The Best Prodigy Verses

The Mobb Deep MC's all-time greatest bars.

Prodigy
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Image via Johnny Nunez/Getty

Prodigy

Prodigy of Mobb Deep was a master of the macabre. His rhyme book, laced with graphic visuals told via his own criminal slang (the Dunn Language), brought to life the unthinkable bloodsport and infamy of New York City’s grimiest neighborhoods—the type of realism that today’s cultural tourists get off on.

With Prodigy’s unexpected death on Tuesday, many have revisited the abundant classic recordings that he’s left behind. Likewise, Complex looked back on the best of P to compiled his greatest, most timeless raps. 

Starting from the beginning of the list, you might notice a trend: Several of the rhymes below are first verses. During Prodigy’s lyrical peak—from the 1995 release of Mobb Deep’s sophomore album The Infamous to his 2000 solo debut H.N.I.C.—there was simply no safer bet than starting a song with one of his captivating opening gambits and all the fire that’d follow, the hallmark of a true rap genius.

Reminisce on some of Prodigy’s finest verses, and pour out a lil’ St. Ides for one of hip-hop’s best to ever do it.

25. Big Pun f/ Inspectah Deck & Prodigy, "Tres Leches (Triborough Trilogy)"

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Album: Capital Punishment (1998)

Producer: RZA

Verse: 1

Big Pun was so shook by this verse from one-half of Mobb Deep that he reportedly went back and rewrote his own. On the track, Prodigy boasts that his music is so murderous it actually boosted gun sales, which honestly isn’t too far-fetched.

24. Prodigy, "IMDKV"

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Album: Albert Einstein (2013)

Producer: The Alchemist

Verse: n/a

The same way Devin the Dude has been finding new ways to rap about weed since the early ’90s, Prodigy has spent two decades reinventing the threats he’s committed to wax. It’s a true art: “What niggas wan’ do when you see me off-camera/Nigga strip who? I'll beat you ’till you lavender.” (Bonus points for rhyming “camera” with “lavender.”)

23. Prodigy, "Veteran's Memorial"

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Album: H.N.I.C. (2000)

Producer: The Alchemist

Verse: 2

In his raps, Prodigy is usually a stoic spitter, a man numbed by the murder and mayhem that characterized his environment growing up. People live, people die, and life goes on. But in this stream-of-consciousness verse, he takes a moment to grieve, reminiscing about sharing food, firearms, drinks, and signature daps with his lost friends.

22. Prodigy, "Mac 10 Handle"

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Album: Return of the Mac (2007)

Producer: The Alchemist

Verse: 2

Prodigy flips Geto Boys’ 1991 classic “My Mind Playing Tricks On Me” to take you on a tour through the mind of a premeditating murderer—drugged-up, cocking his artillery, ready to pull up on his target at Target, at church, wherever.

21. Mobb Deep f/ Nas, "It's Mine"

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Album: Murda Muzik (1999)

Producer: Mobb Deep

Verse: 2

Nas’ closing verse steals the show, but Prodigy’s “I got the style of a stillborn child, I’m ill” is the single hardest line on this Scarface-sampling hit.

20. Cam'ron f/ Prodigy, "Losin' Weight"

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Album: S.D.E. (Sports Drugs and Entertainment) (2000)

Producer: Darrell "Digga" Branch

Verse: 2

Cam’ron does the heavy lifting, yet the sound Bandana P’s gruff voice alone makes this album cut a classic NYC collaboration. He floats all over Digga’s piano keys: “Could bout some/But rather pull out the stout guns/Don't let your mouth get you in shit your legs run from.”

19. Prodigy, "You Can Never Feel My Pain"

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Album: H.N.I.C. (2000)

Producer: Ric R.U.D.E.

Verse: 2

Prodigy’s sickle-cell anemia has been a prominent aspect of his mythology since his early MC days. On this poignant testament, he shares the many ways the affliction has shaped his identity since birth, recalling therapy sessions as an aloof teen, dependence on recreational drugs once a little older, and his trashing of emergency rooms when unattended. You’ll never feel P’s pain, but here, you can hear it.

18. Mobb Deep, "Allustrious"

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Album: Murda Muzik (1999)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 2

Prodigy spoke to Complex in 2011 about his insular music mentality in the ’90s: “I wasn’t fucking with nobody else but Mobb Deep. I had tunnel-vision, straight up... And niggas can’t fuck with Mobb Deep. That was my opinion. Mobb Deep, fuck everybody else.” 

The sentiment rings 1000 percent true on this Murda Muzik deep cut, as Capital P takes a moment to clown unnamed “rap jesters” and send warning shots at would-be rivals. “How dare you entertain the thought,” he wonders, incredulous, “that you could come out to challenge me in blood talk?”

