Joe Theobald, aka DJ Captain Wormhole, Looks at all things vinyl 

“My gunshots’ll make you levitate, I’m only nineteen but my mind is old, and when the things get for real my warm heart turns cold”

Prodigy, Shook Ones Pt. II IT was tough coming up, on the mean streets of West Swindon.

One time I had all my Pokemon card shinies nicked by some kids from Castleton Road. It was inevitable that the raw sound and gritty lyrics of hardcore East Coast hip-hop would draw me in.

Havoc and Prodigy, two MCs who were raised in Queensbridge, New York, and form the group Mobb Deep, had similarly tumultuous young lives, which is why their greatest work is so miserable.

1995’s The Infamous was the duo’s second full length album and achieved instant recognition as a seminal work in the annals of hip-hop.

The Infamous paints a vivid picture of the strifes and struggles of poverty stricken young men growing up in violent drug-riddled neighbourhoods where guns, crack and murder are everyday occurrences.

The production is sparing in its application, hard drums and eerie samples combine with Prodigy and Havoc’s Queens drawl to engulf the listener in a world familiar to any fans of The Wire.

Guest appearances from Nas, Wu-Tang’s Ghostface Killah and Raekwon and Tribe’s Q-Tip all add gravitas. It’s a New York tour de force and a statement of hip-hop supremacy aimed squarely at the likes of Dre and 2Pac.

Future historians studying the United States during the close of the 20th century won’t be short on media material and hip-hop records might not be the obvious research source, but I do envy the scholar who plugs Mobb Deep in to their ear ports in years to come.

The Infamous is New York’s Gin Lane.

Next week: Pushing wax