Mobb Deep has revealed that they had the opportunity to record with the Notorious B.I.G. on the Havoc-produced track “Last Day” in 1997, but blew off the chance for collaboration. Speaking with MTV’s Mixtape Daily, Prodigy and Havoc explained that they were strictly focused on their own career and didn’t pay attention to Biggie.
“A lot of the people were coming on the block back in the days when Biggie had ‘Party and Bullsh–,’ his first record, and they would play it. I wasn’t into it,” said P. “I was focused on Mobb Deep. I had tunnel vision: I really didn’t give a f— what anybody was doin’ in rap music, except for Mobb Deep and Nas and our little circle. Everything else was irrelevant to me.”
When presented with the opportunity to duet with B.I.G., the Queens, New York rappers weren’t feeling it. “I told Hav I just really didn’t want to do that. That was my opinion at that time,” said Prodigy, who started listening to Big after he passed. “I started liking Biggie. After he started heating up, I started re-listening to it. I was like, ‘This kid is alright. I like, son.’ […] Sometimes that happens in life though.”
Havoc explained that he had a similar mindset with the Lost Boyz. “I definitely wasn’t checking for other people. I missed a lot of stuff in the ’90s that I like now. I just had tunnel vision,” he said. “There was a lot of dope acts that was out back in the ’90s, like the Lost Boyz. I never paid attention to their stuff.”
Similar to their attitude towards B.I.G.’s music, Havoc came around to liking Lost Boyz years later. “Now, when I look back on it and I listen to their stuff now, it’s like, ‘Yo, they had that sh–.’ They always kept the party poppin’. I really appreciate their music, and I’m glad that they made it,” he said. “That’s ill that they are even a part of the era that we came from.”
RELATED: Mobb Deep & Nas To Collaborate On Full-Length LP, Says Havoc
P cool n all, but Biggie woulda roast that nigga on any collaboration. Trust me. So P could talk that “I was feelin son shit” but it is what it is. Big was a legend by the time his first joint dropped.
Prodigy was still “Prodigy” back then. It would have been a nice collabo.
not ’97 post Hell on earth Prodigy…around that time P did a song with Big Pun and Inspeckah Deck and had arguably the best verse…my nigga use to be a beast on the mic
I`m with Dwayne,Prodigy was one of the illest emcee`s comin` out of N.Y. from The Infamous album all the way to the H.N.I.C. album. He ain`t been the same since the Takeover though. But I still check for him.
oh that’s why prodigy is now diggin wiz khalifa, wacka flacka, odd future and rick sauce huh ?! cause he does not want to sleep on these dudes and regret it a few years later ??
fuckin bullshit, every news of this folks make me realise how I overestimated them
It’s because he’s been in prison for the last three years, and now the boy appreciate’s life and every godamn thing on the outside.
I can relate to him appreciating people gettin it in and having fun, but some of these these ALIENS in the industry need eliminating fast, but I’m afraid that it might just be too late!!
udontgiveafuck…but ur wining sure makes u sound like a little bitch, no joke. i was never a big prodigy fan, but i respect a guy who admits his shortcomings and and mistakes and is still comfortable with himself at the end of the day.
He has been putting out nice work lately, better than i expected. mobb deep needs a real NY album with havoc & alchemist production…maybe throw in a premier track and something from a local queens guy grinding out time in the studio.
@Disappointed
well i think the little bitch is the one catching feelings over a statement which was not intended for him in the first place
express your thoughts and respect others points of view instead of complaining bout what i just said
this is only a hip-hop site, my guess is you take it too seriously over some shit which does not mean that much if you give a second thought
who’s feeling like a bitch now ?
What does Hip Hop remember Mobb Deep for? Shook One’s Part 2 and that’s it. Great one hit wonder group.
lets see g.o.d pt 3, quiet storm, frontlines, dont get it twisted, and the entire infamous album and quiet storm was alot bigger than shook ones far from one hit wonders
its clear that you know nothing about music if thats all you can come up with when you mention the mobb…u fool!!..lol..murda musik might be the greatest group album ever ever as far as lyrics and production…hell on earth was a bangin ass album..prodigy verse on still shinin and his verse on nighttime vultures are master pieces..oh and did i forget hnic? if you dont think thats clasic you need to go and look back. know hnic is a prodigy solo but it still reps mobbdeep to me cause the sound never changed..and if you never heard return of the mac go back and listen to that..that album is straight fire..banga after banga..no skips.
just naming the hits dickhead
Shane… Anonymous isn’t speaking about you. He’s speaking about the clown named The Real who said that dumb ish.