17. Mobb Deep, "The Start of Your Ending (41st Side)"

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Album: The Infamous (1995)

Producer: Mobb Deep

Verse: 2

From the beginning of Mobb Deep’s magnum opus, Prodigy falls into such a pocket that you’d think he might rap forever, which would’ve been a welcome alternative had his duns not interrupted him for some characteristically wild tough talk: “42 shots depending/On whether or not/The clip is full to the top/We busting caps non-stop blazing/In all the shows/And even at the hoes.” Prodigy’s no-fucks verse sets the tone for one of hip-hop’s greatest (and grittiest) albums of all-time.

16. Mobb Deep f/ Big Noyd "Give Up the Goods"

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Album: The Infamous (1995)

Producer: Q-Tip

Verse: 1

What’s more gangsta than sticking up stick-up kids?

15. Mobb Deep, "Drop A Gem On 'Em"

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Album: Hell On Earth (1996)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 2

This unflinching response to “Hit ’Em Up” lost a bit of steam after Tupac’s murder (Mobb Deep reportedly pulled their song from the radio as a sign of respect), but the retaliatory track shows that Prodigy was unwilling to back down. Over Havoc’s eerie piano loop, P picks at Pac’s credentials by alluding to his infamous shooting and robbery at Manhattan’s Quad Studios, and rumors that he was raped in jail, with words menacing enough to keep the bi-coastal beef cooking.

14. LL Cool J f/ Keith Murray, Prodigy, Fat Joe, and Foxy Brown, "I Shot Ya (Remix)"

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Album: Mr. Smith (1995)

Producer: Trackmasters

Verse: 2

In just one verse, Prodigy reignites a feud with Keith Murray—who appears on the same track(!)—and introduces hip-hop to the Illuminati with a hot line that Jay Z made into a hot song  (“D’Evils”) one year later.

13. Mobb Deep f/ Nas and Raekwon "Eye For An Eye (Your Beef Is Mine)"

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Album: The Infamous (1995)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 1

To be a Queensbridge hustler in the ’90s is to be perpetually vigilant—of enemies, undercover cops, or snakes waiting to catch you slippin’—and this classic verse from P. E. double makes that unease and paranoia feel nonchalant.

12. Mobb Deep, "Back At You"

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Album: Sunset Park Motion Picture Soundtrack (1996)

Producer: Havoc

Verse:

This whole verse is a knot of internal rhymes detailing the many ways that Prodigy might respond to disrespect, ranging from Gemstar razor slashing to Mac-11 blasting to a good old slapping. “Peep this/Throwing blows on some nose-and-teeth shit/So much drama, who the fuck knows we got beef with?/Lift you up off your feet like ski lift.”

11. Mobb Deep, "Apostle's Warning"

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Album: Hell On Earth (1996)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 2

“Create a rhyme labyrinth like poisonous cannabis

Here, take a toke of this

Deadly rare vocalist

Overpower y'all, tiny noise like locusts

Like sunlight thru a magnifying glass I'll focus and burn

A hole straight thru ya brain and leave ya open

And let the venom soak in

You start sweatin' and goin' thru convulsions from dope shit I writ...”

You’ve been warned.

10. Nas f/ Mobb Deep "Live Nigga Rap"

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Album: It Was Written (1996)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 1

Originally intended for Capone-N-Noreaga’s adversarial “L.A., L.A.” Prodigy pocketed this verse because it was “too hot,” ultimately offering it up for Nas’ anticipated sophomore album. He puffs out his chest and plants his ten toes down, flipping Five Percenter vernacular and adding his own inimitable swagger: “JFK on our way to L.A./Got links with big cats down in Santa Barbré.”

9. Mobb Deep f/ 50 Cent, "Pearly Gates"

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Album: Blood Money (2006)

Producer: Exile

Verse: 3

At first listen, this might sound like sacrilegious shock rap, but Prodigy will go to great lengths to make a point. While Havoc and 50 try to finesse their way into heaven, P does the complete opposite: He declares war on God (“If I go to hell and you make it to the pearly gates, tell the boss man we got beef”) and makes a shocking Passion of the Christ reference (“And tell his only Son I’ma see him when I see him/And when I see him, I'mma beat him like a movie”). But behind the blasphemy (the album version is partially censored) Prodigy is bluntly expressing the exasperation of those who’ve experienced the same hell on earth that he has. His rhyme is a retribution for unanswered prayers. And it’s one of the most powerful post-2000 verses that Prodigy has recorded.

