Описание
Albert «Prodigy» Johnson, родился 2 ноября 1974, в Hempstead, New York City - американский рэппер, участник хардкор-рэп группы Mobb Deep наряду с Havoc.
Born in Hempstead, New York, in Long Island, Prodigy is considered the lyrically skilled member of the duo Mobb Deep. Prodigy was born with sickle cell anemia and has suffered from the disease throughout his life. Propelled to awareness partially by fellow rapper Nas, who took a similar approach lyrically on his championed Illmatic album from 1994, as well as with the aid of a successful single, "Shook Ones Pt. 2," Mobb Deep suddenly found themselves developing a quickly growing cult. A year later, in 1996, Prodigy and Havoc released Hell on Earth; debuting at number six on SoundScan, the album found them fully realizing their approach, dropping both evocative beats and cinematic rhymes that communicated the dark side of New York's urban landscape. Thanks 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 rough versions of the nearly 30 songs the duo had recorded onto the streets and over the internet.
He completed work on his third solo album H.N.I.C. Part 2, which was previewed on his official mixtape The Return of the Mac on the independent label Koch Records. The mixtape single and mixtape video are called "Mac 10 Handle," and it shows Prodigy once again reverting to his trademark braids that he had prior to the release of Mobb Deep's 2004 Amerika'z Nightmare album; different from the short fade he had from 2004 to 2006. H.N.I.C. Pt. 2 was released through Voxonic Inc., of which Prodigy is an equity holder.
In early June 2008, Prodigy revealed he wasn't too fond of the Barack Obama while he was a presidential candidate. He told BallerStatus.com that Obama was a "phony" and a "plastic president", but also wished him the best of luck. "I wish nothing but love and happiness for him," the rapper said. "But he's either gonna be assassinated to create chaos and bring about Martial Law or he'll live and then years down the line, at the end of his term everybody will see that he's just like the rest of these plastic Presidents, who does absolutely nothing good. Just another puppet for the Royal family.
