There was a collective feeling of disgust across the Hip Hop community after a mural of late rapper Prodigy by artists Jeff Henriquez and Eli Lazare was defaced earlier in July. Being damaged a second time, though — less than 24 hours after a 13-hour refacing — led to the mural being painted over permanently, leaving fans to wonder who would carry out such a disrespectful act.
A recent interview with Mike Delorean, who was half of Bars-N-Hooks — a group originally signed to P’s Infamous Records imprint — suggests that the defacement was personal, and a direct reflection of the strained relationships the 42-year-old rapper who assimilated into the Queensbridge fold as a young teen had within the notorious community.
Delorean had friction with the rapper in the past, due to fallout from the label situation, as well as statements Prodigy made in his book, “My Infamous Life.”
“He scarred some people personally,” said Delorean in an interview with Gully TV CEO Jamil Lindsey. “He talked badly about people … people in jail. People who embraced him.” When Lindsey then clarified, “[Prodigy] disrespected dead and incarcerated Queensbridge natives — is that why the mural can’t exist on the Queensbridge property?” Delorean bluntly responded, “Yes.”
Delorean did offer that the defacing wasn’t a show of disrespect for P’s “legacy” within the culture of Hip Hop — or his fans. “[The mural] just can’t exist in Queensbridge where the people he disrespected have kids that will see it every day.”
“I still have pictures up, because I respect him as a legend,” Delorean states at the end of the interview. “There are things he showed me that nobody could take from me.”
You can check out the full interview with Mike Delorean below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-c-NQt8QG8
He scarred so many people but they ain’t do shxt to him when he was alive. They waited until he passed away to throw paint on his portrait. The people he scarred are most likely pxssy and couldn’t harm him so they waited until he passed to try to harm him/legacy. Pxssies
Settle down, PXssy
Boy I’ll slap you with my d*ck.
Calm down,LadyBoy.
Don’t get your panties in a bunch.Take some Midol for those Bitchtrol cramps.
Hop off my c0ck.
see? i told you Mike knew something about it. he even had a video years ago explaining how P can’t come to the hood and he even called dude Hepatitis P claiming Prodigy contracted hepatitis c in prison. the book of course threw gasoline into the flames.
A mural of Ballerina P can’t exist anywhere. It will only get laughed at and vandalized more because people around the world knows that the man with 14 #1 albums killed him on Takeover. That’s a permanent moment in hip hop history that will never go away. It’s the ROC!
huh? More inf pls?
If you gotta ask that question then you clearly don’t know hip-hop culture and history. They’re speaking about Jay-Z going in on Mobb Deep on his song The Takeover from The Blueprint album.
This is the problem with people these days engaging this culture. If you can’t take time to know and educate yourself on the history of this endearing and rich culture and take it serious, stay your bum ass out of it. Don’t blog on it with your worthless 2 cents. Don’t pretend you’re down yet on some racist, corporate shit, or some age complex shit. Just keep yo ass over there somewhere…. born yesterday ass muthafugga.
Prodigy is an MC I’d never doubt as being a great representative of QB, as a rapper I’d pick his 90’s verses even over Nas’ (and obviously over all the wack WC rappers) every time, but there are those whose name got a better ring to it, legacy- and identitywise, Tragedy Khadafi for one, w/out him, no QB gangsta/conscious hiphop tradition (or, at least not one known in every corner of the culture). He aint dead though, thankfully, but still, Im not sure if P is straight up Bridge “DNA” like Tragedy or like LP or Kool G Rap. Or even Havoc, whos the engineer of Mobb Deep after all, even if a less sharp rhymer. Come to think of it, maybe QB should be grateful having over 2/3s of their legends still alive. Defacing the mural was a bitch move nonetheless.
sadly people will not talk about Intelligent Hoodlum the way they should now until he’s gone, that’s how it goes in this life, Master P said it best about honoring/loving the people & legends while they’re still here
Good points Don’ t think Kool G Rap was ever associated with Queensbridge though, he’s from Corona, Queens.
