Line For Line: Mobb Deep - Hell on Earth

posted on Nov 08, 2005
Mobb Deep - Hell on Earth

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“Sometimes I wonder, do I deserve to live, or am I going to burn in hell for all the things I did?” On the monolithic “Shook Ones Part II”, Havoc’s brain reacted before he could answer that question. Perhaps that was just as well, since a year later both Havoc and partner-in-crime Prodigy realized that the two options were not mutually exclusive. The realization came in the form of Mobb Deep’s third album: Hell on Earth, and it is that LP’s title track that gives us fascinating glimpse at the Mobb’s personal vision of Hell. Grab your fireproof black Timbs and let’s take a look…

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Verse One: Prodigy

Yo, the saga begins: begin war
I draw first blood, be the first to set it off
My cause: tap all jaws, lay down laws
We take what was yours, we do jooks, rush the doors
Here come the D’s, time to make breeze, and guns toss
In full force, my team’ll go at your main source
My nine taurus, hit bosses and take hostage
Your whole setup, from the ground up we lock shit

The advice to handle detectives (“D’s”) by leaving and dropping your gun is surprising, especially coming from the group who recorded the beyond-confrontational “Cop Hell". However, after examining this statement within its proper context, the logic behind it becomes clear. The surrounding lines describe going after (anonymous) competitors; any retaliation against the police is notably absent. To flip one-time Mobb affiliate Extra P’s baseball analogy, cops here are not regarded as an opposing team, but rather as umpires – their interference can either help or hinder the success of your own team, depending on the occasion, but it is an innate, unchanging part of the system, not worth resisting. Thus, the declaration that “the enemy is one time”is merely a smokescreen. The real enemies here are rivals, those with whom you are competing for more potent product or bigger market share. This interpretation fits with the type of violence Prodigy describes above: pulling key hits (“hit bosses and take hostage") in order to repossess manufacturing and distribution networks (“your main source”and “your whole setup") simply makes better business sense than indiscriminate death and destruction.
Blood flood your eye, fuck up your optics
Switch to killer instincts for niggas pop shit
Yo nigga Noyd what’s the topic? Nine pound we rocked it
Ninety-six strike back with more hot shit
Illuminate, my team’ll glow like radiation
With no time for patient or complication
Let’s get it done right, my click airtight
Trapped in a never-ending gunfight, where niggas lose stripes
And lose life, jail niggas sendin’ kites to the street
Over some beef that wasn’t fully cooked, finish ’em off
Well done meat, then send twenty-two slug to your head
Travel all the way down to your leg
The image of “a never-ending gunfight”brings to mind the Hell envisioned in Dante’s Inferno, whose inhabitants are condemned to perpetually repeat the punishment assigned for their particular sin.

Chorus:
Aiyyo it’s hell on earth, who’s next or gonna be first
The projects is front line, and the enemy is one time
I ain’t gotta tell you, it’s right in front of your eyes

Verse Two (Havoc):
We rep the QBC, nigga rep yours it’s all love
Milli stacked down, heavenly guarded by hollow tip slug
Then crack down on wannabe thugs, adapt to gat sound
And bow down, slow the fuck up, see how I’m foul now?

