An Elegy for 'The Hood'

What anyone remembers most about rapper Prodigy, who died last week from sickle cell anemia-related health complications, was his undying allegiance to “the hood.” At first, this was a specific reference to Queensbridge Houses, a housing project notorious for mayhem and murder throughout the 1980s. Other than his Mobb Deep rap group partner Havoc, Prodigy had few peers who could match him note-for-gruesome-note in detailing the hood landscape in the most lurid fashion. In “The Start of Your Ending (41 Side)” from their seminal 1995 album The Infamous, Prodigy warns:

The “41 Side” is a reference to the south half of the mammoth Queensbridge projects, found on 41 Avenue in Queens, opposite the north half located on 40 Avenue. The fealty Mobb Deep swore to this location was perhaps best summarized in the line from Havoc from their classic ‘95 song “Survival of the Fittest,” where he raps “no matter how much loot I get I’m staying in the projects, forever.”