Everybody knows about Tupacs Beef with Biggie, Jay-Z, Nas, Bad Boy etc. But there's very little coverage on what went down between Pac and Mobb Deep. This was the era that made me fall in love with hip hop as a child.
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American rapper Albert Johnson, better known by his stage name Prodigy, was born on November 2, 1974 in Hempstead, New York. His greatest professional successes were accomplished as one half of the hip hop duo Mobb Deep.
But almost as much as writing great rhymes, Prodigy loved a good rap beef. His career was filled with battles against many of the greatest rappers of all time, and he usually gave as good as he got.
Havoc started off speaking about the era in hip-hop before him, which Saigon explained as “an awakening.” Saigon then turned his attention to Mobb Deep coming on the map, and he explained that he “lost half my fanbase” during their beef. Saigon then explained that Prodigy and Havoc were trying to “wake people up” with their music, and he pointed out that 2Pac and Ice Cube were doing the same thing.
Competition has always played a big role in hip hop. Battle rhymes, diss songs, trying to outshine someone on his own song, it’s all in the spirit of competition.
But in the mid-90s, the competition in New York was especially heavy. Let’s think about the rappers were coming up at that time – you had Nas and Big both releasing landmark debuts in ’94, Mobb Deep damn bringing all of Queensbridge wherever they went, Raekwon with The Purple Tape and the rest of Wu-Tang by his side. Most of the rappers on our greatest of all time list came on the ’90s East Coast.
Prodigy (R.I.P.) getting his feelings off his chest pertaining to the state of the rap game the day before he was set to do a 3-year prison sentence. While he didn’t have much good things to say about the rappers making noise in 2008, I have a feeling he would have had even less of an appreciation for the cast of clowns calling themselves rappers in 2020 and beyond.
Watch legends Dead Prez, Mobb Deep, M.O.P., Fat Joe, Remy ma, Lil' Flip, David Banner, Project Pat, Three Six Mafia, and Wu-Tang Clan perform their hits on the 2022 Hip Hop Awards stage.