Prodigy’s Posthumous Debut “The Hegelian Dialectic 2: The Book of Heroine” is Slightly Better Than the Predecessor (Album Review)
Prodigy was a 42 year old MC, songwriter & record executive from Hempstead, New York who emerged as 1/2 of the seminal duo Mobb Deep. He’s also cemented himself as a solo artist by dropping 8 solo albums, with my favorites being H.N.i.C. (Head N***a in Charge) & the Alchemist-produced Albert Einstein. Unfortunately, Bandana P would pass away after choking on an egg in the summer of 2017 & his estate is commemorating him by putting out a sequel to the last full-length he put out The Hegelian Dialectic: The Book of Revelation. It was his most political solo effort that he’s done up to that point, but the production was lacking in my opinion. That being said: I did go into Prodigy’s first posthumous outing hoping that it’d be an improvement over the predecessor considering the singles we got over the summer.
“You Will See” kicks off the album with a spacious yet groovy banger talking about crashing your face with the Henny Rock whereas “Walk Out” takes a more boom bap route thanks to DJ Premier talking about bringing smoke to him. “Opium Poppy” dives into ghoulish territory sonically to deliver some mid sex bars just before the luxurious “Angel” is R&B/hip hop duet with Faith Evans about his widow Kiki.
Meanwhile on “We Shine”, we have a piano trap ballad with an awkward auto-tuned hook telling the story of getting a text from his girl at 11:30pm saying they going out & balling out when they pull up to the spot at 1am leading into the vibrant & celebratory “Dope”. It all returns to the boom bap as Big Daddy Kane comes into the picture for “You Don’t Want It” to spit some hardcore bars leading into “I Heart You” embracing the spacey trap sound to talk about Kiki once again.
Remy Ma tags along for the eerie trap banger “Overdose” making them catch the Holy Ghost while the song “Escapism” is a dustier cut talking about getting the fuck outta his face if you ain’t talking real shit to him. The penultimate track “Flirting with Death” with Big Noyd finds the 2 getting flirtatious over a synth-heavy beat & “The Other Side” is bittersweet to say the less with it’s solemn trap instrumental along with the lyrics about dying together.
The Hegelian Dialectic: The Book of Revelation was one of the weaker albums in Prodigy’s catalog in my opinion but as far as the sequel goes, I happen to like it just a bit more. Some of the lovey dovey trap shit can be hit or miss with me personally with all respect to Bandana P, but love how they kept the guests to a minimum as opposed to being on nearly every track & none of the the boom bap cuts miss whatsoever.
Score: 6/10
