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There’s never an opportune time to go to jail. But Prodigy’s upcoming three-and-a-half year sentence for carrying an unlicensed gun truly couldn’t have come at a worse time for him, professionally. In ’07, the more lyrical half of the legendary Mobb Deep ignited an underground buzz by releasing Return of The Mac, one of the year’s best albums, and by injecting YouTube with some grimy old-fashioned New York street rap, via his dark and violent, straight-to-internet videos. But the man born Albert Johnson has not rested on his laurels or been idle in the months leading to his up-north trip. March will see the release of another solo album, H.N.I.C. 2 (mostly produced by his Mobb partner Havoc, and Alchemist), and he’s shooting videos for its every song – ensuring there’s plenty of material left behind. P got on the phone with Rhapsody over the holidays to talk some things out, like his feelings on kids and guns, on his long-standing beef with Jay-Z, and on Mobb Deep’s legacy.
On not releasing H.N.I.C. 2 on Koch Records:
Prodigy: [Koch] gave me close to a million [dollars] for H.N.I.C. 2 and Return Of The Mac. But I ain’t want that sh*t coming out on Koch ‘cause to me, Koch is a mixtape company. They can’t handle the caliber of that album. They wasn’t playing ball to get that kind of album. They need to step the budget up like another million to get that [laughs]. If there had been more money involved, I would’ve given them that. But it’s gotta be worth my while to give up something so important to me. That’s why my plan was never to [release H.N.I.C. 2] with them. I just did it to get the money and run. My plan worked.
On no longer wearing jewelry:
I’ve been real heavy with the jewels since I was 13 or 14. My mind is in different place right now. I just see things differently. I might throw it on for a video, but you ain’t gonna see me in that sh*t anymore. I ain’t denouncing [my V.I.P. persona]. I just choose not to wear it anymore. But I got sh*t in the closet, just in case anybody is like, “oh, P’s broke.” “He spent all his money on his court case.” “G-Unit deal wasn’t as good as they thought it was gonna be. He had to sell all his jewelry.” Nah, I got all my sh*t. So I can always pull it out like, “Shut the f*ck up.”
On the video of him and his seven-year-old son at the gun range:
When I taught my son how to shoot a gun it was because I owned a legal, registered shotgun at my house. When I bought it from the gun store, the guy asked me if I had kids in the house. He said, “When your kids get to a certain age, you gotta teach them how to shoot. Because if you don’t, when the gun is in the house, the kid is going to get curious and play with it. But if you teach him how to shoot the gun, then the kid is going to understand the power that the weapon has.” When [my son] turned seven, I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, and he told me to take him to the range and teach him how to shoot the gun. I said aright because when he gets older, I was gonna have to teach him anyways. When [my daughter] gets older, I’m going to [tell her about it as well].
On his feelings about Jay-Z now:
He’s always gonna be Gay-Z no matter what. We could do business or even if he wants a beat from Havoc, that nigg*’s still Gay-Z to me. We seen each other in Justin’s [right after the infamous 2001 Summer Jam, where the Jay/Mobb Deep/Nas beef took off]. I was with a whole bunch of my nigg*s. It was just him and like one or two security guards. Soon as he seen me, he just walked straight up to me with his hand out like, “Yo, it’s all love. It ain’t beef. It’s just rap.” I’m like, “Yeah, aright whatever.” He seen how I could of did him. We Mobb Deep. It’s not a game. It’s for real, son. It’s a whole gang of us. We not playing. We from the ‘hood. He thought we were gonna pounce on him. My n*gg*s wanted to jump on him. The Summer Jam thing didn’t really upset me. That’s just reality. When I was younger I thought I was Michael Jackson and my grandmother had a dance school. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. Everybody my age wanted a Michael Jackson jacket back then. But Jay-Z was lying talking about ballerina pictures. People who weren’t at the concert think P had a tutu on or a ballerina suit ‘cause that’s what Jay said in his rhymes. That was some slick sh*t he did to f*ck people’s perceptions up. I was more mad about how this b*tch-*ss n*gg* gonna say something years after all the East Coast and West Coast sh*t go down [on “Money, Cash, Hoes.”]. Shut the f*ck up. Mind your business. That sh*t ain’t got nothing to do with you. ‘Cause when it did have something to do with you, you didn’t have anything to say. You was more quiet than a church mouse. We was the only ones still going to LA and doing shows in Cali, risking our life. It was just us and Biggie going hard. That’s why I feel like I do about the situation, because that n*gg* talking about some sh*t that he ain’t even know, talking about he’s trying to restore the feeling. You ain’t restoring no feeling. I’m glad you successful with your records and you’re getting a lot of airplay and video play, but you ain’t restoring no feeling. We the ‘hood. We the heartbeat of the street. We the ones holding this sh*t down. I just put [our beef] aside for Sam Scarfo, so [Jay and I could work together on] his album [when he was on Def Jam]. But we ain’t [addressed the past beef or our differences].
