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MC Shan and KRS One once battled over Queensbridge and the South Bronx, respectively, but those days are long over as Queensbridge’s Prodigy was warmly received at the Bronx’s Bay Plaza location of Barnes & Nobles to promote his new book, My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep’s Prodigy. He received nothing but love from the throng of supporters who had gathered in the newsstand area of the store to hear Prodigy discuss the book, answer questions, autograph a few copies and take a few pictures with ardent fans, some of which were decked out in custom made H.N.I.C. tees. We spoke to Prodigy and he gave us the scoop on what’s going on with himself since coming out of prison and what it’s like giving the world a look into his life.
How different is it promoting books versus records?
Well, the book platform, marketing and promotions is a little different because it’s a little more intellectual. You bringing out the readers now and the intellectuals. We do a lot of speaking engagements at colleges and a lot of upscale type of events. With the music, it’s more, just the music fan, the hardcore music fan is into it. You get a lot of the upscale people that’s into the music side too sometimes, but this is a whole ‘nother platform right here. The events we’ve been doing thus far, have been real, real good.
What made you decide to write a book in the first place?
It was around ’99 when we had started shooting Murda Muzik, the movie. I decided that we should have a book also, explaining our life story. And then around 2004, I actually started writing the book and decided to make it you know, more my life story, because this was a project I was doing just by myself. I decided to make it more my background, the generations before me, to explain how my family was heavy into the entertainment world and how I was influenced by that, explain to people a lot of things that they don’t know. Clear up a lot of misconceptions, a lot of rumors plus with my sickle cell and how I deal with that, my health issues and just growing up. How I grew up on both sides of the fence, like both sides of the tracks. Part of my family had money, the other didn’t. One was from the suburbs, the other was from the projects, and that was important to explain to people. They don’t know how I came up, my background.
How did it feel when you actually finished the whole transcript and you were ready to hand it in? Was there a sense of relief that you said, ‘I finished this and now let’s just wait and see what happens with it’?
I actually started in 2004 and I finished it when I was locked up, so it took me a roughly around six years to finish. I had a book agent before I went to jail. I found a nice book agent through one of my connections with 50 [Cent]. 50 hooked me up with some nice connections and I found one of the best book agents in the game, a company called Vigliano. They shopped my book around for me while I was locked up, even before I finished it, the rough version of it, and they found me a deal while I was locked up.
When you finally had the finished copy in your hands, how did it feel?
They mailed it to me and I’m just looking at this and I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’ That was a crazy accomplishment. You got a book now.
How did your family receive it? Your wife, the kids?
They were just bugging off of it. Of course my wife don’t want to read it, she don’t like reading the crazy stuff, but she knows. She just don’t want to read it. My moms is buggin’ the most of course. She’s like, ‘I can’t believe it.’ She ready to cry and whatnot.
Would you let your children read it?
Yeah, my daughter read it already. My daughter is 12 years old. I want her to read that. I want her to see how it really is. That’s how I keep it with my kids. I tell them what’s going on, so they can see and know the type of people that’s out here and how they can avoid certain situations.
How much of your life is represented in the book? 100%? Was there some stuff you left out because you felt it wasn’t necessary?
It’s definitely 100%. The stuff I left out is really not that relevant.
What do you say about brothers that are locked up and when they come out, they may not have it as easy as you as far as getting a job. I mean you can go back to being Prodigy, but what about the other brothers that might have problems getting employment because of their records, what do you say to them, as far as keeping their head up?
Yeah, that’s a good question. I thought about that a lot when I was in jail. That’s a deep question right there. I was looking, right before I came home, looking at everybody I’m locked up with and ‘I’m like damn, they gotta go home and find work. People don’t want to hire you because of your criminal history. It’s hard, man. It’s definitely a fucked up situation, man. I think there needs to be more programs for people that come in and try to reestablish themselves in the world after being incarcerated. There should be a lot more programs like that for people, man. Otherwise, they just going to do something crazy and go back to jail.
What’s going on next? Any other business ventures? What’s up with the new Mobb Deep album?
Right now, we working on the new Mobb Deep. It’ll be out there probably around the end of the summer. That’s about it right now. Just really focused on that.
Is that going to be on G-Unit? Or independent? Or are you guys still working that out?
We still trying to figure out which way we want to go. Of course, 50, that’s our man. He offered us, he still wants to deal with us, and he still wants to negotiate. So, that’s there if we choose to do that. Other than that, we just working on this album, man.
I saw you somewhere talk about manuscripts, screenplays. You thinking of developing those a little more? Could you possibly turn the book into a movie?
People have been talking about that. People have been saying, ‘You turn this into a movie, I’m telling you.’ We shooting around different ideas and which direction we should take it in. That’s maybe somewhere in the near future, but right now we just really focused on this Mobb project and try to make the best album that we can, so that we can solidify our careers for the next twenty years.
Speaking of movies, 8 Mile featured one of your songs, “Shook Ones, Part II” prominently. How did it feel to see one of your songs come up on the big screen like that?
I was buggin’ ‘cause I didn’t even know they did that. I’m sitting there watching the movie one day just ‘cause I like Eminem and all of a sudden, shit come on and I’m like ‘YO!!’ I start making phone calls. ‘Yo, son! You gotta watch this shit.’
What did doing your stint in prison teach you about yourself?
It taught me about patience. Cause I was a very impatient type of person. Like, if I’m looking for something, my keys in the house, I start sweatin’ bullets, getting frustrated, you know what I’m saying. I really start sweatin’ bullets, that’s how frustrated I’d get. Start throwin’ shit around, wildin’. Like you got to chill out, it’s not that serious. That’s what jail taught me. Be patient. Because when you sitting in that cell you like, ‘I got to wait for 3 years to go home.’ So you learn patience. There’s no need to rush. That what I kept telling myself. ‘I got 3 years. I’m good. Relax. We not going nowhere, no time soon.’ So it taught me how to relax and just take it easy. Everything is going to be okay.
What about your mom? Does she still perform with the Crystals at the old school Doo Wop shows?
They offered her. They do a lot of cruises on cruise ships and whatnot, but she doesn’t like touring at all. That was the main reason why she left, because she couldn’t take the touring.
How is your health? What’s the status of your sickle cell? That’s a lifelong thing, right?
I’m good. I’ve been good. I take care of myself. I drink a shitload of water. I eat good. I eat real healthy. The Sickle Cell Association of America brought me in as one of their ambassadors to help spread awareness of sickle cell because a lot of people don’t know about it and how it comes about. A lot of people don’t know it’s hereditary. Doing that, I started my own campaign, called the No Pain campaign which where I’m really focusing on teaching people with sickle cell, but really teaching everybody about diet and lifestyle and about how by having a proper diet and lifestyle, you can eliminate all that pain. You don’t gotta go through that. It’s not just for people with sickle cell. Diet and lifestyle could cure whatever kind of problem that you dealing with. You just gotta learn to live right and have that discipline. So, I started that campaign. Soon you’ll see me going around and doing more speaking engagements, doing certain promotional things, doing public service announcements and stuff like that.