Mobb Deep

Early career[edit]

Havoc and Prodigy met while both were students at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan—a school that produced creatives like Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, Amy Heckerling, Lee Quiñones, and Fab Five Freddy.^[12] In 1991, they became a duo that went by the name Poetical Prophets.^[13] The name Poetical Prophets was a testament to Prodigy, then Lord-T (The Golden Child), and Havoc's gravitation toward New York conscious hip-hop.^[14] The duo began making a demo tape and employed a guerilla marketing approach to promote themselves.^[15] They would find the addresses of record label headquarters on the back of albums, bring a cassette player, and ask passing artists to listen to their music.^[15] The only artist who stopped to hear their music was Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest; Prodigy recalled, "[Q-Tip] introduced us to Chris Lighty that day and a bunch of people in the Rush Associated Labels in the Def Jam office—that's how we met everybody."^[15] Shortly thereafter, Prodigy signed a solo demo deal with Jive Records and had an uncredited feature on the song "Too Young" by Hi-Five, which appeared on the Boyz n the Hood soundtrack.^[13] Jive decided not to sign Poetical Prophets as a duo.


However, they were featured in Matty C's July 1991 "Unsigned Hype" column in The Source,^[13][16] which helped promote their demo Flavor for the Nonbelievers. The Source dubbed Poetical Prophets a "dynamic duo ... that are fast making a big name for themselves in talent shows and radio stations in the New York area."^[16] The following year, the duo changed their name from Poetical Prophets to "Mobb Deep," in part based on the suggestion of Puff Daddy who was courting them to be the first artists on his newly created imprint, Bad Boy Records.^[14][17] In choosing the moniker, Prodigy noted that "we need[ed] something that described how we were living. When [we] got together to hang out, there would be thirty to forty of us, like a mob. The slang we used when we saw a whole bunch of guys together was . . . 'deep.' Both words together sounded good. Mobb Deep."^[18]


In 1992, Mobb Deep signed with 4th & B'way Records.^[15] They released the single "Peer Pressure" in promotion of their debut album Juvenile Hell.^[15] The album was released in 1993 and featured production from DJ Premier, Large Professor, and Public Enemy-affiliate Kerwin Young. Later that year, Havoc made a guest appearance on the Black Moon album Enta da Stage, on a song titled "U da Man."