After being sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for a weapons possession charge, veteran rapper Prodigy has bravely revealed his perspective on law enforcement's role in profiling Hip Hop artists. Claiming that the authorities offered him a deal to set up 50 Cent in exchange for letting him walk, the Queensbridge rapper opened the floodgates for speculation on similar cases.  

Days away from his imprisonment at a still unknown facility, Prodigy delved into the circumstances surrounding the case and his recent outburst of creativity. In addition to recording and shooting videos for his album H.N.I.C. 2, the hard-working rapper has also created a social networking site where he interacts with grateful Mobb Deep fans and a few haters who are suspiciously invested in his every move.  On the website [click here], which is named after his new album, Prodigy has penned blog entries about his case, Mobb Deep’s venerable legacy, and his approach to dropping knowledge in the music.  

Now more than ever, Prodigy is intent on spreading the mathematics to his fans around the world.  If all goes as planned, P will be making the most of his time behind bars and trying for an early release. But in spite of his stoic stance, Prodigy’s voice conveyed weariness.

HipHopDX: January 9th is coming up real fast, what’s on your mind?
Prodigy: Basically I’m just working hard on the album, making sure it’s real, real, real extra stupid tight as it possibly could be to the very end, that’s all I’m doing.

DX: You’re doing videos for all the songs on H.N.I.C. 2, have you been the one coming up with the concepts like the one from the “ABC” video?
P: Yeah, definitely. It’s been me with the help of [video director] Dan the Man, we sit down and work together. But I basically tell him what to do to make it crazy. I want people to say, “What the fuck is wrong with P!” I want people to be like, “Yo, this nigga is crazy! He smoking crack!” And when I tell him that, he says, “Aight, I know what you talking about, you want it to look like some rock n’ roll, horror shit.” And then we just come up with some crazy shit.

DX: Has the news of your bid had an influence on those videos for H.N.I.C. 2?
P: Nah, basically that’s just me, I’m just being myself. The whole case of me getting locked up is not affecting it. But I’m definitely putting a lot of it into the album. You will hear me bring it up, but nah, I’m just really being myself. If I didn’t have the case, I would be doing this anyway.

DX: You’ve been pretty fearless for airing out the DTs and ATF agents for the illegal search and their attempts to get you to set up 50 Cent. Are you at all concerned about how they might retaliate for all the things you’re exposing?
P: Am I supposed to be scared of this government? People are not supposed to be scared about the government. People are supposed to be able to talk about what’s going on. People are supposed to be able to voice their opinions about what’s happening in their life and in the community and the world. That’s a constitutional right: freedom of speech. So I can say what the fuck I want to say, I’m talking about what’s going on. They lied in court, they tried to make me set 50 up. I’m voicing my reality and what’s really happening in my life, I’m letting it be known. I’m supposed to be scared? Hell no I’m not going to be scared.  What they gonna do to me? I don’t give a fuck what they think they can do, they don’t scare me. They shot our leaders in the past, so I don’t give a fuck really if they try to kill me, or whatever they try to do. It really doesn’t matter to me, I’ma always just be me and I’ma always speak my mind and exercise my constitutional rights all the time, every time.

DX: It seems crazy that they were actually asking you to plant something and incriminate 50 without having anything on him.  Were they literally trying to get you to set something up out of nothing?
P: That’s what it was, they were trying to get me to plant evidence in his car and all kinds of other shit, it’s real. They were saying you know we’ll rip up your arrest report, we’ll let you and your man walk, forget about everything, nobody has to know. This is what they really do. Cops is foul in New York and a lot of other places, all over the world cops is foul. They killed Sean Bell in the car in Queens, shot at my peoples. They ain’t have no guns on them, they had their hands out the window screaming, “I ain’t got no weapons!” and the cops is still shooting at them. What kind of shit is that?

DX: Do you think the Hip Hop task force was trailing you in particular because of your affiliation with G-Unit?
P: They told me that! One day they pulled me over and said, "Get used to seeing us, we’ve been assigned to you." [But] they’ve been investigating us since 1992, if you read Derek Parker’s book The Hip Hop Cop [Notorious C.O.P. : The Inside Story of the Tupac, Biggie, and Jam Master Jay Investigations from the NYPD’s first “Hip-Hop Cop”] you’ll see that.

DX: A lot of other rappers have been hit with some gun charges recently, but you don’t hear them airing out the circumstances like you have, why do you think that is?
P: They probably scared, they not rebels.  Prodigy is a rebel, that’s always been the difference between Prodigy and all these other rappers. That’s what I bring to the table, I speak my mind. I don’t never give a fuck, and that’s what it is.

DX: What has 50 said about your situation?
P: 50 is always behind us, he love us.  Anything that happen, he’s always concerned and he always behind us. So that’s where he stand, that’s his position.

DX: Did he have any reaction when you said the authorities tried to get you to set him up?
P: Yeah, he was basically like, “Wow, good looking for telling me, word.”  He ain’t say “Good looking for not doing that shit,” but he already know that. I know it’s good looking nigga, we don’t fuckin snitch on each other, we don’t set each other up. What kind of shit is that? Continued on page 2 »