The last line here is rife with ambiguity, perhaps intentionally. It’s unclear whether Havoc is bragging about his ruthlessness or lamenting the depth of his descent into corruption. Regardless, the next line immediately offers an example of this foulness. He has grown so accustomed to gunfire that he can tune it out , like a commuter does with the ambient noise of the bus or subway.
Articulate, hittin’ body parts then start shiftin’ shit
Never hesitant, it’s the rap game unlimited
Sign my roster, we can do this, forever infinite
Then reminisce, twenty years later how we was gettin’ it
The “sign my roster”line literally signifies being down with the M-O-B-B, joining the team, running with the crew. Furthermore, it carries connotations of making a deal with the devil and selling one’s soul, a pervasive Western cultural myth (examples include Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Stephen Vincent Benet’s The Devil and Daniel Webster). The resonances here are obvious: short term material gains are offered in exchange for a sacrifice of one’s moral or spiritual self. In this light, the next line becomes a false promise: the devil surely doesn’t wait two decades to collect his debts. Indeed, throughout the entire song, Havoc and Prodigy present only death or jail as options for the future. Hell is an eternal present.
Either with me, go against the grain you better hit me
Leggin’ me or robbin’ me, niggas better body me
Cause it’s a small world and niggas talkin’ like bitches
Bitches singin like snitches, pointin’ you out in pictures
Cause you rep the QBC faithfully, playa hatin’ me
All that bullshit, is just makin’ me
More the better, then concentrate on getting’ cheddar
If shorty set you up you better dead her, I told you
Shape and mold you, son you, then I hold you
Like a pimp mind control you, double edge blow you
Handle B-I like I’m supposed to, the clique is coastal
International, you local, Bacardi mix physically fix
Havoc’s use of “coastal”here reflects the time period when the song was made, near the height of the East/West Coast beef. By 1996, even the most insular five-boroughs representatives were forced to address the threat of a newly risen West (see CNN’s “LA, LA” or Mobb Deep’s own “Drop a Gem on ‘Em”). It is also worth noting that the Third Coast is essentially a nonentity at this point. Despite dope albums from Outkast and UGK, New York rappers in 9-6 could still afford to ignore the South.
Hit you with shit, that’ll leave a loose nigga stiff
Prob-a-lem fixed, son I solved ’em
Pulled him in my world then evolved him to chaos
Walk the beat like around-the-way cops, the average pitstop
QB city Godfather Part III, Gotti Gambino
And Ty Nitty, Scarface rest in peace
The comparison between Mobb Deep and “around-the-way-cops”emphasizes once again that 5-0 are not necessarily regarded as enemies. In addition, the rote, regulated movement of patrolling a territory (see our feature on Dah Shinin’ for more on this theme) provides another parallel with Dante’s Hell. There, the boundaries between the different circles of punishment are carefully policed, and movement between different regions is tightly controlled. One might regard “QB City”as merely one ring of Hell within the larger inferno of New York.

Chorus

Verse Three (Prodigy):
Yo, the heavy metal king, hold big shit with spare clips
You see eclipse when the mac spit your top got split
Layin dead with open eyes close his eyelids
Turn off his lights, switch to darkness, cause deep in the abyss
It’s street life, blood on my kicks, shit on my knife
You’s the wild child, kid cold turnin’ men into mice

These repeated images of darkness/death help explain why the song’s dystopic street vision is accepted and even glorified: it’s simply better than the alternative. Prodigy doesn’t believe in any kind of afterlife; Hell is outside on your front stoop and Heaven is (presumably) nonexistent. In this worldview, Death is imagined as a cold black nothingness, to which anything — even struggle, pain and paranoia — is preferable.
I was born to take power leave my mark on this planet
The phantom of crime rap, niggas is left stranded
Shut down your operation, closed for business
Leave a foul taste in your mouth like Guinness
P.O.W. niggas is found M.I.A.
We move like the Special Forces, Green Beret
Heavily around my throat, I don’t claim
Shit brand new, back in eighty-nine, the same way
The last two lines are the beginning of what is (for me, at least) the most fascinating section of the entire song, in which Prodigy attempts to reconcile his former persona of street thug with his current role as MC. He starts by claiming his steadfastness, but things quickly become more complicated.
The God P walk with a limp see, but simply
To simplify shit, no man can go against me
Test me you must be bent G, don’t tempt me
I had this full clip for so long, it needs to empty
The reason why it full for so long, cause I don’t waste shit
You properly hit, blood in your mouth, so you could taste it
After stating that he hasn’t fired his gun in a long time, P immediately feels obligated to explain why that is. It is, he says, not because he’s been too busy in the studio, but because he is cold and calculating when it comes to bucking shots. While this is consistent with the sort of business-like violence described in Prodigy’s first verse, it also highlights his fundamental insecurity over his identity.
Quiet is kept, I lay back and watch the world spin
I hear thugs, claimin’ that they gonna rob the Mobb
When they see us, I tell you what black, here’s the issue
It’s a package deal, you rob me – you take these missiles
Along with that, I ain’t your average cat
Fuck rap, I’m tryin ‘to make CREAM and that’s that
Whatever it takes however it gots to go down
Four mics on stage, a motherfuckin’ four pound
Speakers leakin’ out sound and niggas leakin’ on the ground
While punctuating a recorded verse is always an arbitrary act, the last two lines here could almost be structured like one of those A:B::C:D double analogies found on standardized tests. Prodigy presents music and violence as essentially identical acts in an effort to maintain a coherent self-image. If this analogy holds true, then Prodigy’s old and new occupations are in fact one and the same, and therefore, he has not changed at all. This is of course, highly debatable, and Prodigy seems to be trying to convince himself as much as the listener.
I could truly care less the God gon’ get his
Regardless blow for blow let’s find out who went hardest
This rap artist used to be a stickup artist
Sometimes I test myself see if I still got it
A live nigga, stay on point, never disregard shit
Once again, Prodigy attempts to show his ties to a past life of criminality, but the very language he uses works against him, implying disconnection through phrases like “used to”and “still". On an unrelated note, the last line may be a reference to Nas’ “Live Nigga Rap,”(also produced by Havoc) which was released earlier in the same year.
Or forget the essence from which I emerged
P is sick, so save that bullshit for the birds
Live up to my word, if I got beef, niggas comin’ in herds
We flush through your clique, get purged
Here is yet another instance where Prodigy complicates his own claims of realness. Even if he never forgets the “essence from which [he] emerged", the fact that he can view it from a distance and describe it as such means that he is removed from it. Finding himself unable to present a convincing, unified statement of identity, Prodigy falls back on “P is sick", a declaration that is as simple as it is unsatisfying.

