Prodigy recently spoke on new rappers in the game, explaining that he likes everyone from Wiz Khalifa and Kid CuDi to Waka Flocka Flame and Soulja Boy. During an interview with Vlad TV, the Mobb Deep member shares that he kept his finger on the pulse by watching BET and reading magazines while behind bars, keeping up with all the upstart spitters. 

“From what I’ve seen, I definitely like Wiz Khalifa, I like his whole little movement. I like what Kanye’s doing over there with the G.O.O.D. Music label, his new artists over there. A lot of dudes from the Freestyle Cipher, XXL, Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T., Fred The Godson,” he said. “There’s a lot of different people. There’s a lot of people doing they thing.”

The Queens, New York native defended rappers like Waka Flocka Flame and Soulja Boy, claiming that they’re taking it back to the essence. “You got Cory Gunz, French Montana, you got a lotta people that’s doing their thing and creating a buzz for themselves,” he said. “But a lot of people, they hate on a lot of new artists. They say, ‘We need to bring it back to the old school, we need to bring it back to that hardcore shit. These niggas is making these songs.’ To me, I like what they doing. I like Soulja Boy’s music, I like Waka Flocka’s music, I appreciate all of that. Because they’re being them. They having fun, they making money, they doing them.”

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He likened their music to golden age groups. “It’s not lyrical or whatever, they doing them, just having fun. When I look at that, I compare it to like how rap started. The Sugar Hill Gang, the Cold Crush and all that. It was fun. It wasn’t really about being too lyrical,” he continued. “You really not saying nothing. And that’s how rap started. So that’s the essence of it. it’s just fun and just making your money and getting popular and repping your crew and where you’re fun and all of that.”

Now, he considers hip-hop a multi-tiered culture. “As rap progressed, people got more serious about the lyrics, about the production, about the thing as a whole. Now, you’ve got different levels of it. You’ve got the conscious rap, you’ve got the hardcore rap, you’ve got the party songs, you’ve got the strip club songs, you’ve got the different types of things. And that just shows the progression of this, it’s not just one thing,” he said. “We’re very unique. Rap music is very complex. You can’t hate on somebody for being different, because they’re doing something different than what you’re doing. They just doing they thing. That’s my answer to that. I respect these new dudes, I like what they doing. Kid CuDi, everybody. I like what they’re doing. Their shit is hot.”

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