As
Havoc's solo album
13 (his lucky number) landed on shelves and in download queues, the MC/beatmaker's regular group
Mobb Deep was "on hiatus," plus, a "twitter war" was underway with his fellow Mobbster
Prodigy. While this album was recorded in the days leading up to this public unraveling of the group,
13 is a much more natural sounding effort than the group's 2009 EP Black Cocaine, and if the 2006 team-up of
G-Unit and the
Mobb seemed like a gangster-meets-gloss collaboration with great possibilities, the resulting album,
Blood Money, was a lifeless dud overall. The kick-off track here, "Gone," is everything
Blood Money should have been, wrapped in a song as goon-killing lyrics meet a hypnotic and dark backing track constructed, like most of the album, by
Havoc himself. Follow it up with some properly restrained night music ("Favorite Rap Stars" with
Raekwon and
Styles P), a damned gangsta singalong in true
Mobb style (the
G-Unit reunion "Life We Chose" with
Lloyd Banks), plus some great retro rhythms that suggest
Havoc the producer still loves electro ("Eyes Open" with
Twista), and
13 already feels more vital than anything the
Mobb has done since
Amerikaz Nightmare from 2004. Add the worthy single "Tell Me to My Face" with
Royce da 5'9" and the ridiculously good, strange, and solid solo cut "Hear Dat" to the second half of the album and
Havoc's solo effort seems like a cathartic kiss-off or kinetic gangster celebration. Either way, fans can feed off his renewed energy and increased creativity while agreeing that "on hiatus" certainly beats a hesitant
Mobb Deep, at least at this point. ~ David Jeffries