Ultimately, Prodigy’s schizophrenic state can be traced back to his environment, which binds together the contradictory locales of Hell and Earth. Indeed, who could be expected to maintain a stable self-image in such surroundings? Yet, like many great works in other artistic mediums, “Hell on Earth”succeeds not despite but because of its many contradictions. They keep inviting us to listen again, to try and make sense of what we know is senseless, and to claim our own little piece of Hell.

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Comments for "Line For Line: Mobb Deep - Hell on Earth"

  1. How did no one comment on this yet? I think you did a good job making explicit the various apparent contradictions and reconciliations present in the lyrics and conceit of the song, which is one of my favorites.
    — David    Dec 1, 05:13 PM   
  2. Man. This beat has got me hooked. This is probably my fav Mobb Deep song just because of all the diciphering you just did.

    Wow. This really feels like Hell on Earth.

    Can you do me a favor and decipher more songs? Like Canibus – Poet Laureate Pt II, or some Illmatic songs, or some Wu, anything. You are good at deciphering.
    — Itemersaurus    Dec 2, 02:11 AM   
  3. It may not be the Wu you’re looking for, but Rob did a line-by-line of Ghost’s Woodrow skit
    — David    Dec 2, 04:14 PM   
  4. where can i find that “young luv” emmo bee bee shit at?
    — NevaOne    Dec 13, 03:41 PM   
  5. it’s on J-Love’s Mobb Misses Pt. 1 mixtape: http://www.j-loveonline.com/mobbmisses1throw.html
    You can cop it from his site there. It’s also on a DJ Mr. Cee Mobb Deep mixtape.
    — David    Dec 14, 12:44 AM   

  6. its Beget War not Begin War, otherwise u gots some tight shit here


    — MOBB    Dec 30, 08:02 PM   

  7. Rafi, Michael, et al.—this site is great. I am an idiot for not having happened upon it before. Nice work.


    — Joey    Jan 5, 02:57 PM   

  8. Funny thing Joey. I just discovered yours last week and felt the same way. I need some of your ability for frequent blog posting.


    — rafi    Jan 5, 05:06 PM   

  9. Quality stuff. P’s last verse on this is one of my favorites…in spite of the fact that he got robbed something awful on the set of his own video.


    — Ian    Jan 5, 11:41 PM   

  10. I have been listening to Mobb deep for a long time. I find some of your statements at the very least inadequate. I feel as though you are possibly searching for truths that are not present while in some situations creating your own. Now if this was you objective, you have done a great job. Otherwise, let’s revisit the last few words P said here.“A live nigga, stay on point, never disregard shit… P is sick, so save that bullshit for the birds” I feel like the statement was more complex than you give credit. This is a man with an illness that usually sends people to the grave referencing life and his sickness. When you put that in context with him ending another’s life it adds a certain level of depth not easily found contemporary hip hop. This is one example of many but I would just like to point out the opposing view.


    — Sean P.    Mar 28, 01:06 AM   

  11. Man, I got to salute this whole post as well as the other “line for line” posts. This stuff is excellent and the kind of thing I wish more people would post. Man I love it if you did a breakdown and that entire album as well as other classics.


    — Incilin    Oct 9, 04:38 PM   

  12. this was so hilarious, nice job


    — drew    Oct 10, 08:24 PM   

  13. More information and useful files at http://megaupload.name/


    — Zak70    Jul 9, 05:27 PM   

  14. Cheers for the breakdown, this shit was and still is the bomb..


    — cls    Dec 2, 03:09 PM