KarmaloopTV caught up with legendary Hip Hop duo Havoc and Prodigy of Mobb Deep on the set of a photoshoot for Milkcrate Athletics. During the shoot, P and Hav explained the origins of their infamous Queensbridge-based dun language. The duo said that the slang comes from their mutual friend Bumpy, whose speech impediment made it sound like he was saying “dun” everytime he actually said “son.”
“The origins of ‘dun’…that’s just like straight Queensbridge,” said Prodigy. “One of our mans that we grew up with named Bumpy, he used to talk kinda of crazy. He had a speech impediment, but certain things he’d say were cool to us, so it became popular and everybody started mimicking how he’d talk. It just started from there, and we called it the dun language. Everything with a ‘s’, like if he said ‘Ayo son,’ it’d be, ‘Ayo dun.’ We just started doing it, and then the whole ‘hood started doing it, and we put it in our songs – the next thing you know, you’ve got Ben Stiller and Puffy [in a video] saying, ‘Yo dun, what up.'”
The M-O-B-B also explained how they ended up collaborating with A Tribe Called Quest frontman Q-Tip on the songs “Drink Away the Pain (Situations),” “Temperature’s Rising” and “Give Up the Goods (Just Step)” off their heralded LP The Infamous. P recalled that Tip was instrumental in getting them signed to Loud Records in 1993, and that connection led to his appearance as an emcee and a producer on their sophomore LP.
“Q-Tip, he was there from the beginning. When me and Hav first met, he was actually the first one to listen to our demo tape and bring us inside the office,” recalled Prodigy. “He was the first one that recognized that we had something special, and he gave us a chance.”
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The full interview can be seen below.
