'Cause ain't no such thing as halfway crooks.
June 20, 2017 12:24 PM Subscribe
Rapper Prodigy of Mobb Deep was reported dead today at the age of 42 from complications of sickle-cell anemia.
whoah, I was *just* binging on Mobb Deep at work today.
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posted by Old Kentucky Shark at 12:35 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by Old Kentucky Shark at 12:35 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
If you're unfamiliar, their seminal track was Shook Ones(, Pt II).
I don't have a lot to say. He had a long career with a lot of ups and downs, including public feuds with Tupac and Nas, and a couple of pretty dumb prison stints.
I caught Mobb Deep a couple times in recent years and they still killed on stage. The last show I saw was opened by Tha Jacka who was murdered not long after, and I just spent last night in a youtube hole watching clips of the late Sean Price, so I'm just kinda bummed about the whole thing.
Anyway, RIP.
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posted by lkc at 12:36 PM on June 20, 2017 [8 favorites]
I don't have a lot to say. He had a long career with a lot of ups and downs, including public feuds with Tupac and Nas, and a couple of pretty dumb prison stints.
I caught Mobb Deep a couple times in recent years and they still killed on stage. The last show I saw was opened by Tha Jacka who was murdered not long after, and I just spent last night in a youtube hole watching clips of the late Sean Price, so I'm just kinda bummed about the whole thing.
Anyway, RIP.
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posted by lkc at 12:36 PM on June 20, 2017 [8 favorites]
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The Infamous is an amazing album.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:41 PM on June 20, 2017 [3 favorites]
The Infamous is an amazing album.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:41 PM on June 20, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 12:45 PM on June 20, 2017
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 12:45 PM on June 20, 2017
Stereogum has a good overview.
"In 1995, Mobb Deep released their album The Infamous, one of the all-time immortal classics of scorched-earth New York rap. It’s a dark, cold, chilling album, and it gets much of its power from Prodigy’s wizened, grim delivery. Still a teenager, Prodigy came off like a weary gunslinger, dispensing gory and specific threats with a seen-it-all shrug..."
posted by beisny at 12:58 PM on June 20, 2017 [10 favorites]
"In 1995, Mobb Deep released their album The Infamous, one of the all-time immortal classics of scorched-earth New York rap. It’s a dark, cold, chilling album, and it gets much of its power from Prodigy’s wizened, grim delivery. Still a teenager, Prodigy came off like a weary gunslinger, dispensing gory and specific threats with a seen-it-all shrug..."
posted by beisny at 12:58 PM on June 20, 2017 [10 favorites]
And just show the reach of just that one track: WhoSampled shows 227 songs and 3 covers, and I don't think that includes lyrics referencing it. Its hard to state how influential he was in hip-hop. He was the other guy that Jay-z went after in The Takeover.
posted by lkc at 12:58 PM on June 20, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by lkc at 12:58 PM on June 20, 2017 [3 favorites]
the world lost one of the most vivid visual emcees ever.
posted by 12bits at 1:10 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by 12bits at 1:10 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
The sunset looks beautiful over the projects
What a shame, its ain't the same where we stand at
If you look close you can see the bricks chipped off
Sometimes n****s miss when they lick off, don't get clipped off
posted by sektah at 1:11 PM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
What a shame, its ain't the same where we stand at
If you look close you can see the bricks chipped off
Sometimes n****s miss when they lick off, don't get clipped off
posted by sektah at 1:11 PM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
Shit. Way too young.
posted by penduluum at 1:11 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by penduluum at 1:11 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
aw, dang. I was 15 when the Infamous was released. Reminds me of that summer. Gonna go listen now. R.I.P.
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posted by Bacon Bit at 1:18 PM on June 20, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by Bacon Bit at 1:18 PM on June 20, 2017 [3 favorites]
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over the years i've known, and lost, too many friends and campers to sickle-cell. i've seen thirteen year olds who require pharmacies of pain killers just to survive between crises, when they then require inpatient drip meds to battle the pain. it's a shitty disease and i hope its days are numbered.
posted by ovenmitt at 1:20 PM on June 20, 2017 [9 favorites]
over the years i've known, and lost, too many friends and campers to sickle-cell. i've seen thirteen year olds who require pharmacies of pain killers just to survive between crises, when they then require inpatient drip meds to battle the pain. it's a shitty disease and i hope its days are numbered.
posted by ovenmitt at 1:20 PM on June 20, 2017 [9 favorites]
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posted by not_the_water at 1:38 PM on June 20, 2017
posted by not_the_water at 1:38 PM on June 20, 2017
Holy shit. guess i know what im listening to for the rest of the day.
