Before their untimely deaths, both DMX and Prodigy publicly raised concerns about the music industry’s inner workings, often naming key figures including Jay-Z, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and former record executive Lyor Cohen. Their comments—captured in interviews, letters, and music—centered on exploitation, coercion, and the influence of powerful individuals behind the scenes. Many of those interviews have since disappeared from public platforms.
DMX frequently discussed the music industry in spiritual terms. During a 2013 appearance on Dr. Phil, he stated he had experienced “three conversations with the devil.” He made similar claims in a 2009 jailhouse interview, referring to an encounter in Arizona he described as meeting “the devil in God’s country.” Though he did not always name individuals directly in those stories, he accused Combs of exploiting artists financially and suggested that Jay-Z, during his tenure as president of Def Jam, intentionally blocked the release of DMX’s sixth studio album, Year of the Dog… Again.
In his poem “The Industry,” performed on Def Poetry Jam in 2007, DMX criticized how artists were pressured to conform to commercial standards. He described the industry as predatory, stating, “The industry don’t give a f*** about you. But the industry couldn’t make a dime without you.”
Prodigy pop was equally vocal. In a letter written from prison, he alleged that Jay-Z was aware of systemic manipulation in entertainment and society but “chose sides with evil” for personal and corporate advancement. “Jay-Z conceals the truth from the Black community and the world, and promotes the lifestyle of the beast instead,” Prodigy wrote.
In his final album, Hegelian Dialectic: The Book of Revelation, released months before his death, Prodigy explored themes of government overreach, secret societies, and corporate control. He was reportedly developing a musical on the same topics. Prodigy died June 20, 2017. The official cause was asphyxiation due to choking on an egg while hospitalized for complications related to sickle cell anemia. His family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Spring Valley Medical Center, alleging negligence.
Both artists expressed distrust toward former label executive Lyor Cohen. Cohen has acknowledged in interviews that he continued signing artists who promoted drug use, despite understanding the societal impact. “I got people to feed. I got a business to run,” Cohen said during a 2018 interview, when asked why he signed artists tied to the opioid crisis.
Cohen, who Jay-Z once referred to as a mentor in his memoir Decoded, denied knowing Roc-A-Fella co-founder Damon Dash during a separate interview, despite years of professional overlap. After DMX died in 2021, Cohen called him “a gremlin… reckless and looking for a wall to crash into,” a remark that sparked public backlash.
Interviews in which DMX and Prodigy discussed these issues have frequently been deleted or scrubbed from public archives. In both cases, supporters argue that the artists were targeted or silenced for speaking too openly about systemic corruption. Their warnings, though often framed as conspiratorial, remain part of a broader conversation around creative control, artist exploitation, and institutional influence in hip-hop.
Whether interpreted as metaphor or literal warning, both men left behind a consistent message: the industry is not what it seems, and power in entertainment often operates in the shadows.
