På tisdagskvällen kom nyheten att Albert “Prodigy” Johnson från legendariska gruppen Mobb Deep avlidit på ett sjukhus i Las Vegas, endast 42 år gammal. New York-rapparen antas ha avlidit till följd av komplikationer till sjukdomen sicklecellanemi.
“It is with extreme sadness and disbelief that we confirm the death of our dear friend Albert Johnson, better known to millions of fans as Prodigy of legendary NY rap duo Mobb Deep. Prodigy was hospitalized a few days ago in Vegas after a Mobb Deep performance for complications caused by a sickle cell anemia crisis. As most of his fans know, Prodigy battled the disease since birth. The exact causes of death have yet to be determined. We would like to thank everyone for respecting the family’s privacy at this time.”
I en nyligen publicerad intervju med Complex-journalisten Kathy Iandoli, (som även hjälpte honom med boken “Commissary Kitchen”) avslöjades Prodigy att han arbetar på ett musikalprojekt i Broadway-stil som enligt artikeln skulle utforska “how the idea of the Illuminati in hip-hop has influenced our view of the music”. Iandoli berättar om projektet:
“The one thing we were planning on doing was a musical about the Illuminati and how the obsession with the Illuminati infiltrated people’s opinions of hip-hop. We were initially going to do an interactive type of musical with a company that runs The Illuminati Ball, but then we decided to take our idea to an off-Broadway situation. Tell a story with a very specific beginning, middle, and end. But [the story] began with prison; it was semi-autobiographical. Many people would call him a conspiracy theorist, but a lot of what he thought wasn’t rooted in completely distrusting everything. [He was interested in] how people absorb information and what they do with that information.”
Hurvida detta projekt kommer se dagens ljus efter hans bortgång är oklart. Iandoli beskriver att arbetet med musikalen hade kommit en bit på vägen men inte var färdigställt:
“We’d had a couple of little bits about it, but he was passionate about it. He was passionate about everything he wanted to do, and that was just one of the things. This was a guy who released classic albums and had traveled the world god knows how many times—he wanted to do something more next, and he had those plans in place. He was always looking for the next way to change the world. “
Lyssna på Prodigys första soloalbum, “HNIC” från 2000, samt senaste skiva nedan:
