“This Ain’t Normal”: The Lasting Influence of Prodigy’s “Shook Ones Part II” Verse

A remarkable lyricist and storyteller from the very beginning of his career, Mobb Deep’s Prodigy never shied away from telling listeners his innermost thoughts and feelings, no matter how dark they were. As he aptly put it on “Quiet Storm”, “I put my lifetime in between the paper’s lines.”

His extensive catalog is filled with verses well worth repeated listens, but P’s performance on “Shook Ones Part II” will always be in a league of its own. A defining moment on a perfect album, “Shook Ones Part II” distilled the group’s us against the world mentality into something that set the gold standard for hardcore beats and lyrics.

Partially born out of uncertainty, the song came at a time when Mobb Deep’s future was murky at best. After releasing their debut Juvenile Hell in 1993, they were unceremoniously dropped from 4th & B’way when album sales didn’t meet the label’s expectations. After signing with Loud Records, the young act faced enormous pressure to live up to their perceived potential on their sophomore effort.

When they handed over “Shook Ones Part I” to Loud as one of the early songs for The Infamous, Loud had a tepid response that frustrated the group. “The response was lukewarm so we’re like, ‘Here go this bullshit again,’” Havoc said in a 2011 interview with Complex.

“I put my lifetime in between the paper’s lines.”

Undeterred, they decided bolster “Shook Ones” with some enhanced production. Havoc’s new beat — one of the best instrumentals of all time — unlocked something deep within Prodigy, as he captured words with his pen and pad that rap fans will discuss and dissect for the rest of time.

With a distinctive voice and trademark flow that personified the best of gritty, New York storytelling rap from the mid 90s, Prodigy aimed a frightening warning shot at rival crews by combining clever wordplay with brutal imagery. The end result was a fascinating and terrifying exercise of verbal evisceration that burned an imprint on the brain anyone who dared listen. Here’s a sample:

I got you stuck off the realness, we be the infamous/You heard of us, official Queensbridge murderers/The Mobb comes equipped for warfare, beware/Of my crime family who got ‘nough shots to share/For all of those who wanna profile and pose/Rock you in your face, stab your brain with your nose bone/

Although violence in rap was nothing new in 1995, threatening to stab someone in their brain with their nose bone certainly caught listeners’ attention at the time of the song’s release. But P’s violent raps weren’t for shock value. Demonstrating levels of anger, cynicism, maturity, and world-wariness not often found in teenagers, Prodigy showcased the writing ability of a seasoned vet despite being 19 at the time. As he tells us with a pitch-perfect self-assessment, “I’m only 19, but my mind is old/And when the things get for real, my warm heart turns cold.”

P’s mind helped ensure that “Shook Ones Part II” would become a song for the ages. And despite the alcohol, angel dust, and weed flowing through his body when he wrote his verse, he and Havoc realized they were in the midst of something extraordinary once the song was complete. “That was one of the first ones where we were like, ‘Whoa. This shit is ill. This shit sounds crazy right here,” P explained in a 2011 interview with Complex. “This ain’t normal.”

“It stood out from everything else that was out yet, we definitely were something new that the world never heard or seen before.”

P was right, his verse and that song were anything but normal. According to the website WhoSampled, at least 227 songs have utilized elements of Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones Part II” since it first came out in 1995 — an indicator of it’s immeasurable influence. A few songs on the list interpolated, replayed, or sampled the iconic Havoc instrumental, but the vast majority turned to the acapella vocals from P’s blistering opening verse as their sample source. With a list of sampling artists featuring everyone from famous R & B singers to long forgotten independent rappers, his words touched the lives of many.

As the hip-hop community mourns the unexpected loss of such an iconic artist, “Shook Ones Part 2” and the rest of Prodigy’s music will live on forever. A 2015 Prodigy interview with Dazed Digital sheds some valuable light on why The Infamous made such an impact and continues to be an enduring work of art. “At that time there was nothing like it at all, it was in a class of its own,” he said “It stood out from everything else that was out yet, we definitely were something new that the world never heard or seen before.”

22 years later, “Shook Ones” and the rest of The Infamous remains in a class of it’s own. May it remain untouchable for many years to come.

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