Interview conducted by Tha Hip-Hop Doc for Allhiphop. Link

H2D: Are you taking any medicines right now?

Prodigy: Nahhhh! I don’t take none of these medicines that they try to say is good to take for sickle cell. All I do is try to have a healthy diet as much as possible; I drink water like a fish, eat healthy, and I notice that since I’ve been doing that for the past seven to eight years, I don’t get sick as much as I use too. If I do get sick, it’s really because of something I’m doing wrong. I really know my body and how to control it.

H2D: Yeah, that’s what’s up. Now, in 2000, you wrote the song “You Can Never Feel My Pain” on your first solo album, HNIC. This song really dealt with the harsh realities of sickle cell and how it affected you. Almost like sickle cell 101. What motivated you to write that piece?

Prodigy: Basically because at every Mobb Deep show, I would see somebody in the crowd, and they would yell to me like “Yo P, I got sickle cell too.” And they would ask how I was able to perform and do all that I do. I always encourage my fans that they should reach for their goals and reach high when doing it; and to further this point I decided to drop something on my album to tell people about the pain that I and others with sickle cell suffer with, which is a handicap no different than living in poverty, but that its something you can escape.