Capital P was top 5 at a point in the 90s. P was penning and spitting classical lines and verses.
And if P holds his own with Nas, Biggie would be not a problem. Nas eats BIG up lyrically, not by much though.
Shane, this is Kane. Eat a dick my nigga.
OK P might be “slightly” slippin these days…but sayin that they 1 hit wonder ???
Totally Bullshit real heads remember Hell on Earth standout tracks like extortian with Meth 90% of that album is straight classic.
I guess good or wrong that stubborn mentality gave us such classics as ‘The infamous’ , ‘Hell on Earth’, ‘Murda Muzik’ and ‘HNIC’…
Then again that muzik coming out today does not sell. Because it RnB Hip Pop these days and people seem to long for that soft cute shit
I’m pretty sure any real hiphop fans would disagree with that. Infamous, Hell On Earth, and Murda Muzik were all classic albums.
These young ignorant ass hip-hop fans today are hilarious. How you gunna call Mobb Deep a one hit wonder. They have at least three classic albums… that more than lil wayne or drake got. And then you gunna call yourself The Real. If you knew how fake your favorite rappers really are you would probably cry.
Add me to the list that consider Lost Boyz > Mobb Deep. I’m not going so far as to call Mobb Deep one-hit wonders, but I had a hard time getting into them. In that era I was much more listening to the west coast sound; I bought Hell On Earth out of curiousity and can say with certainty that it got less spins than Legal Drug Money and Love, Peace & Nappiness. I’m sure that there are others that feel the opposite, though.
dont know if biggiw wouldve roasted prodigy..at that time prodigy was as ill as anyone..take prodigy during the murda muzic era and he is easily one of the best…ever
The Lost Boys actually had a decent run, so the casual hip hop observer could easily say that some people might actually remember them more than they do Mobb Deep. I think with some better career decisions, Mobb could have really cemented themselves.
Prodigy always been a hater!
This kid is nice though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9uDhY9Sb5Y
if prodigy could hold his own against nas what makes you think big wouldve roasted him with ease…nas is much better then big ever was lyricily..i know it eats big fans to hear that but its the truth..nas is much better then big lyricly and prodigy held his own with nas more then once..if you dont believe me listen to self concience..listen to a song called tick tock..on tick tock i think prodigy actually spit the better verse.
Prodigy never held his own with Nas. Never. Havoc on the other hand might have but not Prodigy. He’s kind of weak.
Lyricism is one thing, but saying a lot of complicated words that rhyme isn’t necessarily better than saying something powerful with fewer and simpler words. Biggie had those one lines that stand out, and he also created a strong feel for what he was saying. Wordplay wasn’t as intricate as Nas, but I don’t know if you can compare / say one is better. Prodigy on the other hand isn’t on the superior level that Nas and B.I.G are period.
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they didnt like biggie or lost boyz back in the day ? kinda crazy ..
the 90’s was the best era in hip hop .
everybody was dope and making classic albums . from west to east
Nas Biggie, Nore, Busta,Dmx,Wu-tang,Fat Joe,Big Pun,Gangstarr,Dre,Snoop,Mobb Deep,KRS One,2pac,even canabis was ok back then, LL cool j,Foxy Brown,Big L,Juvenille,EPMD,Keith Murray,Redman,Too Short,MOs Def, Cypress Hill, all those DJ Rectangle mix tapes they were the days…
Who the hell was Mobb Deep’s manager back in the day? Talk about serious fail.
ur fuckin lame as hell
I am from the South. Niggas here was digging Biggie from jump.
for prodigy to say he didnt listen to B.I.G. until he died is bullshit! For a minute ,B.I.G. was east coast hip hop. To compare p and B.I.G. IS A JOKE. He cant fuck with nas either.
