A New York judge yesterday granted Mobb Deep's Prodigy a second medical reprieve from his scheduled three-and-a-half year prison bid, which was set to begin on Wednesday.

Prodigy, who held a farewell concert last week in New York, is now scheduled to begin his prison sentence on February 20. The rapper was hospitalized two days ago, according to his publicist.

Last month Prodigy also suffered complications from his sickle-cell anemia condition and was granted the first of his now two temporary extensions of freedom. Originally, Prodigy was set to begin his prison term — stemming from 2006 gun charge, to which he pleaded guilty in October 2007 — on January 8.

The date, however, came and went without his compliance. According to previous media reports, prison officials requested the rapper be granted an additional postponement as the facility was ordered to be properly equipped to deal with his medical condition.

Prodigy's bout with sickle-cell anemia has long been a public matter: The rapper has often cited his blood disorder and related complications in his lyrics. Last year alone, he was hospitalized three times for his condition and reportedly underwent a hip-replacement surgery.

While he's been waiting for his prison sentence to begin, Prodigy has been promoting his forthcoming solo project, H.N.I.C. 2, now due April 8. Several songs have leaked to the Web, however; the first official single is slated to be "Real Power Is People," for which he shot a video recently in New York at the Queens House of Detention in Kew Gardens.