Wednesday, January 30, 2008




The Return of Bandana P

Having come of age in New York's mid-90's era, you can bet good money I was into some vintage Mobb Deep. Memories include my man having The Infamous on CD the day after it hit stores (In 9th grade back then, that meant you had money) and begging him to let me borrow it so that I could dub it on tape, which was met with 15 seconds of skepticism and a "You better have it back tomorrow, with no scratches!"

Fast forward through the rest of that decade and the Mobb (along with the rest of their Loud labelmates) pretty much had the hard street flavor on lock, while Def Jam and Bad Boy battled for jiggy supremacy and Rawkus became the Mecca for disgruntled white boys. Then came a little known rapper with a little known Casio keyboard produced ditty named "Money, Cash, Hoes", with a little known line about New York being soft due to Calvin Broadus being the precursor to Osama Bin Laden. I remember listening to Funkmaster Flex the night the Dogg Pound video was being filmed, as he laughed about guns going off between rival crews and told everyone to chill. Prodigy's involvement in the East/West feud circa Capone & Noreaga's "L.A., L.A." remix found him spouting off in The Source, taking high offense to the little known rapper's proclamation that Death Row had turned the Rotten Apple to "shook ones".

As fate would have it, time told the tale of beef festering to the point that a little known event took place at Hot 97's Summer Jam 2001, something about a photo of someone in ballerina gear, maybe you've heard the story at this point. As if that wasn't bad enough a little known dis track called "The Takeover" came out (it's a rare gem, but worth finding if you can hunt it down), which rendered Prodigy nearly obsolete in the grand scheme of things. I say he was rendered obsolete not because of verse 1, 2 and 4's particularly scathing boasts of money that stacked higher than P's stature or jabs referring to dunn as Twinkle Toes, but because history will forever associate the song with the third verse that wasnt even about him.

An awkward chain of events followed where Prodigy made empty threats on the life of his little known adversary, and the past few years his catalogue has ranged from good (Amerikaz Nightmare/Free Agents/H.N.I.C) to in between (Return of the Mac) and awful (Infamy/Blood Money), amidst all types of controversy like gun charges and violent confrontations with other rappers, not to mention a self-leaked NC-17 tape of him and his wife. Just when I abandoned most of my hope, Prodigy has channeled the spirit of the great Ray Benzino and come back on a f*cking horse. The recent video for "ABC" featured P back on his grimy tip over a villainous Alchemist beat, and the other 3 new songs that have surfaced online (all linked below) have upped my anticipation of his next release, the sequel to H.N.I.C. I've recently developed a deeper appreciation for not only how cold he spits, but how he puts his phrases together.

Download Prodigy's 4 newest songs

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