Mobb Deep member Prodigy has been granted another week’s freedom, representatives for the rapper announced today (February 14).
Prodigy, born Albert Johnson, was supposed to begin serving a three-year-prison sentence after pleading guilty to unlawful gun possession charges, after police found a .22 caliber handgun in the center console of his SUV during an October 2006 traffic stop.
Prodigy, who suffers from sickle-cell anemia, was originally scheduled to start serving the sentence in January, but a judge postponed his term while the rapper arranged for prescriptions and treatment related to his illness. The 33-year-old rapper is now scheduled to turn himself in to the authorities on February 20th.
“I gotta leave things well prepared for my wife,” Prodigy told The Village Voice. “I’d be mad as hell if I didn’t. So while I’m in, everything’s set up-all she’s gotta do is call the shots. Kiki’s gonna be Prodigy while I’m gone. We’ve been together for over 15 years. It’s nothing. We can get through this.”
According to representatives for the rapper, his sentence was postponed while a judge agrees to a medical facility with adequate medical personnel that can treat the rapper for sickle-cell anemia.
Prodigy is requesting that he serve his prison sentence at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility in upstate New York.
Despite his impending prison sentence, Prodigy remained optimistic about his future.
“The Higher Power put me there [in prison],” Prodigy reflected. “I realize that my job is to reach the n***as on the street, the Mobb Deep fans. Once you clean yourself-your mind, your diet-everything else is like a domino effect. And if I gotta go to jail to make my mind and body stronger, I’m gonna be so focused. I’m just gonna be thinking of beats in my head and writing.”
In related news, Prodigy has changed the release date of his second solo album H.N.I.C. Part 2 to April 8th.
For more information log on to Prodigy’s official site, www.hnic2.com.