Extricating the gangster influence from hip hop isn’t going to happen. And even if someone proclaimed that that was a goal, it’d be a futile one. It’s a part of the music. So, despite various button down types decrying improper imagery and glorification of a questionable lifestyle, it’ll continue on as before. But honestly, that’s probably good for the music.

When Prodigy and Havoc were eighteen years old in 1993, the duo released the first record in a career weighted down with albums. Juvenile Hell, though, isn’t considered the group’s highlight. And that’s true. The duo’s next album The Infamous is solid, start to finish. And sure, it retains the tough guy image that Prod and Havoc posited on its first album. It’s an amazingly consistent disc. Complaining just doesn’t make sense.

While Juvenile Hell doesn’t even approach the same sort of pervasive quality its follow up sports, there’s more good rap stuff on here than most of the stuff released during the entirety of the aughties.

For all of the discussion about beating dudes up and generally taking care of business, the albums first single, “Peer Pressure,” could really be confused for a lost Tribe Called Quest track. Everything from the vocal delivery (and you don’t even have to disregard the actual lyrics) to the beat selection sets the track within the DAISY Age.

De La Soul and its cohort probably had little problem with this kind of music – perhaps some of the violent nonsense was a turn off. But for all of the New York based rap acts coming out of the early nineties, a remarkably persistent tone seemed to snake its way through just about every group.

Calling on Large Professor for an assist on the production of the album wasn’t a bad idea and again ties the group to a less violent grouping of rap acts. But even with this disc, the following album and works by folks like Smif-n-Wessun as well as the Gravediggas, the gangster concept was married with a relatively palatable and inviting music accompaniment. The similarities can, of course, be chalked up to being of a time and place. But what then accounts for the myriad styles of production and flow that so colors rap musics today?

Hip hop retaining its independence and ability to change at a moments notice is unquestionably one of its best qualities. But why don’t tough guys make music this good now?