Havoc (AUS)

As one of the less-heralded architects of '90s hardcore rap, Queens native producer-MC Havoc (born Kejuan Muchita) never received the same level of credit accorded to Wu-Tang Clan's RZA, but his productions on his albums with Prodigy as Mobb Deep -- especially 1995's classic The Infamous -- were among some of the starkest, grimiest, and deceptively musical beats of the era. Havoc didn't keep his work strictly to Mobb Deep releases. He granted early productions to Nas' It Was Written and Nastradamus, Capone-N-Noreaga's The War Report, the Notorious B.I.G.'s Life After Death, an...