{"id":3103,"date":"2017-06-21T08:12:34","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T06:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.culturestreetofficial.com\/home\/?p=3103"},"modified":"2017-06-21T08:12:34","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T06:12:34","slug":"prodigy-mobb-deep-dies-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.culturestreetofficial.com\/home\/prodigy-mobb-deep-dies-42\/","title":{"rendered":"Prodigy of Mobb Deep dies at 42"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Source :CNN)<\/cite><\/p>\n

Rapper Prodigy, one half of the influential hip hop duo Mobb Deep has died, according to a co-author on one of his books, Kathy Iandoli.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He was 42.<\/div>\n
A cause of death has not been released, but the rapper had been hospitalized for complications caused by sickle cell anemia prior to his death, Iandoli told CNN.<\/div>\n
Prodigy had been in Las Vegas for a Mobb Deep performance.<\/div>\n
Born Albert Johnson, the rapper’s family had a storied history.<\/div>\n
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His great-great-great-grandfather, William Jefferson White, founded Georgia’s Morehouse College in the basement of his Baptist church.<\/div>\n
His grandfather, Albert “Budd” Johnson, was a saxophonist and clarinetist for Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Benny Goodman.<\/div>\n
Johnson met fellow Queens, New York native Kejuan Muchita when they were both freshman at Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design.<\/div>\n
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.<\/div>\n
They scored a record deal as teens and released the album “Juvenile Hell” in 1993.<\/div>\n
The project didn’t generate much buzz, but the duo found more success with their sophomore album “The Infamous.”<\/div>\n
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.<\/div>\n
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.”<\/div>\n
Prodigy detailed his beef with Tupac in a 2012 interview with Hip Hop DX. <\/a><\/div>\n
“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.'”<\/div>\n
“Tupac was the one who was most known for saying that,” Prodigy said. “So I think that pissed Tupac off a little bit.”<\/div>\n
Mobb Deep was entangled in the East Coast\/West Coast rapper rivalry of the ’90s.<\/div>\n
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.”\"\"<\/div>\n
Mobb Deep released several successful albums, including “Murda Muzik” (1999), “Infamy” (2001), “Amerikaz Nightmare” (2004) and “Blood Money” (2006).<\/div>\n
Two of their biggest hits were “Quiet Storm” and “Shook Ones.”<\/div>\n
Being a part of Mobb Deep didn’t keep Johnson from solo projects like his album “H.N.I.C.”<\/div>\n
He also appeared on collaborative projects such as 2007’s “Return of the Mac” and 2013’s “Albert Einstein.”<\/div>\n
Johnson had some legal troubles. In 2007, he was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm.<\/div>\n
He detailed that incident and more in his memoir “My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep’s Prodigy.”<\/div>\n
“There were too many other adventures to squeeze in: his family’s rich historical and musical legacy; his lifelong battle with sickle cell anemia; UFO sightings; episodes with Lindsay Lohan, Mary J. Blige, and Lil’ Kim; and his contributions to the golden era of hip-hop,” Johnson’s memoir co-author, Laura Checkoway, wrote in a 2011 piece for the Village Voice.<\/a><\/div>\n
In 2016, the rapper published “Commissary Kitchen: My Infamous Prison Cookbook” with Iandoli<\/a>, which contained recipes and stories about the food he experienced while in prison.<\/div>\n
Johnson was mourned on social media Tuesday by many fellow artists, including rapper Nas, who was the first to post about Johnson’s death.<\/div>\n
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