8. Mobb Deep f/ Crystal Johnson, "Temperature Rising"

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Album: The Infamous (1995)

Producer: Havoc and Q-Tip

Verse: 2

On this spiritual cousin to Nas’ “One Love,” Prodigy sends an audio kite to Killa Black, Havoc’s then-incarcerated brother who had been bagged on murder charges. Over Q-Tip and Hav’s slapping bassline, P reports on the sleuth work of perplexed detectives and offers to dispose of both incriminating evidence (“Deliver me the gun, I'll tie it to a brick and throw it in the river”) and whoever snitched (“We'll chop his body up in six degrees of separation”). It’s the kind of earnest salute that could only be spawned by a real-life situation—a stark portrait of just another day in the Queensbridge housing complex that Mobb Deep will always call home.

7. Cormega f/ Prodigy, "Thun & Kicko"

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Album: The Realness (2001)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 1

No recorded indictment against studio gangsters has been colder than this:

“You’s a notebook crook, with loose-leaf beef

A backseat criminal that pass the heat

To somebody that blast the heat

Man, it sound bad on the pad, what happened in the street?

A villain on the vinyl, an analog outlaw

A lot of gats on your DAT, taped southpaw

You thuggin' when the mic’s plugged in

Barkin’ through the speakers like you got no sense

You wild on the two-inch...”

6. Mobb Deep f/ Raekwon, "Nighttime Vultures"

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Album: Hell On Earth (1996)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 1

Prodigy starts this story like a frat boy might start his Sunday morning: waking up in a hungover daze, scanning his room in an attempt to piece together the events of the previous night. Only instead of beer pong and keg stands, P’s quizzical recollections are more deadly—a brawl turned gunfight, with bloody denims to show for it. The verse, which earned P a coveted “Hip Hop Quotable” feature in The Source, is best summed up by these bars: “After this, you never will go back to that which/Sit back and write half-ass shit /The last official taking out the artificial/Let me relieve you, replace that shit with some lethal.”

5. Mobb Deep, "Quiet Storm"

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Album: Murda Muzik (1999)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 2

History will best remember Lil Kim’s legacy-making verse on this song’s remix, but some of Prodigy best scrawls ever grace the original. Quotables are in abundance, but the middle verse is most impressive, as P reconciles his life before and after becoming a rap star. Prodigy grew up quickly—he remembers frightening target practice lessons with his dad at age 7—but for all of the gunfire, drugs and brutality that shaped his worldview, he closes with a positive, more innocent plan for his kids, a vision he’d protect by any means necessary.

4. Mobb Deep, "Hell on Earth (Front Lines)"

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Album: Hell on Earth (1996)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 3

The self-proclaimed Phantom of Crime Rap must’ve been extra amped when he recorded this closing verse—rarely does P combine this much intensity and dexterity in one extended rhyme. He’s simply unfuckwithable here.

3. Mobb Deep, "Survival of the Fittest"

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Album: The Infamous (1995)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 1

The opening line—“There’s a war going on outside, no man is safe from”—could be applied to any era in history, in multiple geographical regions, and still ring true. Yet the visual lyrics that follow—police in riot gear, bulletproof vests and submachine guns, “going out blasting taking my enemies with me”—so precisely describe the danger zones that comprised New York City’s underworlds in the ’90s. If it’s true that only the strong survive, this Prodigy verse will live on eternally.

2. Prodigy, "Keep It Thoro"

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Album: H.N.I.C. (2000)

Producer: The Alchemist

Verse: n/a

Imagine a fit of rage so intense that it compels you to pick up a television and hurl it at another human being. Not one of these super-slim 2017 flatscreens—think a fatback TV from the turn of the century, one that you’d have to lift via bear hug. Now imagine rhyming one long, glorious verse (only pausing once to take a breath) over a perfect Alchemist beat and packing it with one-liners as ill as the preceding imagery. That’s what “Keep It Thoro” is, and that’s why it’s one of Prodigy’s most legendary rhymes of all time.

1. Mobb Deep, "Shook Ones, Pt. II"

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Album: The Infamous (1995)

Producer: Havoc

Verse: 1

Prodigy’s most famous rhyme is a dedication to the faint of heart, a word of caution for cowards. He spends an entire verse reeling off advisories on why going against him or his crew would be asinine (i.e. “My gunshots’ll make you levitate,” or rap’s most terrifying threat, “Rock you in your face, stab your brain with your nose bone”). And then he caps the extreme violence by shrugging it off. “It ain't nothin' really/Ayo dun, spark the Philly.” It’s the type of emotionless reportage that makes Mobb Deep such a compelling listen, the brand of detached lyricism that got us stuck off the realness in the first place.

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