On “It’s Mine,” Prodigy noted his life was filled with “more drama than the Baldwins–”and it looks like it carried on past his time on earth. Shortly after his death in Las Vegas at 42, New York artists Jeff Henriquez and Eli “Eli Eos” Lazare painted a mural of him across the street from Queensbridge, the Queens housing project he helped make infamous along with his Mobb Deep partner Havoc.
The mural was soon splattered with white paint, fixed within a day, then splattered again with red paint. The mural was eventually taken down, to the chagrin of many Mobb Deep fans. An Instagram post by LevelUpHipHop implied there were Bloods involved.
No one knows who is responsible for the defacement, but Prodigy’s former Bars n Hooks understudy Mike Delorean implied in a recent interview that it was Prodigy’s many unsettled beefs with Queensbridge natives that had people feeling a way about the mural.
After being asked point blank by hip-hop media personality Gully TV if disrespect for dead and incarcerated Queensbridge natives was behind the destruction of the mural, Delorean said “yes.” Even diehard fans who have love for Prodigy’s legacy as an artist can still admit that he had his share of conflicts, especially with Queensbridge residents. Prodigy was originally from Hempstead, Long Island, which made some feel that he’s technically not “from” Queensbridge despite reppin’ for the place so hard through music and even a movie he self-funded.
In a bid to build unity, he tried to ingratiate himself to people in Queensbridge that natives Havoc and Nas suggested he stay away from, and those relationships tended to end sour. Prodigy spoke on many of those conflicts in his My Infamous Life autobiography, which caused an uproar upon it’s 2011 release. Queensbridge-based artists such as Delorean, Capone – n – Noreaga, and Mobb Deep affiliate Ty Nitty spoke out against the book’s revelatory content at the time.
Prodigy had the most serious issues with Queensbridge residents Lakey Da Kid and Sherm The Worm, and events like confusion around club tickets (of all things) mushroomed into robbery and obscene violence — which has Sherm in jail for the rest of his life.
Though Prodigy matured later in life and mended fences with many artists he had issues with, including his own brother-in-rhyme Havoc, it seems like he didn’t get the chance to speak with certain people who have decided to keep the vendetta going in an exceptionally disrespectful manner. Though Prodigy might not get his mural in QB, he already has several beautiful pieces dedicated to him throughout the world, which you can check out below.
