December 20, 2006 @ 10:05 am

EXCLUSIVE: G Unit Week - Prodigy... Same Ol' P

by: John Kennedy

“I used to always see him around at different shit like that, like concerts and clubs,” says P. “From ‘How To Rob’ I was a fan.” Little did Prodigy know that years later he would be a member of 50’s lyrical legion. Much has changed since those days. The excitement of Mobb’s platinum-selling album, Murda Muzik, has worn off, with subsequent albums declining in appeal. Mobb Deep did some label-hopping while 50 became the biggest craze in hip hop since Marshall, establishing a thriving imprint in the process. So when Fif’ extended the offer to sign Mobb Deep to G Unit, all he had to do was show Prodigy and Havoc the dotted line. “You can’t ask for a better situation to be in because [50 Cent’s] a fan of your music,” says Prodigy. “And you’re putting albums out on his label. That’s perfect… Why would we want to be signed to some label that don’t even listen to rap?” True, the alliance was a great match for Mobb Deep, but with the Unit’s track record of keeping the registers ringing, many considered the sales of Prodigy and Havoc’s Blood Money, at a modest 260,000 units in the U.S., a disappointment. Still, Mobb Deep is satisfied with its sales. “It’s all about your expectations of what you’re trying to do,” says Prodigy. “You have to think about how long we’ve been doing this shit—those are the numbers that we’re used to. Nothing really changed that much.” While the sales may have remained constant, it’s difficult convincing some longtime fans that Mobb Deep hasn’t softened it’s sound over the years. A breeze through the crew’s latest release, a greatest hits CD titled Life of the Infamous… The Best of Mobb Deep, may accentuate the perceived difference between the group’s modern sound and that of the good ol’ days. But Prodigy insists he’s the same dude that will throw a TV at you. “It just goes in one ear and out the other because I know I’m the same nigga from day one, my attitude is the same, the way I talk is the same,” Prodigy says. “You can put us with G Unit, you can put us with Jive, you can give us two billion dollars [but] you can’t change what we’ve been through… If you were around me everyday, then you would see what time it is.” The only change Prodigy hears when listening to past records is the pitch of his and his partner’s voice. “I be like, ‘Wow, we sound like fucking chipmunks,’” says P. But when the duo made its entry into hip hop at age 18 with 1993’s Juvenile Hell, there was much room for growth, both artistically and developmentally. The album bricked like Shaq at the free throw line, selling 20,000 copies and prompting their distributor, 4th and Broadway, to drop them from the label. “That was the lowest point of our career,” Prodigy recalls. “We were like, ‘Fuck that, we can’t start off like this. We gotta fix it.’ And that’s when we made The Infamous and started going hard.” Fast forward to 2006 and after a momentous 13-year run, which includes rubbing elbows with Biggie, Nas and The Wu-Tang Clan in the mid-’90s, it seems that Mobb Deep is in it’s best position yet. A pair of G Unit tats for Havoc and Prodigy has allowed the twosome to finally establish its imprint, Infamous Records, which has remained in the planning stage for years. “We was like, ‘Yo Fif, we want to start a label,’” says Prodigy. “He was like, ‘That’s what y’all want, that’s what y’all get. Go ahead and do it.’” The first release from Infamous Records will be Prodigy’s H.N.I.C. 2, the sequel to his solo debut, followed by albums from Havoc and 40 Glocc, a new artist out of California. P also has his Alchemist-assisted mixtape, Return of the Mac, leading up to his album. Outside of music, Prodigy is taking on acting roles in Talent for Trouble, Blackout and Doorman, but is tightlipped about the businesses he and his right-hand man have in the works. “People bite ideas, but they target my ideas because they know I got some shit.” It’s been a long journey for Mobb Deep but Prodigy assures that it will be a cold hell on earth before he and Hav get dethroned as hip hop’s grimiest duo. “We got this shit on smash, son. We own our lane,” says Prodigy. “And when we’re done, we’re going to break the mold. It’ll never be another Mobb Deep.”

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Article tags: 50 Cent, G Unit, Mobb Deep, Prodigy 

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