Mobb Deep

Formed in the Queensbridge Houses, the duo of Prodigy and Havoc met at Manhattan's High School of Art and Design and built a sound steeped in the bleakness of New York project life.

Their 1995 album "The Infamous," with Havoc's grimy production and Prodigy's vivid menace, became an East Coast classic, followed by "Hell on Earth" and a later run with G-Unit.

They are regarded as architects of the mid-1990s hardcore New York sound; Prodigy died in 2017.

Mobb Deep defined the grimy, cinematic Queensbridge aesthetic that influenced decades of street-oriented hip-hop.