FILE - In this Oct. 13, 2016 file photo, Mobb Deep's Prodigy poses for a photo in New York. Albert Johnson, the skilled rapper and member of the New York hip-hop duo has died. He was 42. The rapper’s publicist said in a statement Tuesday, June 20, 2017, that Prodigy was hospitalized a few days ago in Las Vegas “for complications caused by a sickle cell anemia crisis.” He has battled sickle cell since birth and was in Las Vegas for a performance. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
FILE - In this Oct. 13, 2016 file photo, Mobb Deep's Prodigy poses for a photo in New York. Albert Johnson, the skilled rapper and member of the New York hip-hop duo has died. He was 42. The rapper’s publicist said in a statement Tuesday, June 20, 2017, that Prodigy was hospitalized a few days ago in Las Vegas “for complications caused by a sickle cell anemia crisis.” He has battled sickle cell since birth and was in Las Vegas for a performance. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Credit: ap — Mark Lennihan

Prodigy, one half of the hardcore New York rap duo Mobb Deep, died after being hospitalized for sickle cell anemia-related complications, a representative confirmed to media outlets Tuesday. He was 42.

The rapper was hospitalized a few days ago for “complications caused by a sickle cell anemia crisis” following a Mobb Deep performance in Las Vegas, according to the statement reported by the Associated Press.

“It is with extreme sadness and disbelief that we confirm the death of our dear friend Albert Johnson, better known to millions of fans as Prodigy of legendary NY rap duo Mobb Deep,” the statement reads. “As most of his fans know, Prodigy battled the disease since birth. The exact causes of death have yet to be determined. We would like to thank everyone for respecting the family’s privacy at this time.”

The other half of Mobb Deep, Havoc, posted a photo of Prodigy to social media Tuesday as word spread.

Prodigy and Havoc first went by Poetical Prophets in the early 1990s before they became Mobb Deep and released 1993’s Juvenile Hell.

At a time when California-based gangsta rap blew up in popularity, New York groups like Wu-Tang Clan and Mobb Deep came to personify the grimiest and roughest of the New York sound. Mobb Deep’s members also got name-dropped in diss tracks and became embroiled in the East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry of the 1990s, which came to a head with the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.

Mobb Deep’s second album, the classic The Infamous, now ranks as among the most important hardcore rap albums. It also contains the group’s most popular tracks, Shook Ones, Pt. II, in which the pair describe life in the Queensbridge housing project and declare “ain’t no such things as halfway crooks.” The song still enjoys regular rotation on hip-hop radio stations and b-boy jams across the country, despite The Infamous peaking at No. 18 on the Billboard charts upon its release.

In all, Mobb Deep released eight full-length albums. Prodigy also went on to release a number of solo albums and tracks, collaborating with well-known producers such as the Alchemist.

His last album, Hegelian Dialectic (The Book of Revelation), came out in January.

Mobb Deep split for a couple of years, but reunited and released 2014’s The Infamous Mobb Deep.

Prodigy released a 2011 autobiography, My Infamous Life, and a collaborated on a cookbook containing recipes he came up with while serving a 3½-year sentence on 2007 gun possession charges.

His stint in prison made him “realize the gravity, the reality of having everything taken from you. My career, my family, my freedom,” Prodigy, a father of two, told the AP in 2016.

“I just tell them, you know, it was horrible. You don’t ever want to be in that position. Learn from my mistakes. Learn from me. You don’t have go through it yourself.”