At 16 Tragedy was convicted of robbery and sent to Elmira Correctional Facility. He became a Five Percenter up north, and upon his release his music took a mindful turn reflecting that conversion. He changed his name to Intelligent Hoodlum. By then a new wunderkind had surfaced. “They’re like, ‘This nikka Nas.’ When I saw him, I was like, ‘This dude?’ He was my sister’s boyfriend,” Tragedy says. “He would be around me, but I didn’t know he could rhyme because he never said a rhyme around me. He would be watching. He might be around my sister, I might be in my room with a beat tape writing. I never paid attention to them because I was in my own zone.”
