Aye yo. In 2016, you would hardly find hardcore rap on the radio. New listeners of the genre got their new idols, and old school fans can now only remember the times when boom bap was the main sub-genre, but in the city of Buffalo, something was happening—a foreshadow of big things to come. You can feel the force in the streets of the city—force that will shake the whole underground scene so much that even Jay-Z, Kanye West, or Drake will feel it. Their way up is making Griselda with their co-founder Westside Gunn in front.

“You shook ’cause there ain’t no such things as halfway crooks,” a phrase that, even twenty years after it saw the light of day, recalls the pain, paranoia, and inhospitality of the ghettos and the street life associated with them. The duo Mobb Deep, made up of producers and rappers Havoc and the deceased Prodigy, had a record out in 1995, Juvenile Hell (1993), despite its young age. Their magnum opus, however, was still taking shape.