When Mobb Deep signed with 50 Cent and his G-Unit team last year, fans of the duo hoped it might reignite their career, but also acknowledged that the guaranteed increase in income could perpetuate their emerging laziness. With the release of Blood Money, their seventh official release, it is abundantly clear that G-Unit membership has only caused the latter result.

Havoc and Prodigy, the two MCs in Mobb Deep, are rap legends for a reason. “Shook Ones Pt. II” is regarded by some as one of the greatest rap songs of all time, and 10 years later, listening to most tracks on Infamous or Hell on Earth will still send chills down my spine. Unfortunately, the lethargic lyricism on Blood Money is more likely to induce nausea than anything else.

It is hard to believe the same MC that set the tone for hardcore New York rap with the line, “ain’t no such things as halfway crooks” is now spitting that “they ask for help, like I’m the Red Cross.” Havoc also refers to his watch as his president, with his princess-cut diamond his “first lady.” It is laughably lame lines like these that raise the question: Did they even listen to this before its release?

Mobb Deep has been reeling ever since Jay-Z ripped them apart on “Takeover,” and this half-assed album completes their fall from grace. Mobb Deep, now in their late 30s, probably will never record another album, and if they do, G-Unit’s 15 Cent, Phony Yayo and Lloyd Janks can’t help much.