Everyone in the hip-hop community has been sharing their reactions to the death of Prodigy, but we’ve now heard from the person who was most impacted: Havoc, his partner in the legendary rap duo Mobb Deep.
In an interview with TMZ, Havoc said that he initially wasn’t worried when Prodigy went to the hospital. Since the rapper has dealt with sickle cell anemia for his entire life, Havoc figured that Prodigy would stay for three to five days and leave, as he has in other instances. He had been making daily calls to people close to Prodigy, and he was getting positive updates regarding his recovery.
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So when he got a phone call about Prodigy’s death on Tuesday morning, Havoc thought it was a rumor.
“I know that he’s in the hospital, but he’s not dead. He goes to the hospital all the time. Rumors like that get around,” he said. “I was laughing at it, to be honest with you. I hadn’t talked directly to P, but I knew his status every day since we left.”
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When Havoc called their road manager just to double check, he just heard crying from the other end of the phone. He then hung up. At the time of the call, Havoc was in the car with his son; that same day was his son’s kindergarten graduation. He then realized that his friend and partner, who he had known for nearly 30 years, was gone.
“I’m on the highway. I can’t pull over, I can’t do nothing. I could’ve crashed with my kids in the car,” Havoc said. “I’m still just fucked up. I can’t listen to ‘Shook Ones’ or any song, I can hardly look at pictures. … I still can’t believe it.”