Music Career
Born in Hempstead, New York, Prodigy became a member of the duo Mobb Deep. He comes from a musical family—his grandfather, Budd Johnson, and his uncle Keg Johnson are remembered for their contributions to the Bebop era of jazz. His mother, Fatima Frances Collins, sang in The Crystals and recorded such hits as “Da Doo Ron Ron” and “Then He Kissed Me”. Propelled to awareness partially by fellow rapper Nas, who took a similar approach lyrically on his Illmatic album from 1994, as well as with the aid of a successful single, "Shook Ones Pt. 2," Mobb Deep released The Infamous. A year later, in 1996, Prodigy and Havoc released Hell on Earth; debuting at number six on SoundScan the album was composed with both evocative beats and cinematic rhymes that communicated the dark side of New York's urban landscape. Due to a grim video for "Hell on Earth (Front Lines)" and theatrical Scarface-like photos inside the CD booklet picturing the duo with guns and a mound of cocaine, Mobb Deep had created an elaborate image for themselves that took hardcore gangsta rap to a new level for East Coast hip hop. Its next release, Murda Muzik, was heavily bootlegged while still in its demo stage, leaking, onto the streets and over the internet, rough versions of the nearly 30 songs the duo had recorded..
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“Who that has heard a strain of music feared then lest he should speak extravagantly any more forever?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
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