Ur right, I associated half of Juice Crew All-Stars with the word Queens in some respect (Craig G and G Rap, except marl ofc), just cause Masta Ace and BDK aint from there at all (strong of them to still stand up for Marl and Shan and them when it was poppin though), but thats a semantic confusion on my part. But ofc, I can drop a dozen actual Bridge names, still very few or none of them would be considered sharper arrowheads of the QB legacy than intelligent hoodlum. Poet, Cormega, LP, ofc, but not quite there. And to clarify, to “James”, all this is personal to me, the QB scene put me on to hiphop in the first place, which doesnt mean LA or michigan or chicago or bay area or whatever rap scene is wack by default, and Im pretty familiar w/ the WC ug scene of the 90’s, there’s a ton of fantastic, paradigm-shift-rap mf’s there, and some of them (Ras Kass, Kam, Hieroglyphics etc, Planet Asia and others keep it pretty alive today) I still consider avant garde, compared to much of 90’s hiphop in general. But they not close to my heart like Nas, Mobb Deep, Juice Crew, Wu-Tang and the other NY acts that put me on to hiphop as a kid 20 or so years ago. Talkin bout ‘wack WC rappers’ was mostly a response to “fuck queensbridge”-comment.
Plenty of ignorance in this statement… over Nas? Wack WC rappers? No
The only West Coast rappers you know you watched on MTV. I could name 20 rappers on the West Coast that would lyrically murder Prodigy off the top.
That book caused a lot of controversy among his peers when it came out. What I want to know now are where are all the commenters that we’re busy with their false assumptions? This is deeper than rap. I only wish it weren’t so. RIP P
Respect to Mike Delorean for breaking the situation down like a man, and giving people insight so that they know that it’s not just some random act of vandalism or hate, but that there’s real emotion behind it.
true dat
RIP P, this is a disturbing reminder of how everyone that passes away isn’t a saint
All this street bullshit is nonsense, it’s sad that this is what these cats dedicated their lives to. These cats hating on Prodigy never made it, all they have is holding onto that memory when they used to be down with Mobb Deep and it makes them so bitter to know they weren’t smart enough to make it. Nobody in the real work respects any of this shit. Glorified hoodrat bs.
I respect P for his contributions to Hip Hop especially his 90’s catalog but P did say & do some questionable things in the name of representing himself & the borough! So as much as defacing his mural it might be this is obviously Queens ‘family business!’ It’s similar to attempting to speak or intervene in a family dispute. The majority of people speaking upon this are not ‘family!’ We’re all outsiders (including myself) with an opinion looking in from the peripheral. R.I.P. to Prodigy but a part of this I feel is karma!!!
It appears that this brother began to reveal some things about the inner working of the music biz before he passed that ruffle some feathers, defacing a painting is nothing he left music that will last a life time
Truer words have never been spoken. Respect, my brother.
Fuck all these never gon be somebody lames. H.N.I.C. is gone, thatz all that matters. disrespecting his mural ? Nobody would even have heard about your bummy ass block if it werent for him.
gonna take a wild guess and say you’re pretty young. people were talking about QB in hip hop since the 80s with marley marl & the juice crew…u ever heard of those guys (kane, g rap, ace, craig, shante, biz, marl, shan, etc)? they probably birthed some of the greatest rappers ever AND influenced the style & flows of the current legends in rap today (like nas, prodigy, jay-z, etc). marley marl is from QB and recorded all of those guys there in his QB apartment. prodigy is a legend, no doubt. if anything he may have ENHANCED the legend of Queensbridge, but he DEFINITELY didn’t put it on the map, as your statement seems to suggest.
Can’t forget about Tragedy in that first list. He helped formulate the 90s QB sound.
Name one full length album song for song by any one of those guys that can touch Return of the Mac or Product of the 80s ? I didn’t even touch on the Mobb Deep catalogue. Pshf. Only Arrest the President had that kind of juice.
Prodigy is the best gangster rapper of all time. I cant even distinguish what was real and what was entertainment. He had people after him and mad at him, people robbing him & punching him in the face at his shows. The man had sickle cell anemia and now people r smashing his mural. Illmatic was hot but in recent years I cant think of one rapper whose album I was excited to go buy other than prodigy. I didnt even like his last one all that much and it smashed every single album out by the new guys and the vets. Guy had the roughest career in show business ever and he still managed to deliver quality consistent music. The best rapper from QB wasn’t even from QB lol. There hasn’t even been another rapper in history worthy of risking ones freedom to go and deface public property. His vocal delivery from 2006 – 2009 was unmatched and the equivalent of a 900 pound gorilla. Rap sucks now.
fuck em’ put it up in long island
Mike Delorean wouldnt exist if it weren’t for P
Who are y’all to decide that evidently people DID WANT IT or it would have never went up to begin with foh,haters smh