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I saw something on NahRight.com today that made me laugh out loud: Mobb Deep will be riding around on New York's subways this week to promote their new G-Unit record. This has to be one of the worst ways to promote your album. The only way this is going to generate any real publicity is if Prodigy gets robbed again.

Is 50 Cent just not providing them any real money for the marketing of this album? I'm sure the security detail for these train rides is going to cost a fair amount of money, but maybe the money would have been better spent on a few print ads in XXL. When Yayo was dropping his album, 50 was marketing that thing like it was the second coming of Biggie, but I haven't really heard anything about this new Mobb Deep album. I did hear some talk about Prodigy dropping a verse about popping a cap in Jesus, but I thought that was just a joke (sadly its not, the line is on Pearly Gates). If it wasn't for people reviewing the leaked version, I wouldn't even know the new album was dropping soon.

Obviously, the motivation behind Mobb Deep's decision to sign with G-Unit was just to get back to selling platinum records. Dropping a couple of gold-selling records can affect your decision making like that. The real question is why 50 would sign these dudes. G-Unit already has their own stable of producers, so Havoc's beat-making skills aren't going to get a real chance to shine on this label. G-Unit already made their attempt to buy some street cred by signing M.O.P., and its hard to believe that G-Unit's biggest market -- female hip hop fans -- is going to buy into Havoc and P as sex symbols the way 50 Cent has marketed himself. Can you really see Prodigy singing If you were my best friend... on a hook? Because that's what's expected of everyone signed to G-Unit, a single like Candy Shop, and I don't think MTV is ready for what Havoc is coming with lyrically on the sexual tip.

I can only assume 50's main use for Mobb Deep on G-Unit will be as a tool to take shots at Nas and whoever else 50 wants to go at without getting his own hands dirty, similar to how Tupac used his crew the Outlaws to pop off at damn near everybody while Pac focused his disses on Biggie. So far, Prodigy seems willing to play that role.

Its disappointing to me to see what Mobb Deep has become. I've been a fan of theirs since the Juvenile Hell days (which has a couple of good tracks on it), and I even picked up Big Noyd's album. The first time I heard Infamous, I probably replayed it from start to finish about 5 times. Shook Ones gets the most recognition from that album, but the last track, Party Over, had some of the coldest lyrics I had ever heard:

'Did he shoot eleven or twelve?' is what he wondered
I got one more shot, you must be drinkin
Put the heater to his head, watch him start blinkin'
'Am I goin to heaven or hell?' is what he's thinkin'
Switch to a bitch as his life start sinkin
down to a level of no return
Call it the heat cos when the slugs hit it definitely burns
Now chill and think about your life for real

Mobb Deep started to decline a little bit after that album -- which is to be expected, its hard to follow up on a classic -- but the real turning point for them came after Jay-Z called them out at Summer Jam, putting up a photo of Prodigy dressed up as Michael Jackson. Now I knew Infamous was produced by Q-Tip, so I already had some trouble taking them seriously as hardcore gangsters, but this certainly didn't help matters. Once Jay-Z dropped Takeover, he had everyone in the streets saying "We Don't Believe You!" And once you lose the streets, as a hardcore rapper its hard to come back from that.

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