Providing a fairly even-handed representation of each album pre-
Blood Money
, this 17-track anthology is more like a sampler than a proper "best of." Three tracks are taken from both
The Infamous
and
Hell on Earth
--
Mobb Deep
's pair of must-own mid-'90s classics -- as well as lesser works like
Infamy
Amerikaz Nightmare
. Other albums, including
Prodigy
's
H.N.I.C.
, are represented once or twice, and a pair of previously unreleased cuts -- middling
G-Unit
-era productions from
Havoc
-- are added to bait the hardcore fans. Those same fans could argue about the track selection until the end of time (a true best-of might be as much as 70 percent reliant on the first two albums), but the disc is a fine way to get yourself acquainted with one of the most excellent East Coast
hardcore
duos, and it'll only reinforce the compulsory nature of
. [Eight years after this 2006 set came out,
Legacy
released
Playlist: The Very Best of Mobb Deep
, which consisted of the same tracks.] ~ Andy Kellman