Credit: Hip Hop Hero / Album Cover

The world lost Prodigy in June 2017 after he was hospitalised over his sickle cell disease, later passing away due to accidental choking. The iconic New York rapper left behind a legacy that includes classic Mobb Deep albums such as The Infamous and Murda Muzik, as well as solo albums like H.N.I.C.

However, during his lifetime, the prolific MC recorded so much music that there was plenty of material to use for a posthumous album. The duo’s surviving member, Havoc, teamed up with longtime collaborator The Alchemist to conjure up a project that pairs Prodigy’s unreleased vocals with new production from them both.

The result is Infinite, which was released on October 10th via Mass Appeal Records. The project is made up of 15 tracks with features from Clipse, Ghostface Killah, Jorja Smith, H.E.R., and Big Noyd. With a 51-minute running time, it’s far from a quick cash-grab. Rather, Hav and Alc came together to continue his legacy with care.

The features reflect that, with Mobb’s longtime collaborator, Noyd, who has featured on all but one of their albums, appearing on ‘The M. The O. The B. The B’. He was previously on tracks like ‘Give Up the Goods (Just Step)’ and ‘Man Down’. Then, Ghostface, who features on their classic ”Right Back at You’, appears on ‘Clear Black Nights’.

In addition, Nas, who released Infinite on his own record label, makes three appearances on the project. He appears on ‘Down for You’, ‘Pour the Henny’, and ‘Love the Way’, having made memorable features on The Infamous, Hell on Earth, and Murda Muzik in the 1990s. It’s these types of details that make it feel so sincere.

Leading up to the album being released, Havoc told Rolling Stone, “With Infinite, fans can expect nothing less than the essence of Mobb Deep – the gritty New York sound they know and love, unapologetically true to what we have always delivered, even in a constantly shifting musical landscape.”

Infinite arrives seven years after Prodigy died. The fact that it took so long to be released after his death shows the effort that has gone into the project, and how those behind it weren’t trying to capitalise on the attention an artist receives in the immediate days after passing.

Explaining how it all came about, Alchemist said, “We all felt that at some point in time [we’d] figure out how to let it out to the world. Keep that spirit alive since it’s missing. I had songs with P on it. [Havoc] had some songs, we had some stuff that we mixed up.”

He continued, “Some stuff we had to do beats, some stuff he was already on, and Hav just rhymed. But it really felt good that we put the energy back together and did it the way we were supposed to. That’s how we always did it.”

With Havoc and Alchemist behind things, Infinite was always going to be in safe hands, especially with Nas securing the album release on his label. Prodigy may be gone, but his unheard bars sound just as impactful to this day.