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Havoc of Mobb Deep & Noyd Interview 2020

The Infamous Mobb Deep is a pioneering rap group that emerged from the 90’s era of New York they are one of those groups to create a gritty but timeless sound, with their tracks turning into instant classics. As I waited for Havoc and Big Noyd to join me for a chat, Mariah Carey played in the background of the hotel lobby, instant nostalgia of, The Roof remix Feta. Mobb Deep came to mind, it was my favourite R&B / Hip Hop collaboration of all time and reminded me of how diverse their discography was. Then QB’s finest Havoc and Big Noyd joined me to talk about legacy, music, and life.

FAIZAH: I am really happy to see you back in London

HAVOC: Word, we happy to be back

FAIZAH: Congratulations on your 20th Anniversary of Murda Muzik, I can’t believe it’s been 20 years how does it feel?

HAVOC: Thank you*EVERYONE CHEERS* Feels just yesterday, time is flying so fast know what I mean? But it feels good though.

FAIZAH: I think you have a lot of tracks that are timeless classics, they never age, if you listen to them today they have the same impact. I noticed today there was a younger crowd which I think is really cool, that they are going back through the archives to listen to Mobb Deep. Have you noticed this throughout your tour?

HAVOC: Yeah often when we tour a lot we often get surprised by the younger audiences. Rarely do we tour these days and see an audience of the same age of our generation they don’t really come out too much. It’s always the younger audience. So it’s a good feeling to see that they go back and listen to music that came before them you know what I mean?

NOYD: That’s exactly what they doing they going back and checking their history, which I love the most because those are the real hip hop heads. That’s why we doing what we do, we grown up listening to Marvin Gaye, real music stuff like that, Stevie Wonder so we did our homework learning melodies, learning producing, stuff like that. I can see the young people now coming to our show doing the same thing.

FAIZAH: That must be a great feeling as music has changed so much today. So how has the tour been so far?

HAVOC: The tour has been pretty good so far – tiring because we barely get days off, but it's been real good sold-out shows.

NOYD: And like you said the younger kids coming out and some of the older fans coming out at the same time and seeing the mixed groups together and showing nothing but love we appreciate it the tour was great.

FAIZAH: So you came to the show straight off the plane but with nothing but energy how do you do it what’s your secret?

HAVOC: The secret is not wanting to let your fans down, so even if we don’t got no fucking energy we got to fake it like we got energy for the fans. People have paid their money to come and see you so you can’t just be like, I’m tired. You got to pull that energy from deep within and be like fuck it.

NOYD: That’s exactly what it is. The fans are there, you draw energy from them.

FAIZAH: I respect that. I recently re-watched the Murda Muzik movie that you made have you seen it recently you all look so young and there are some great cameos in there.

HAVOC: laughs no I haven’t seen that recently

FAIZAH: I wish you would do another one now.

HAVOC: You never know, word up we might do a part 2 or even a remake.

NOYD: Mobb Deep Forever!

FAIZAH: Noyd you’ve been touring with Havoc a lot filling in for Prodigy’s verses (God bless his soul). Many people think no one else could cover those but you. A lot of people want to hear you make an album together is that something you have planned?

NOYD: There’s so much stuff that we’ll be doing. Like you even mentioned the movie. It’s kinda easy for me to hold down Havoc with the Prodigy verses, I’ve been touring with Mobb Deep even when Prodigy was alive, all of my life. We know this is a point in our lives where we got to be there for one another. So whatever each one of us needs, we are going to be there for one another. There is A LOT coming.

FAIZAH: I’m looking forward it! Favourite tracks from Murda Muzik to perform?

HAVOC: Quiet storm, It’s Mine..

FAIZAH: There are so many classics on that one album. Is it true that when you were about to release Murda Muzik it was heavily bootlegged and you had to add extra tracks? Which ones did you add?

HAVOC: Yeah it’s true we had to add new tracks*laughs* I can’t even remember which ones it was so long ago. But that shit got bootlegged, pardon my French and we had to do it over, that hurt my feelings.

NOYD: But you know what is so crazy, it did hurt but I remember these words that Havoc said, ‘If they’re not bootlegging your shit then there’s something wrong’. Especially at that time, if they weren’t bootlegging your shit, they weren’t stressing to get it before the album came out it wasn’t right. So we did have to go back and make a lot of new music, they bootlegged our shit but it was actually a good thing for us.

FAIZAH: So it put the word out on the street that your had a new album coming and it was hot.

NOYD: Right

FAIZAH: It was a different time then we didn’t have YouTube and social media, everyone has their phones up recording at the show now. I guess that really helps give you global exposure and finding your music. How you do find it nowadays with streaming and music being online, in terms of artists, do you think it’s better for you?

HAVOC: You know what I think its like a good and a bad thing right, it can be good and sometimes it can be bad. On one hand people get to see you all over the world instantaneously, and on the other hand it could mean that too much content is out and they aren’t paying for it. Before people may have paid to see you perform but now they can see you on YouTube.

FAIZAH: It’s never the same though!

HAVOC: It’s not the same as in person, but some people may not be able to travel to you to see you perform or you might never go where they live to perform so they can see you online. So like I said it’s a good and a bad thing. It’s the way the world has gone.

NOYD: For me I don’t like it at all. I remember the days traveling on the trains going to pick up mixtapes, listening to radio, pressing record at a certain time, it made me hungry and it also enlightened me, I learnt a lot, who was this person speaking, where they live, where did they come from cos you pay more attention when you work for it. Anything that comes easy goes away really fast, you know what I’m saying? When you work hard for it, it sticks around forever. So for me I’m not hating on the technology, I get it as a business, but I never felt that Mobb Deep or real Hip Hop music was a business. I know it is, don’t get me wrong, if you got kids you need to buy a house and put a roof over their heads, it is a business but we were never in that state of mind where it’s a business, this music is real to us. Real.

