In light of the passing of a Hip Hop legend Prodigy of Mobb Deep, it got me thinking about the greatest Hip Hop groups of all time. Then I had to narrow it down to the greatest rap duo of all time, because Wu-Tang is the greatest rap group period. DISCLAIMER… I am from NYC and I was raised in the 90’s on some of the greatest Hip Hop I have ever heard.
There is a lot of great Hip Hop duo’s to consider from all eras and regions. There is EPMD, Eric B. & Rakim, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, UGK, 8Ball & MJG. However, in my humble opinion there are only two groups that are legendary; those groups are Mobb Deep and OutKast. To me the title of the Greatest rap duo of all time is Mobb Deep, yes I know Outkast has had more commercial success, has who some people considered a top 5 lyricist in Andre 3000 ( I don’t agree), and they put Atlanta on the Hip Hop landscape when they won album of the year in 1995. Outkast also had two classic albums, but even with all of that, I still give the nod to Mobb for being the greatest duo of all time.
The Mobb was more relatable to me growing up; I was able to listen to their bars and look outside my window and see it. In the 90’s many NYC kids like me were looking for an identity , Hip Hop was changing, out were the days of the tight jeans, skin tight shirts, boom box stereo systems (…See LL Cool J’s pics from the 80’s lol), and party anthems. In the 90’s we wanted our own thing, we wanted our own styles (fashion and rhyme), so in came the baggy jeans, big shirts, and a more conversational rhyme style. If felt like they were talking over a beat, being hood reporters for lack of a better term. The entire landscape changed, it went from a partying to a more gritty style. We went from not being able to “live without my radio” to tales of drugs and guns. To me no one did that better as a duo than Mobb Deep, the beats by Havoc with Prodigy’s aggressive rhyme style without raising his voice blended perfectly.
Mobb Deep spoke for a generation of teenagers who wanted and needed a voice when they were voiceless; they pioneered a new slang, a new style of rhyming, and Havoc ushered in a new aggressive style of beats, which still had that “Boom Bap” that us Hip Hop head wanted and needed in our music.
Mobb Deep greatest rap duo of all time RIP Prodigy “I got you stuck off the realness…”