Prodigy dies

Why it matters

Albert Johnson, who recorded as Prodigy in Mobb Deep, died on June 20, 2017, in Las Vegas. He was 42. The medical examiner ruled the cause an accidental choking related to complications from sickle cell anemia, which P had lived with his entire life. Prodigy had been one of the dominant New York lyricists of the late 1990s and 2000s. The Mobb Deep catalog with Havoc (The Infamous in 1995, Hell on Earth in 1996, Murda Muzik in 1999) is one of the foundational bodies of work in East Coast street rap. P's writing is dense with specific Queensbridge geographic detail, paranoid imagery, and a deadpan low-register delivery that became one of the most-imitated voices of his era. He had also written publicly about living with sickle cell. He had served three and a half years in prison for a weapons charge between 2008 and 2011. He was 42. You should hear The Infamous if you have not heard it lately. Prodigy's verses on it are still the standard.