June 21, 2018

Prodigy "H.N.I.C" (Mixtape, 2000)


"In 2000, before Prodigy released his official solo debut album, H.N.I.C., he teamed up with DJ Whoo Kid to drop his first ever solo mixtape called H.N.I.C. Pt. 1. The tape, hosted by the two, featured unreleased exclusives and never-before-heard freestyles from Prodigy. Whoo Kid recalls Prodigy's respect for the DJ, saying: "He was a fan of the DJ, so he was a fan of Clue, a fan of me, a fan of Cutmaster C, all the Queens DJs that was out there ... Prodigy was actually the first one to give me album cuts that aren’t finished. He did like, maybe a few freestyles, but it was mostly unfinished versions of other Mobb Deep songs, Havoc cuts. It was kind of bugged out." The mixtape had songs Prodigy did with Alchemist that were never released, so when they dropped the tape, it caused issues between Whoo Kid and Alchemist "because Prodigy was the type who didn’t care about getting permission to release his own shit." ...  Remembering what made Prodigy so unique, Whoo Kid points to P's unique delivery as a distinction. "Whenever you’d hear Prodigy come on, you know, Havoc was the cool nigga, he’s in the back, he got his verses or whatever, but when you finally hear Prodigy come on, he was believable. His voice, his cadence, made you want to do what you gotta do, because of the way he was dealing with his sickness. His sickness came out into the music." - XXL