Albert Johnson aka Prodigy, was an American rapper and entrepreneur who, with Havoc, was one half of the hip hop duo Mobb Deep.

Prodigy was born on November 2, 1974, in Hempstead, New York, located on Long Island. He had one elder brother, Greg Johnson. He came from a musical family. His grandfather Budd Johnson was a saxophonist, and his grand-uncle, Keg Johnson, was a trombonist. Both of them are remembered for their contributions to the bebop era of jazz. His mother, Fatima Frances (Collins) Johnson, was a member of The Crystals. His father, Budd Johnson Jr., was a member of a doo-wop music group called The Chanters. His great-great-great-grandfather, William Jefferson White, founded Georgia's Morehouse College.

Prodigy grew up in LeFrak. While attending the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, he met his future music partner, Havoc. The duo became the "Poetical Prophets", before choosing the name "The Infamous Mobb Deep". Under the alias Lord-T (The Golden Child), the then 16-year-old Johnson joined Jive Records and landed an uncredited guest appearance on the Boyz n the Hood soundtrack, for his collaborative efforts on the song "Too Young" by Hi-Five in 1991.

Music career

1995–1996: The Infamous and Hell on Earth

Initially compared to fellow rapper Nas, who took a similar approach lyrically on his Illmatic album from 1994, Mobb Deep released The Infamous in 1995, which was certified Gold by the RIAA within the first two months of its release. A year and a half later, at the end of 1996, Prodigy and Havoc released Hell on Earth, which debuted at number six on SoundScan. Its next release, Murda Muzik, was heavily bootlegged while still in its demo stage, leaking, onto the streets and over the internet, rough versions of the nearly 30 songs the duo had recorded.

2000–2006: H.N.I.C.

In November 2000, Prodigy released his debut solo album H.N.I.C.. His follow up solo album would be released in 2008.

But during the next 6 years, between the release of his first two solo albums, Prodigy continued to work with Mobb Deep, releasing Infamy in 2001, Amerikaz Nightmare in 2004, and Blood Money in 2006.

2007–2011: Collaborations and H.N.I.C. Part 2

During this time, Prodigy had started work on his second solo album H.N.I.C. Part 2, which was first previewed on his official mixtape The Return of the Mac, and was later released on the independent label Koch Records. The mixtape single, together with the mixtape video, was called "Mac 10 Handle". Prodigy then released H.N.I.C. Pt. 2 through Voxonic Inc., a company in which he was an equity holder. In late 2009, Mobb Deep was released from its contract with 50 Cent's G-Unit label.

During this time period, Prodigy was served with a three-year sentence in Mid-State medium-security prison, following a plea agreement stemming from a gun-possession charge. He was officially released on March 7, 2011.

Prodigy was featured in the 2009 documentary, Rhyme and Punishment, a film that documented Hip-Hop artists who have been incarcerated. In 2011, Prodigy released a free EP called The Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson EP which was his first project after he was released from prison. On April 21, a song titled "The Type", with Curren$y, was released on Curren$y's free album, entitled Covert Coup.

In 2011, Prodigy released his autobiography, My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep's Prodigy. It was co-written with Laura Checkoway and published by Touchstone Books.

2013–2014: The Infamous Mobb Deep

In 2013, Prodigy released his second collaboration album with the Alchemist titled Albert Einstein.  On April 1, 2014, Mobb Deep released The Infamous Mobb Deep, their eighth studio album. In August 2016, he released an untitled EP of five tracks, released in partnership with BitTorrent, an association that Prodigy had been working up for a while.

Legal issues

The following is a brief timeline and chronology of some of the legal issues that Prodigy faced during his life:

November 6, 2003, Prodigy was arrested in Cohoes, New York, and charged with third degree criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of marijuana. Police reportedly recovered a .25 caliber handgun and marijuana on his person.

October 26, 2006, Prodigy was arrested in New York City and charged with criminal possession of a weapon. He was pulled over in a $120,000 customized bulletproof SUV after making an illegal u-turn around 2:15 AM. After conducting a search of the vehicle, police recovered a .22 caliber handgun in the center console.

October 8, 2007, Prodigy was sentenced to serve three-and-a-half years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm. Originally facing a mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison, Prodigy struck a deal with the prosecution, and pleaded guilty in exchange for the shorter prison sentence.

March 7, 2011, Prodigy was released from Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, New York after serving three years for criminal possession of a weapon. He had six months shaved off his original sentence for good behavior and remained on parole until 2014.

Illuminati theory

See also: Illuminati in popular culture

Some rap music has been inspired by the theory that a powerful international secret society exists. Often it is referred to as the Illuminati, after Bavarian secret society founded in 1776. Complex magazine has claimed it was Prodigy who started the interest in the theory. Prodigy had often spoken publicly against the alleged international secret society during his life.

Prodigy rapped about a secret society in his collaboration with LL Cool J in the song “I Shot Ya (Remix)," from 1995. From prison in 2007, not long before the release of H.N.I.C. Part 2, Prodigy wrote and published an "open letter" to Jay-Z in which he made some cryptic allegations alluding to the theory. In 2008, Prodigy titled a song "Illuminati", from H.N.I.C. Part 2. In his final solo album released during his life, The Hegelian Dialectic (2017), Prodigy also referred to the theory. It was reported that Prodigy was working on a musical about his Illuminati theory at the time of his death.

In an interview with Vibe in November 2000, Prodigy spoke about what inspired him to directly address his battle with sickle-cell anemia in his song "You Can Never Feel My Pain", from his debut studio album H.N.I.C. He attributes his nihilism to the "permanent physical suffering" caused by his lifelong battle with the condition.

On June 20, 2017, it was reported that Prodigy had died in Las Vegas, Nevada, after having been hospitalized a few days earlier for complications related to his sickle-cell anemia. He was performing in the Art of Rap Tour in Las Vegas with Havoc, Ghostface Killah, Onyx, KRS-One, and Ice-T when he was hospitalized.

According to a coroner's report he died of accidental choking.

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