A veteran of New York hip-hop, Tragedy Khadafi was there from the start. Still a child in the late '70s, he lived in the infamous Queensbridge Housing Projects and witnessed some of the earliest days of rap's incubatory phase before getting into it himself as a teenager. Working under a variety of different monikers, the music he made and his presence in New York's hip-hop circles would be highly influential for the wave of artists that included Mobb Deep, Capone, and Noreaga. First making records as Intelligent Hoodlum before changing his name in 1997, Tragedy Khadafi stayed on a consistent grind of new material that spanned several important eras in the development of rap and hip-hop culture.