regulate your sh-t. You've just got to deal with it in a proper manner, like we did it by putting five extra songs [on the album] that weren't on the bootleg. Then you have to buy the album. We just went in and kept working."
Known for their four brilliant and brutal albums (1995's The Infamous is widely heralded as a classic), Mobb Deep stand as one of hip-hop's most consistent and respected groups. Havoc and Prodigy's chilling tales of life in Queensbridge and Havoc's haunting production make a formidable, if not disturbing, combination. Full of rage, despair, and hunger for a better existence, Mobb Deep's music serves as the soundtrack for the downtrodden.
Like others before them, Mobb Deep will take their intense vision to the big screen. Their Murda Muzik movie, which Prodigy wrote, should arrive either in theaters or direct-to-video by the end of 1999. Modeled after their music, the flick stars Big Noyd and Godfather as project dwellers working to better themselves and their surroundings.
For Prodigy, the film is simply a visual adaptation of his lyrics.
"I'm treating this like it's our album," he says. "I'm treating it like a piece of artwork that we're putting out there to the world. Just like our lyrics are real detailed and graphic, the movie is going to be the same way."
In addition to their film, the Mobb Deep family will be releasing Big Noyd's next album as well as Infamous Mobb's debut set independently. Then there's Prodigy's solo album, which should arrive in the first half of 2000. He and Havoc will work together on the set, making it feel like another Mobb Deep album.
Despite their entrance into new media, Mobb Deep display the same resolve that gives them the confidence to create music that isn't suited for heavy rotation on radio and video stations.
"There should be no fear to make your music," Havoc says. "If you're scared to make what you feel, you shouldn't be making it at all."
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