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posted by nixon's meatloaf at 1:56 PM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
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posted by nixon's meatloaf at 1:56 PM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
I believe I listened to The Infamous front to back, no skips, 100s of times in the summer of 1995, which was, ironically, one of the happiest periods of my life. Despite the grimness of the album, hearing any song from it instantly takes me back to those days, and Shook Ones remains a workout staple.
Rest in power, Pee.
posted by lord_wolf at 2:01 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
Rest in power, Pee.
posted by lord_wolf at 2:01 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
My understanding is that they have new interventions for adult sickle cell. I wonder if he was unable to access them for some reason.
posted by praemunire at 2:02 PM on June 20, 2017
posted by praemunire at 2:02 PM on June 20, 2017
Oh shit. RIP. Huge respects. Mobb Deep was one of my first gateways into rap. Always real.
posted by sapagan at 2:16 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by sapagan at 2:16 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by Joey Michaels at 2:19 PM on June 20, 2017
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:19 PM on June 20, 2017
I don't have a lot to say. He had a long career with a lot of ups and downs, including public feuds with Tupac and Nas, and a couple of pretty dumb prison stints.
Pac kinda infamously brought up his illness in a diss track - a low blow by most anybody's standard. It didn't come out until a few years later but I always assumed this track was basically a response to that. It's a small class of rappers who go that dark:
sedated with morphine as a little kid/I built a tolerance for drugs, addicted to the medicine
now hospital emergency treat me like a fiend/I rather die sometimes I wish a nigga O.D
posted by atoxyl at 2:58 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
Pac kinda infamously brought up his illness in a diss track - a low blow by most anybody's standard. It didn't come out until a few years later but I always assumed this track was basically a response to that. It's a small class of rappers who go that dark:
sedated with morphine as a little kid/I built a tolerance for drugs, addicted to the medicine
now hospital emergency treat me like a fiend/I rather die sometimes I wish a nigga O.D
posted by atoxyl at 2:58 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
And The Infamous is up there with Liquid Swords as peak Bleak 90s NYC rap. RIP.
posted by atoxyl at 3:09 PM on June 20, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 3:09 PM on June 20, 2017 [4 favorites]
Damn. Just found out.
His latest was the Hegaellian Dialectic, and I bumped the shit out of Mystic for a solid month. All there was was the radio rip, but it's just such a tight song. And I don't mean that in the hip hop way, I mean it's just lyrically solid. It has issues, but I just got intoxicated with the delivery.
I listened to it nonstop and never tried to memorize it, but I spit it in the shower, or going to sleep, or in the car, word for word. Wherever his essence is going, that's an apt song for it.
posted by cashman at 3:29 PM on June 20, 2017
His latest was the Hegaellian Dialectic, and I bumped the shit out of Mystic for a solid month. All there was was the radio rip, but it's just such a tight song. And I don't mean that in the hip hop way, I mean it's just lyrically solid. It has issues, but I just got intoxicated with the delivery.
I listened to it nonstop and never tried to memorize it, but I spit it in the shower, or going to sleep, or in the car, word for word. Wherever his essence is going, that's an apt song for it.
posted by cashman at 3:29 PM on June 20, 2017
This is heartbreaking, both because of the art lost today, but because sickle cell anemia is still killing people. I'm an old white ish lady, and I was way more grunge and metal than rap, but prodigy was a genius, the epitome of angry poet, and I'm so sorry for his friends and family.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 3:52 PM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 3:52 PM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
Jesse Thorn at Bullseye had a great interview with Prodigy (audio file with text transcript) six years ago which opens with a discussion about how sickle cell anemia affected his art.
posted by ardgedee at 1:15 AM on June 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by ardgedee at 1:15 AM on June 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by fido~depravo at 10:08 AM on June 21, 2017
posted by fido~depravo at 10:08 AM on June 21, 2017
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posted by dudemanlives at 10:15 AM on June 21, 2017
posted by dudemanlives at 10:15 AM on June 21, 2017
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posted by ent at 12:34 PM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]