Yesterday (6/20), many hip hop fans shared their heartfelt messages about the passing of Mobb Deep member, Prodigy.  Albert Johnson aka Prodigy was one half of the group Mobb Deep, which was considered one of the most influential rap groups of the 90s era.  He was only 42-years old.

According to news reports, Prodigy passed away in Las Vegas. Mobb Deep was in town to do a show. Although the cause of death has not yet been determined, Prodigy has battled with sickle cell anemia and had been hospitalized recently due to complications.

Here are some fun facts about Prodigy, courtesy of CNN:

  • His great-great-great-grandfather, William Jefferson White, founded Georgia’s Morehouse College in the basement of his Baptist church.
  • His grandfather, Albert “Budd” Johnson, was a saxophonist and clarinetist for Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Benny Goodman.
  • Johnson met fellow Queens, New York native Kejuan Muchita when they were both freshman at Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design.
  • The pair bonded over their shared love of hip hop and formed Mobb Deep. Johnson took the moniker Prodigy, while Muchita chose the performance name Havoc.
  • They scored a record deal as teens and released the album “Juvenile Hell” in 1993. The project didn’t generate much buzz, but the duo found more success with their sophomore album “The Infamous.” With its gritty rhymes and contributions by the artists Nas and Raekwon, the album helped launch Mobb Deep to the top of the hardcore, hip hop ladder.
  • Their 1996 follow-up, “Hell on Earth,” included the single “Drop a Gem on ‘Em,” which was a response to a Tupac diss track, “Hit ‘Em Up.” Prodigy detailed his beef with Tupac in a 2012 interview with Hip Hop DX.
    “When we made ‘The Infamous,’ we had a song called ‘Survival of the Fittest,'” the rapper explained. ” On that song, in the beginning, my man that came home from jail…in the beginning of the song, he says, ‘Thug life, we still living. Tupac was the one who was most known for saying that,” Prodigy said. “So I think that pissed Tupac off a little bit.”
  • Mobb Deep was entangled in the East Coast/West Coast rapper rivalry of the ’90s.
  • After West Coast rappers Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound released the single “New York, New York,” Mobb Deep, along with Capone-N-Noreaga and Tragedy Khadafi, countered with the track “L.A L.A.”
  • Mobb Deep released several successful albums, including “Murda Muzik” (1999), “Infamy” (2001), “Amerikaz Nightmare” (2004) and “Blood Money” (2006).
  • Two of their biggest hits were “Quiet Storm” and “Shook Ones.”
  • Being a part of Mobb Deep didn’t keep Johnson from solo projects like his album “H.N.I.C.”
  • He also appeared on collaborative projects such as 2007’s “Return of the Mac” and 2013’s “Albert Einstein.”
  • Johnson had some legal troubles. In 2007, he was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm. He detailed that incident and more in his memoir “My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep’s Prodigy.”
  • In 2016, the rapper published “Commissary Kitchen: My Infamous Prison Cookbook” with Iandoli, which contained recipes and stories about the food he experienced while in prison.

 

 

RIP Prodigy…our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Photo credit: AP