Top 10 Prodigy Verses

"I draw First Blood, be the first to set it off!" Interview from Tidal with Havoc: Havoc remembers his late Mobb Deep partner with his favorite Prodigy verses and reminisces on his lyrical magic. * * * What do you remember from the first time hearing him spit on “Shook Ones”? I thought my verse was good but when I heard his verse… [Laughs] It was like a brand new person came out of the booth ‘cause we had did an album prior, and it took me a while to realize how dope he was. I was so close to him that I wasn’t really realizing the magnitude of his skills but as the years went on, I was like, damn, this dude is crazy and I always let him know that. He would say the same thing about me but I’d be like, ‘You’re trying to gas me.’ He was humble like that. What line from P was most memorable on “Quiet Storm”? There’s two [versions of] “Quiet Storm” – one with just him on it and the other with me, him and [Lil’] Kim but the most memorable line from him that just popped into my head was “Check out the portrait at the roundtable, my Dunn speaking with his twin ghost.” It’s gangsta ‘cause we had someone in our crew [Twin Scarface] who died and was a twin. We was doing the Hell on Earth album cover photos, and we took a roundtable picture. We had one of the twins there, with his brother right next to him kind of translucent. So that’s one of the lines that sticks out to me most. What was special about P’s contributions to “Hell On Earth”? We was coming off The Infamous album, and we had huge success with it. We felt a little bit more experienced so we were taking the reins for our career. I think we was certified vets at that time and we was coming into our own. P was definitely solidifying his place as an MC on the Hell on Earth album and the “Hell on Earth” song. His lyrics were solid. I remember sitting there watching him write it and then him going into the booth, spitting it [and thinking] ‘Of course, he would write some dope shit like that.’ What was most memorable about “Survival of the Fittest”? What’s memorable is actually the video shoot. We did “Shook Ones.” We had success and we were like let’s do “Survival of the Fittest.” P’s verse, it might be the best starting line in hip-hop history, arguably, but I’m biased. “There’s a war goin’ on outside no man is safe from.” Give me some other hip-hop phrases to battle that one. It was dope then, and it’s even doper now. There’s always a war goin’ on outside, inside. It still applies. And lastly, what do you remember about “Eye For An Eye”? What sticks out to me about that song is that Prodigy actually came up with the chorus. I just remember the beat. It was a simple beat, ain’t nothin’ really special about it to me. As soon as he heard the beat, he had the chorus and I was like, damn this is crazy. He killed it.