Styles P & Havoc - Wreckage Manner

There is something about the brotherhood of Hip-Hop. With all of the hood posturing that New York rappers exude in their rhymes, concepts of comradery and loyalty — grown man s##t overwhelms the spirit of the culture. This sense of brotherhood transcends the “the streets don’t owe you nothing” mindset that requires the daily uniform of Timbs and fitteds to drip the landscapes of each borough (and outer boroughs). It is far bigger than the “I gotta get mines, you gotta get yours” mentality that compromises cooperative economics, divides the hood into sets and crews, has grandmothers hanging out the windows over the bodegas, and telling the homies to get off the block. This brotherhood of Hip-Hop is simply the “tribe” in A Tribe Called Quest, the common “enemy” in PE, the “clan” in the Wu-Tang Clan, and the engine that “runs” RUN-DMC. The brotherhood is rooted in the trust an emcee has when he offers his pen to a beat— masterfully altar-ing it for the prayer of perfection. It is why Mobb Deep and The Lox are two of the best rap groups to ever pick up a mic.

So, when Prodigy died on June 20, 2017, we cried for his partner-in-rhyme, Havoc, in more ways than one. Of course, we cried because a life was lost and because the group that we have loved since Juvenile Hell would no longer be what it was. But our hearts also broke because we knew that this “brotherhood,” that we watched develop from childhood, had entered into a cycle of completion that neither emcee nor fan was ready. In a culture that rejects the comforting spirit of family, isolated by five or so districts on a map that none of us have defined, and makes everyone feel like the world is not a friend — we shed tears for what, at least musically, would be an unmatched loneliness for the QB lyricist and producer.
But then … we are revived with a reminder of that brotherhood … years later … in the August 1^st Verzuz series. 

Wreckage Manner is the collaborative project between Mobb Deep's Havoc and The Lox' Styles P. Produced by Hav, each song contains the skillful wordsmithing that anchored both juggernaut groups. "Nightmares 2 Dream." We all saw them. United as brothers, who had easily four decades of relational honesty, creative ingenuity, and economic prosperity undergirding their flawless victory in this unconventional song battle. And we thought... for a moment... like an ill Hip-Hop dream that you might ask the Good Lord to make come true... "What if... Hip-Hop was birthed out of "what ifs." And so was Wreckage Manner. 
 
They talked about the craft of emceeing, the kinship of their era, and why this project is a must-have in any music lover’s stream library.
Moreover, it is the adoption of the brother left alone by the cruel abandonment of death, to be reborn as a stronger and more evolved man. Mostly, figuring it out on his own, but also through the friendships of another brother.