FAIZAH: That’s one thing that really makes Mobb Deep stand out for me, the fact that you never really compromised your music style, you were pioneers which helped bring this type of rap to everyone, a wider audience. How did you do that?

HAVOC: It was our love for the art, for Hip Hop. Loving to create and be original and not be like anybody else it just made us produce something that withstood the test of time. We didn’t set out to do that, we didn’t set out to make money, we did it from the heart. When you do something from the heart it reflects in your music.

FAIZAH: I realized that music is a reflection of a period of time and things have changed so much now the music has to change so I try and appreciate it a lot more now.

HAVOC: It’s like having a child, you have a kid and it’s started to get older and you’re like, please stay a baby, don’t’ grow but you got to grow. That’s what happens to music, fuck it, it’s out of your hands its our of the home leaving the nest. Then you go back and look at the pictures.

NOYD: I like that it’s dope its so real.

FAIZAH: Havoc, I want to give you props for your production. I really feel that you are underrated as a producer.

HAVOC: At least I’m rated at all Laughs

FAIZAH: My personal question is, will you be doing something with Nas?

HAVOC: That’s a definite given, with Nas that’s a given, we in touch, we speak to each other I send him a couple of track, but he’s real picky that’s why you haven’t heard nothing yet, but eventually.

HAVOC: Nas dropped the Lost Tapes II recently, he makes music timeless. I’m not just saying that because he’s my man, not everybody can do that.

FAIZAH: Did you start producing before you were rapping or did you start at the same time?

HAVOC: No, No I started rapping first. I didn’t have money for equipment. What I used to do was I had a double cassette tape, I used to find a part of an old song that I liked, then record play, record play until I came up with a new beat. That was the first time at like 13 years old. Then once I got my hand on some equipment… laughs

FAIZAH: Then it was game over!

HAVOC:*laughs* I was like I can do more shit.

NOYD: Then you learn more as well.

HAVOC: And I’m still learning to this day

FAIZAH: Did you teach yourself how to produce?

HAVOC: Yeah I just watched a few tutorials, then a friend told me something and the rest we just all figure it out, like reverse engineering.

FAIZAH: You have a lot of talent to be rapping at your level and to be producing to a high standard too, most people couldn’t even master one aspect in their lifetime but you have mastered two. Out of rapping and producing is there one your prefer doing?

HAVOC: I aint gonna lie to you I love both of then, I love to be able to write and write some shit to amaze myself. Sometimes Literarily my adrenaline be pumping when I’m writing cos I write with the intention that there’s a million people listening to me. So when I’m writing I’m a little bit nervous, I’ll be like nah nah nah I can’t write that shit. And when it comes to the beats it’s the same thing, it’s almost like digging for a pot of gold, you’re digging and you’re digging and you feel like you’re getting closer and you heart is racing and pumping and you’re like oh shit this beat is crazy arrrrgh!

FAIZAH: Do you find it just as easy to write today as you used too back then?

HAVOC: It never was easy to write, I just have to be in a certain mood. If I’m not feeling it I won’t force it. I won’t write. Sometimes I just feel some shit so I just write, you know what I mean?

FAIZAH: When you get inspired. Do you have little notes everywhere of rhymes?

HAVOC: You should see my room I got loads of unfinished rhymes everywhere.

FAIZAH: So lots more albums to come ?

HAVOC: Yes, totally!! Trust me.

FAIZAH: Do you have any unreleased music?

HAVOC: Yes all in my computer upstairs laughs

FAIZAH: Get some of those old instrumentals and call Nas

HAVOC: And call Nas haha

FAIZAH: You recently performed at the Humanity for Palestine in London, that’s where we first connected. How did you get involved in that?

HAVOC: By the grace of God, the people who were running the event, they hit us up and they asked us if we wanted to be a part of the movement that they was doing. You know naturally…. [pauses]

FAIZAH: It is quite controversial

HAVOC: Yeah you don’t want to get too political. As an artist sometimes you want to stay neutral, but then again sometimes you do have to use your platform because people are listening to you for good. You sometimes can’t ignore everything, you have a platform. So we agreed to do the event.

FAIZAH: I was so happy to see Mobb Deep and the movement in one event.

HAVOC: You can’t be mad at that, what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong.

FAIZAH: Did you receive any backlash from that event?

HAVOC: Not that I know of, but who cares. If it does come, so what. As I said what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong. As a black man I know all about inequality and people being treated wrongly. And I’m not calling anybody anything, I’m not trying to point out somebody and say all of y’all are bad because you are oppressing these people, I’m just not going to do that but the powers that be that are in control maybe they should think about people on the other end as if it was them. If the shoe was on the other foot. We do know the shoe was on the other foot before. They understand. I’m sure there are other people who understand what’s going on and time will heal all of these wounds it can’t be like this forever. That’s why I would support something like this, at the same time I wouldn’t try to demonize anybody. That’s what not what I’m here to do, but I’m here to shine a light on a situation to try to help make something better for people because that was done for my peoples and we are still going through stuff in the United States. People who are going through things, whatever it is they all need to stick together, there is one voice.

FAIZAH: The power of mass movements. Would you consider going out to Palestine?

HAVOC: God willing, definitely. I would love to go, if the promoters book us we’ll be out there.

NOYD: One of the biggest things they say which goes way back is, You got to stand for something or you fall for everything.

FAIZAH: Thank you so much for your time, I love your energy. Is there anything you want to add?

HAVOC: We just wanna thank all the fan out there from Mobb Deep. Thank you for bringing us to where we are today. Rest in Peace Prodigy forever, Mobb Deep forever and thank you for the interview.