It’s been 28 years since Mobb Deep dropped the classic album The Infamous. And it would make sense for us to do a Classic Material style post for that album, but we already did. Way back in 2009.
So let me pick a song off the album for Song of the Week. “Shook Ones, Pt. II” seems to be the easy choice because it’s easily the most iconic song off the album, but that may be too on the nose. So let’s go with the Q-Tip featured and produced “Drink Away the Pain (Situations).”
When first listening to this song, I always liked the beat, which samples “I Remember I Made You Cry” by The Headhunters. But at the time, the verses seemed kind of off. Prodigy’s verse comparing his love of alcohol to women was dope and fit the theme (“Met her back in ’89, now she’s 22, actin’ like she 40”). So was Havoc’s but just not as good. But why the hell was Q-Tip rapping about designer clothing labels?; he even changed the hook. Looking back, I guess you can’t have the Tribe Called Quest leader and Native Tongues member rapping about Hennessy. I guess.
Of course, all of these thoughts were 30 years ago, and everything now with “Drink Away the Pain (Situations)” fits perfectly, and Q-Tip’s verse is basically iconic (“Tommy Hil’ was my nigga, and others couldn’t figure”). But that’s enough of me rambling. Happy anniversary to Mobb Deep’s The Infamous. R.I.P. Prodigy. Check out the Song of the Week below.