C-Rayz Walz: What took place between Juvenile Hell and The Infamous to spark two different vibes on the albums?
Prodigy: Just [being] kids growing up and realizing that you gotta take music serious in order to last in this business. When we made Juvenile Hell we was little kids just happy to be on TV and have a record to have a little money to buy gold teeth. Then when the album ain’t do too well, we realized that if you want a real long lasting career in this business we had to take this music seriously, and that’s the difference between those two albums.

C-Rayz Walz: Do you believe a lot of women are really strong enough to ride a bid with a man or will most of them get weak?
Prodigy: A few of them, yeah, they strong. A lot of women are weak. A lot of people are weak. Not just women. A lot of people who I thought was friends—niggas—I don’t see them. I don’t hear from them. They don’t visit me. I don’t get no letters, no messages, nothing. It goes both sides—men and women.

C-Rayz Walz: Have you been shot or stabbed famz?
Prodigy: Nah. Somebody tried to stab me in the face when I was a kid, but nah.

C-Rayz Walz: Who has been the most influential person in your life thus far?
Prodigy: I would have to say my grandmother.

C-Rayz Walz: What's the best piece of advice you ever received from him?
Prodigy: From my grandmother—about money, about real estate, about business. She told me how to be the head nigga in charge. That was her name. That’s where I got [H.N.I.C.] from.

C-Rayz Walz: Out of all the places you've performed at, which was the livest?
Prodigy: Livest? Definitely I would have to say London. We was performing on stage and the crowd was going crazy. They came on stage with us like they was performing. We had to control them like we was security because security was scared to death.

C-Rayz Walz: What's your favorite Mobb album and why?
Prodigy: My favorite Mobb album gotta be The Infamous. All of them is crazy, but if I gotta pick one its gotta be The Infamous. That was the one that set the mark for us to let the world know that we wasn’t playing with this shit. We were serious.

C-Rayz Walz: Who would you love to collab with on a track?
Prodigy: I want to do a song with Queen Latifah and Sista Souljah.

C-Rayz Walz: What do you feel are the most important things you can teach your seeds even if you're not around? ‘Cause we don't live forever my ninja…
Prodigy: The most important thing man is just being a kind, peaceful generous person. Be positive. Be a good person—as best as you possibly can. Violence and hate is the last result.

C-Rayz Walz: What are the most essential qualities you look for in a queen to share yourself with? How do you determine she's really in it, or just for your name?
Prodigy: Experience. You gotta go through it in order to know. You gotta know the woman, know the girl. You really gotta be involved in order to find out what’s really good. Otherwise, you’ll never know.

C-Rayz Walz: Tell me some non-musical things most people may not know about P.
Prodigy: That I’m an author. I write books, I write movies—I got a whole lot of scripts I’m working on. When I’m done with music, that’ll be the next step in the business. I try to eat real healthy. I’m not into drinking and smoking no more. I’m a very spiritual person. I don’t have a religion. I don’t believe in these religions out here but I’m very spiritual. I believe in a Creator. A lot of people may not know that about me.

C-Rayz Walz: How do you feel about drug dealers and the drug game in 2008?
Prodigy: I mean, hey. People do what they gotta do but I feel like people need to get into other things. There’s a lot of other things that you could get into. Try music, try sports. There’s a whole world of things you could get into. Stop trying to follow what everybody else is doing. Stop looking at the next man and say how I could be there too. Create your own thing to do. Be an inventor. Most of the things in this world was invented by black people. Even if you’re not black though, just strive to be innovative. Do something different with yourself. Everybody don’t gotta sell drugs, everybody don’t have to have a clothing company, a record label. There’s other things you could get into.

C-Rayz Walz: If you were to leave this Earth right now, what do you want to be remembered by?
Prodigy: Just remember us by our career and how we lasted so long. How we kept it consistent and how we kept coming with some good sounding music. [Pauses] And also, I guess that I wasn’t scared to speak my mind about shit. A lot of people are scared to speak their mind. I feel like you’re not really living life if you’re biting your tongue. People are too scared—they’re scared of dying, scared of getting beat up. You shouldn’t be scared of anything. You should just say how you feel and that’s it. You got freedom of speech [and] freedom of expression.

_{Prodigy has remained productive while behind bars, blogging frequently on HNIC2.com. The DVD collection of videos from the album hits stores July 8th.
C-Rayz Walz is a member of the Wu-Tang affiliated supergroup Almighty. Their debut album Original S.I.N. (Strength in Numbers) drops July 22nd on Babygrande Records. The finishing touches on his latest project, Original King The Mixtape Album comes out one week later (July 29th) on Kings Link Recordz.}

Extra Special thanks goes to Prodigy’s wife Kiki and Jackie O. Asare.