I can see one thing, Lost boyz are classic, but back in the day when hip hop was turning to its prime. There were so many artists popping off, and a lot of them probably didn’t get the recognition til later. But the way prodigy talked about Biggie was pretty stupid. You’d have to be bubble boy miss a dude like biggie.
acid da savage , prodigy , nas , havoc ,
I understand where P was coming from. The Infamous and Illmatic albums were just as good, if not better than Ready to Die, imo
illmatic was at least 12x better then both Ready to Die
Ready to Die >>>> Illmatic
Reasonable Doubt >>>> Illmatic
Hop off Nas’ dick
hop off gay z dick u bitch
and joe budden sucks
Prodigy Shut the fuck up, u know damn well u had the Ready to die album and the life after death album as well, when he was alive, 1st u lie ur ass off on ur $2.99 nobody want to read book, now this bullshit, GTFOH Mobb Sleep
who the hell cares what these washed up niggas got to say about biggie or anybody else for that matter.i swear every other day they got a mob deep interview or comment out like these cats is fresh or new and the ass came out like 20 years ago.whos ass are they kissing to get all the press they been recieving or is it dx like always.fuck mob deep love biggie fuck mob deep as a crew rap if you like mob deep then fuck you too hip hop dx fuck you to all you motherfuckers fuck you die slow.just kidding lol
you talking too much but iknow your album will fail, by now iknow which album sells and which ones flops
this is so direspectful, y even mention this, what u thought u were better than BIG now u regret not workin wit him cause hes dead, ur loss, keep it movin, y u bringin up ol shit, oh yeah ur desperate for attention lil bitch, havoc is that dude on the beats and the rhymes but fuck a p
It really doesnt make sense that Prodigy wasnt paying attention to Biggie back then when Pac dissed both him and Biggie on a track and in interviews so obviously he must have paid attention to Biggie…. Unless maybe he just didnt like Biggie then to not pay attention to him at all. Well, back in the 90s new york rappers were hating on each other anyway so i wouldnt be surprised!
Oh well, it is what it is…
Rappers who don’t listen to other rappers will ultimately fail. That’s like being an NBA player and not watching games your not in. Or being a Nascar driver and not watching races. Or being an Artist and never going to Art shows.
It’s dumb. But I know a lot of emcees that have that mentality.
I hear you on that. You gotta check for your competition. But when Mobb Deep was doing they thing back then, they had nothing but classics under they belts. I used to want to hear a song with them and Big. Didn’t understand why they didn’t especially since they fucked with Puffy.
Fuck Mobb Deep the LoX did a good job on last days with Biggie.
I dont understand why mobb deep is constantly doing interviews and shit??? Nobody will buy there new album.
Nobody cares.
Prodigy is WHACK. His BLOOD is all over THE WALL thanks to GOAT Budden.
^^^ THIS GUY IS A CLOWN WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT HIP HOP.
Why is this a big deal. So he didn’t wasn’t all into Biggie’s ass. So what? He had his own record out. He doing shows and establishing his own career. He was carving his own niche. He didn’t need Big. So fuck Big, plain and simple.
Damn ya’ll be wanting these egomaniacal rappers to sit around and sing Kumbaya…that shit ain’t happening. Not everybody is friends. Not everybody works together. Not everybody gives a fuck about another persons success. It’s life.
Someone please tell these cat’s from Mobb Deep to shut up, especialy Prodigy everytime they open up there mouth you can tell they have no sense of business, from then till now, from haven they own label too signing with Gunit, to not having a label for they new stuff yet, Prodigy how you going to say Big was aight, nigga biggie was bring fire from day one, to hov talking about Lost boyz songs he wasnt feeling, when everybody know the Lost Boyz had the street popping too they joint, Mobb Deep is crazy.
i wasnt feelin biggie when he first came out with party and bullshit too, but i got into his shit after that, sometimes i think it takes a while for someone to start likin somethin specially in that era cz there was many big acts and i remember the first biggie record that i actually liked was “listen to the b-side” with Da Brat in 1995 and it made me go out and pick up ready to die, everybody have their own story
Yes, someone does need to tell them to shut the hell up and not speak in public again until the album drops. Everyone has their tastes and its not a crime if you weren’t feeling biggie, but I have to wonder if it was hating. Tell me you had a chance to record with biggie in 93 and you slept on it and I would understand, but by 97, if you did not like him them, you were never gonna like him. You’d had four years to listen to his album and his guest spots and decide, so was it that you weren’t feeling him, or was it hating?
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Nothing wrong with this at all, its probably why their stuff still sounded original at the time.