Interscope actually asked Mick Boogie, Cleveland’s hip-hop commissioner, to create this mixtape as a promotional tool for Blood Money, Mobb Deep’s G-Unit debut. That might have been a mistake, since More Money, More Murda ends up cutting to ribbons the album it’s supposed to be hyping.

Through a series of live tracks, unreleased cuts, and his own remixes, Boogie gives Prodigy and Havoc back the edge they lost since becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiddy, Inc. This collection would be worth it for the trio of live collaborations with the Roots, but pairings with Common (“Hell”) and Beanie Sigel (“Cocaine AKA Disco Shit,” with lean, menacing production from the Kickdrums) smartly supply the New York grit in such short supply on Blood Money. An antidote to the backstage fantasies and blinged-out bumbling tainting that album, More Money, More Murda is simply more Mobb for your moolah.

This article appears in May 17-23, 2006.