The year is 2008. Prodigy is awaiting trial for a gun possession charge and also working on a follow up to his first solo record - HNIC 2. This thing is far from a classic, but that’s not why we’re here. Voxonic, the company that released the album, has developed a software that can translate P’s voice into 1500 different languages using only a pre recorded word bank.

Nothing really ever came of this afaik, and it’s hard to find much information about it online. I only heard about it because despot mentioned it on a podcast like 5 years ago. Voxonic from what I can tell went on to create automated voices for call centres while HNIC 2 came and went. The only real glimpse we got was the bonus track of the album, which was a teaser of the albums song ABC translated into Spanish quite s***tily

Regardless of what became of it, it’s pretty cool to see the early workings of AI rap considering I heard mandarin sicko mode the other day. Cool to know prodigy was one of the first rappers to dip his toes in it. Here’s a link to a wired article about it and have a good Easter weekend folks
wired.com/2008/01/prodigy-2

That’s pretty crazy

The company said they chose prodigy because mobb deep is so huge world wide but the professor they interviewed in the article has a really good point

”What do you do about a song like Kelis' 'Milkshake'?" he asked. "We all know what it means, but how would you convey that in 1,400 languages? You couldn't, and the song wouldn't be the same."

Rap music is very metaphor heavy and seems like the worst genre to do this with. I think it would only really work with very generic and bland pop music, but even then it would probably be a mess. I’m sure we’ll see soon

good thread

Prodigy thread? IN

top 20 easily. RIP

also Havoc is the king of this dark boom bap s***

This is very interesting good thread OP

@op goat poster

They killed him and made him look weak

I’ve never made music. I’ve never had interest in making music. I I don’t know how to cut a sample or the difference between mixing and mastering. But one thing I do know is that the drums on hell on earth are the best drums to ever grace a rap song. More trife life with headphones will change your life.

I’m not saying this is true but something I’ve always found super interesting is that, as far as the hip hop sphere goes, he really was the one to introduce the idea of the Illuminati to the community

I thought he choked on a egg or some s***

It lowkey sounds like English mixed with Spanish

It is. It’s marked as a teaser so I think it’s like half and half or something. I wonder if the software ever actually existed or if this was just half a song they successfully pulled it off with and promised big things for

A good point about that is that in an interview, prodigy stated that they would pass out copies of bill coopers behold a pale horse in the projects.

Exactly

Definitely one of the first rappers to bring conspiracies to the forefront

That’s nuts. Do you know what interview?

I feel like being in the type of constant physical pain like he was would definitely require your brain. I can see how living that way would have you seeking out answers you know

Crazy how the interviewer didn’t ask more about it. I mean, yeah, it’s edited but this should’ve been big news at the time. I found the Arie P mentioned, a guy named Arie Deutsch who runs a music and sports management company now. Might try to reach out and ask a few questions because I’m just so curious what happened here

I remember reading that when it came out back in 2008 as Prodigy is in my top 3 of all time.

It feels like at that time, we didn't really believe about the technology or the possibilities of it so we didn't really care.
I was so short sided my self at that time, I wasn't really moved by the news of it.

And now we are here. Prodigy was a pioneer of many things and doesn't get his flowers enough.

But people are starting to look up to his greatness now with Metro Boomin and Future using Prodigy all throughout their new album.

Late era prodigy was super dope. HNIC 2 and product of the 80s are both top tier P imo