Prodigy and Alchemist-Return of the Mac Review

Posted on February 28, 2015 by King Eric Productions

PRODIGY

Mobb Deep signing to G-Unit in 2005 had it both Pros and Cons. From a financial standpoint it was a great move because 50 advanced them with 2 porches, homes, and got them out of label limbo. The Cons however was that it made the group look small time and their album Blood Money felt a bit too G-Unit influenced. By the time 2007 rolled around G-Unit was slowly showing signs of slowly falling due to 50’s oversatuation and that he pretty much isolated his whole camp from the Industry. Prodigy started feeling the urge to take things on a Independent level and received 50’s blessing to do a deal with Koch Records(Which became a topic of Cam and 50’s beef) for 3 solo albums. To further gain interest and also raise speculation of possible tension with Havoc, He wanted to do a album with Mobb in-house producer Alchemist titled Return of the Mac.

The Concept is very unique. Both Prodigy and Al adapt the moniker of gangsters from the movie Hoodlum(Bumpy Johnson and Dutch Shultz) and the overall vibe pays homage to the 70’s Blaxpotation era. This was originally supposed to have been a mixtape to promote Prodigy’s up and coming HNIC 2 album. However the quality of the material was so unique that it was a better idea to release it on retail.

Mac 10 handles was a great street single to promote the album. It was a great ode to the Geto Boys Classic Mind Playing Tricks on me with Prodigy expressing his paranoia of people trying to get him. AL also does a tremendous job of recapturing that classic Mobb Deep sound on songs such as New York Shit(which ironically samples Tupac), Stuck On You, and Rotten Apple.

This album showed that Prodigy still have some left in the tank.To be frank, The abstract days of him flowing like he did on Apostle’s Warning are long and gone. But he can still ride a beat pretty well and the content range from gun talk(Bang on Em) to tackling the hypocrisy of religion(7th Heaven) to gangsterism(Nickle and a Nail). The album flows through like a mini movie on wax due to the nice sound-scape.

Aside from a couple of mishaps, This was the album Prodigy needed to show that Mobb Deep was a force at that time. He also showed that he can still put out good music when he has the right producers behind him.

Vic Da Ruler

8.5 out of 10

About King Eric Productions

King Eric is apart of Off The Cuff Radio is a North Carolina based Internet radio show(on blog talk radio) set up to give extra promotion for up and coming artists. Off The Cuff Radio is also a platform for legendary acts whom want to reintroduce themselves and tell their story for a new audience. Off The Cuff Radio has interviewed over 365 artists and counting. Many artists have since acquired new label deals, platforms, and received new found acknowledgement after being apart of the show. King Eric(Eric Massenburg) is a Radio Host, Reporter, Blogger, Music Curator and writer whom got his head start in hip hop media in 2000. He was inspired by the Source and XXL to pursue writing for the culture and started writing reviews for underground hip hop websites . Eric’s reviews were highly favored, respected, and very honest. He later started his own blog page titled Da Shelter where he uses the platform to write reviews, promote new artists, his videos and content related to his shows. Eric started to see that the game was changing and wanted to attempt to do radio. King Eric started Off The Cuff Radio in 2014 and wanted to become a radio host. He wanted to take his platform to elevate new talent within his city as well as give a new audience to legends whom paved the way. King Eric also added Ila R Da Sandman(From The Bronx NYC) Candice Cooper from( Houston Texas) and Thomas Mitchell(Nofork Virginia later became a addition to the show which was another way to introduce our show into 5 different markets. Eric has also been on highly recognized radio platforms such as Die 4 Radio, The Murder Master Music Show, OutLaw Radio live, The Ms Toi Show, The Art of Dialogue and the Unscripted Network to talk about his vision and where he wants to take the Off The Cuff Radio brand. var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname = "Escobar300(Covering Hip Hop Culture, Sports, and Events)"; a2a_config.linkurl = "https://escobar300.wordpress.com/";
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