Originally marketed as gimmicky teen, horror-core rappers, Mobb Deep’s Havoc and Prodigy underwent one of the great reinventions in pop music with their sophomore LP, The Infamous. Recasting themselves as grizzled veterans from New York’s crack wars, Mobb Deep painted a cold and unforgiving landscape in their rhymes and music: less bombastic than Wu-Tang, less boastful than Biggie, but no less effective as part of the vanguard that brought reality rap to hip-hop’s fore.