On the verge of serving a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for a gun charge, Mobb Deep’s Prodigy has embraced the chaos, pain, and disarray that’s cursed much of his life and used it to power an angry, pained, and ironically vital album, H.N.I.C. Pt. 2. Though its name suggests a sequel to Prodigy’s 2000 solo debut, this album shares more in common with Mobb Deep’s ’96 classic, Hell On Earth (Loud). The album is a tour of a nightmarish NYC, “live from the belly.” Prodigy’s topics, from government corruption (“Illuminati”) to police brutality and slain comrades (“I Want Out”), are ripped from the headlines. But with Alchemist, Havoc, and Sid Rome’s uncannily cohesive production—all three producers rely on the paranoid keyboards that Mobb made famous—his documentary takes on a horror film feel. The only escape from New York Prodigy sees is in the world around him. On “Real Power Is People,” he contextualizes his misfortune as one small part of the world’s suffering and finds solace in his fellow man, declaring, “Fuck jewelry, fuck rims”—with no care for possessions, now he’s a people person. Prodigy’s physical self may be incarcerated, but his music has never sounded freer.
April 29, 2008 @ 12:00 pm
Prodigy, "H.N.I.C. Pt. 2"
Music has never sounded freer.
Article tags: Prodigy, Revolutions
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