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Mobb Deep, ‘Black Cocaine EP’ (Infamous/RED)

For their first release in five years, New York’s signature superthug rap duo — Queensbridge natives Prodigy and Havoc — offer a 20-minute appetizer that’s short, sharp, and impressively tart. Freshly freed from incarceration (on a gun-possession charge), Prodigy sounds unusually reflective, at least by his standards. “I did my little bid… my rage is unchanged,” he raps on the Nas-assisted “Get It Forever,” his anger simmering under bleak gangster-funk loops and a cold-hearted, stentorian flow. He does give out pounds to relative new jacks — “Classic like Biggie, but we fresh like Minaj is,” he boasts on the title track (produced by Alchemist). Meanwhile, Havoc promises that he’ll “light that motherfucker up like Christmas / And have you leaking that eggnog liquid.” Just in time for the holidays.