On Mobb Deep’s legacy:
You can’t put nobody with us. We in a class of our own. [Gang Starr and EPMD] can’t stand with us because we lasted longer than them. You can’t compare Gang Starr to Mobb Deep, anyways. It’s two different things. Gang Starr is only one person rapping. Mobb Deep is two. I’m just saying we lasted longer than all these nigg*s. That’s the bottom line at the end of the day.
source: rhapsody
There’s never an opportune time to go to jail. But Prodigy’s upcoming three-and-a-half year sentence for carrying an unlicensed gun truly couldn’t have come at a worse time for him, professionally. In ’07, the more lyrical half of the legendary Mobb Deep ignited an underground buzz by releasing Return of The Mac, one of the year’s best albums, and by injecting YouTube with some grimy old-fashioned New York street rap, via his dark and violent, straight-to-internet videos. But the man born Albert Johnson has not rested on his laurels or been idle in the months leading to his up-north trip. March will see the release of another solo album, H.N.I.C. 2 (mostly produced by his Mobb partner Havoc, and Alchemist), and he’s shooting videos for its every song – ensuring there’s plenty of material left behind. P got on the phone with Rhapsody over the holidays to talk some things out, like his feelings on kids and guns, on his long-standing beef with Jay-Z, and on Mobb Deep’s legacy.
On not releasing H.N.I.C. 2 on Koch Records:
Prodigy: [Koch] gave me close to a million [dollars] for H.N.I.C. 2 and Return Of The Mac. But I ain’t want that sh*t coming out on Koch ‘cause to me, Koch is a mixtape company. They can’t handle the caliber of that album. They wasn’t playing ball to get that kind of album. They need to step the budget up like another million to get that [laughs]. If there had been more money involved, I would’ve given them that. But it’s gotta be worth my while to give up something so important to me. That’s why my plan was never to [release H.N.I.C. 2] with them. I just did it to get the money and run. My plan worked.
On no longer wearing jewelry:
I’ve been real heavy with the jewels since I was 13 or 14. My mind is in different place right now. I just see things differently. I might throw it on for a video, but you ain’t gonna see me in that sh*t anymore. I ain’t denouncing [my V.I.P. persona]. I just choose not to wear it anymore. But I got sh*t in the closet, just in case anybody is like, “oh, P’s broke.” “He spent all his money on his court case.” “G-Unit deal wasn’t as good as they thought it was gonna be. He had to sell all his jewelry.” Nah, I got all my sh*t. So I can always pull it out like, “Shut the f*ck up.”
On the video of him and his seven-year-old son at the gun range:
When I taught my son how to shoot a gun it was because I owned a legal, registered shotgun at my house. When I bought it from the gun store, the guy asked me if I had kids in the house. He said, “When your kids get to a certain age, you gotta teach them how to shoot. Because if you don’t, when the gun is in the house, the kid is going to get curious and play with it. But if you teach him how to shoot the gun, then the kid is going to understand the power that the weapon has.” When [my son] turned seven, I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, and he told me to take him to the range and teach him how to shoot the gun. I said aright because when he gets older, I was gonna have to teach him anyways. When [my daughter] gets older, I’m going to [tell her about it as well].
On his feelings about Jay-Z now:
He’s always gonna be Gay-Z no matter what. We could do business or even if he wants a beat from Havoc, that nigg*’s still Gay-Z to me. We seen each other in Justin’s [right after the infamous 2001 Summer Jam, where the Jay/Mobb Deep/Nas beef took off]. I was with a whole bunch of my nigg*s. It was just him and like one or two security guards. Soon as he seen me, he just walked straight up to me with his hand out like, “Yo, it’s all love. It ain’t beef. It’s just rap.” I’m like, “Yeah, aright whatever.” He seen how I could of did him. We Mobb Deep. It’s not a game. It’s for real, son. It’s a whole gang of us. We not playing. We from the ‘hood. He thought we were gonna pounce on him. My n*gg*s wanted to jump on him. The Summer Jam thing didn’t really upset me. That’s just reality. When I was younger I thought I was Michael Jackson and my grandmother had a dance school. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. Everybody my age wanted a Michael Jackson jacket back then. But Jay-Z was lying talking about ballerina pictures. People who weren’t at the concert think P had a tutu on or a ballerina suit ‘cause that’s what Jay said in his rhymes. That was some slick sh*t he did to f*ck people’s perceptions up. I was more mad about how this b*tch-*ss n*gg* gonna say something years after all the East Coast and West Coast sh*t go down [on “Money, Cash, Hoes.”]. Shut the f*ck up. Mind your business. That sh*t ain’t got nothing to do with you. ‘Cause when it did have something to do with you, you didn’t have anything to say. You was more quiet than a church mouse. We was the only ones still going to LA and doing shows in Cali, risking our life. It was just us and Biggie going hard. That’s why I feel like I do about the situation, because that n*gg* talking about some sh*t that he ain’t even know, talking about he’s trying to restore the feeling. You ain’t restoring no feeling. I’m glad you successful with your records and you’re getting a lot of airplay and video play, but you ain’t restoring no feeling. We the ‘hood. We the heartbeat of the street. We the ones holding this sh*t down. I just put [our beef] aside for Sam Scarfo, so [Jay and I could work together on] his album [when he was on Def Jam]. But we ain’t [addressed the past beef or our differences].
On Mobb Deep’s legacy:
You can’t put nobody with us. We in a class of our own. [Gang Starr and EPMD] can’t stand with us because we lasted longer than them. You can’t compare Gang Starr to Mobb Deep, anyways. It’s two different things. Gang Starr is only one person rapping. Mobb Deep is two. I’m just saying we lasted longer than all these nigg*s. That’s the bottom line at the end of the day.
source: rhapsody
