Mobb Deep rappers with G-force

Havoc (left) and Prodigy.

Talking to Prodigy can be like having a Tony Robbins experience.

"Instead of having eggs for breakfast," suggests the Mobb Deep rapper, "have broccoli. Do something different. Snap out of it. Once you snap out of it you can't be lied to no more because you [are] not scared to snap out of it, you know what I'm sayin?"

We get the jist. Throughout Prodigy's career, from his breakthrough with producer Havoc on Juvenile Hell in 1993, Mobb Deep have been the punks of the hip-hop underworld, intimidating gangstas who challenge the system.

But it's been a while since they released anything with as much impact as 1994's The Infamous or 1996's Hell on Earth, albums that turned the ugliness of their ghetto lifestyle into poetry.

This year, Mobb Deep are relaunching with a new album, a new label and a new outlook. "It's the beginning of something big," says Prodigy in his deep, gravelly voice.

Mobb Deep have been officially accepted into 50 Cent's illustrious G-Unit family. The result is their seventh album, Blood Money.

After years of notoriety off their own brand, this album comes with a G-Unit family photo, G-Unit guest stars 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Young Buck, and G-Unit groupies, if the track Backstage Pass is to be believed.

You can also thank Fiddy and friends for the fact Mobb Deep are coming to New Zealand for the first time next week.

"Now we're rollin' with a better crew so we've got people pursuing places we've never been before. It allows bigger things to happen. It opens up a lot of new doors."

But it's hard to know if Mobb Deep are on the cusp of resurgence or if they're just another of 50 Cent's vanity projects.

Critics have already decided the new material smacks of G-Unit's cinematic sound, that Prodigy and Havoc have been swamped by their "guest" stars, and that "status ain't 'hood".

Blood Money is also the first time Mobb Deep have opened the studio doors to other producers.

"We created our own sound, something that nobody can take away," Prodigy argues. "You can't erase our history. So for someone to think something's going to change now, it's crazy, it's impossible."

The deal came about out of mutual admiration. 50 Cent grew up a Mobb Deep fan. When the duo's contract with Jive Records (also home to Britney Spears) expired, they didn't renew it. Prodigy says their careers suffered because their label didn't know how to market them, and didn't trust them to touch their budget.

"You got to treat Mobb Deep different because our fan base is different. Our fan base is in the 'hood across the world," he says. "You got to focus on the 'hood. You got to find 'em on ground level, where it all starts from, because that's our fan base, y'know what I'm sayin'?"

The world's most bankable rapper may have helped to promote them that way - and you can probably expect to hear them holler "G-Unit!" on Tuesday night - but some things don't change.

Prodigy is still one of the most controversial lyricists in the biz. On the track Pearly Gates, he reveals he "don't care about religious bullshit" and commits the ultimate in blasphemy by threatening God.

"I ain't worried I'm upsetting no one," he says. "I'm just speaking my mind. I feel like we've been lied to for decades and generations. We're supposed to be focused on other things - on life, on right now."

He still believes in a creator, he just doesn't want to be told what defines the creator. "Do the research," he says repeatedly, although that would surely require shooting yourself in the head and trying to come back to life.

"I read certain things about history. I don't like fiction. I read about stuff that's real, stuff that's goin' on in the world."

Back in Mobb Deep's world, the stuff that's real has changed - and not just their business connections. Since they emerged in the early 90s, Prodigy has accumulated the kind of wealth that gives him the right to spit lines like, "I'm so much rich, I've got a condo for a piggy bank". New York has also changed, scarred by terrorism and cleaned up by authorities.

"But it's a stain that's not goin' [to] be removed," he says. "You can't just clean it up now. There's no way you can just sweep this under the rug. I love New York, it 'as made me who I am, know what I mean?"

When Prodigy is not at home in Queens, in the studio or on the road, he's "doin' a few movies here and there," he says with the blase tone of someone going to the flicks, rather than starring in them. (One of them is about the power outage that hit New York three years ago.)

He's a changed man. Havoc hasn't been shy about giving up drinking, and Prodigy, who has two kids aged 10 and 7, says he's matured, too. "As you get older, everybody changes. You don't do the stupid stuff that you used to."

So about that snapping out of it, broccoli for breakfast thing, does that mean he's game to try bungy jumping in New Zealand? "Nah man. I risk my life enough with what I do every day with what I'm doin, y'know what I'm sayin? I don't need no extra risk."

LOWDOWN

Who: Mobb Deep, hip-hop hell-raisers

Albums: Juvenile Hell, (1993), The Infamous, (1994), Hell on Earth (1996), Murda Musik (1999), Infamy (2001), Amerikaz Nightmare (2004), Blood Money (2006)

Trivia: Blood Money isn't all talk - Mobb Deep now have G-Unit tattoos; 50 Cent has a Mobb Deep tattoo.

Playing: Town Hall, Wellington on Sunday, Pacific Events Centre, Auckland on Tuesday, and Westpac Centre, Christchurch on Wednesday