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Remembering Prodigy
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Any rap fan alive in 1995 will never forget hearing the famous opening notes of Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones Pt. II.” Prodigy’s voice sounds the alarm as a sheet of horn noise crashes down: “I got you stuck off the realness/We be the infamous/You heard of us/Official Queensbridge murderers.” For some hardcore fans, it’s one of hip-hop’s most treasured moments.
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Albert “Prodigy” Johnson, who passed away at the age of 42 on June 20 after performing alongside his Mobb Deep partner Kejuan “Havoc” Muchita at Ice-T’s Art of Rap Festival in Las Vegas, personified an era when New York crime rap flourished as a repository for that “realness.” During a crucial period in hip-hop’s shift from underground urban phenomenon to global pop juggernaut, the Queensbridge crew represented the music’s unbreakable bond with the communities that birthed it. In Prodigy’s words, captured on seminal works like 1995’s The Infamous, the rap game is like the crack game, a way to get cream - and that’s that. For those of us who don’t live on the margins of the law, his punchy yet erudite rhymes served as a greater metaphor for making something out of nothing, overcoming any obstacles you encounter, and never losing touch with your origins, regardless of how gritty or humble.
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But Prodigy proved himself more than a historical curio during his tragically brief life. While he never found much favor with a mainstream audience (a Mobb Deep appearance on 50 Cent’s “Outta Control” did hit the Billboard top 10 in 2005), the most dedicated of hip-hop’s hardcore following knew him as a hero. As heard on essential solo works like 2007’s Return of the Mac, his cold-hearted yet flexible voice (and penchant for vividly-rendered gun talk) were the elemental equivalents of a richly detailed Mafioso film that’s full of dark shadows, loaded symbols and blood-stricken tableaus. He was a leading light of hip-hop’s greatest generation, one of dozens from the ‘90s who permanently shifted the sound of popular art. He will be missed.
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By Mosi Reeves

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