Large Professor - Professor @ Large

Anyone with any sense of perspective on hip-hip knows that the scene today is chock full of straight digital trash. Now that anyone with access to a laptop can throw some shitty rhymes over tired loops and call themselves a rapper, we have a biblical plague of overly tattooed nobodies of tomorrow terrorizing our ears and trying to either be Wayne or Jay. The strongest stuff over the last year has been from the old heads: KRS-One, Bumpy Knuckles, even Nas if you count all the ghostwriting he's been paying the bills with.

Large Pro has been in the game since the 80s, initially rocking pause tape that got him production gigs for Eric B & Rakim at 17. Two decade plus later, he's a bona fide legend: having rocked with Main Source and rhymed and produced a million more tracks since. The uninitiated should check this amazing retrospective put together by the good folk of Complex.

On the solo tip,  Professor @ Large is only X-P's fourth release and while they may come few and far between, #4 is worth the wait. After a perhaps too up-tempo a start, things settle down into the pocket for what may be the best hip-hop album we've got this year. Large Pro holds his own on the solo tracks like the title track and Live Again, but the guest appearances on Professor @ Large are totally bananas. Queens gets much love for the duration, and its residents represent on Focused Up with Tragedy and Cormega alongside an off the hook track with Mic Geronimo and Grand Daddy IU. Straight from Golden finds XP rocking kind of a Bun B/G Rap flow before Busta bum rushes the proceedings with his late period Jamaican auctioneer flow. Brooklyn is repped by Fam and MOP on Happy Days R Here, sporting a less frantic than usual flow that is still hard as fuck and we even get the recorded debut of the new Large Pro curated project MARS featuring Mega, Action Bronson, Roc Marciano and Saigon. Not too shabby for an old head that is still South of 40. Get Professor @ Large with the quickness here from your boys at Fat Beats.

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Damien Marley and Nasir Jones - Distant Relatives

This record had been on the radar for a minute, but seemed to get lost in all the internet gossip and/or mudslinging that came in the wake of the Nas/Kelis divorce. Of all the contrived pairings that have sprung up in recent years, this one seemed to make the most sense. Both parties are the sons of famous musicians, although the Marley legacy may very well hold a heavier weight in the equation. For the average American, though, the Nas factor may be the reason why the average head is checking in. I haven't followed Jr. Gong's career for long, but will give high marks to Welcome To Jamrock and Traffic Jam as top-notch crossover material. I am a much bigger fan of the Grants Pen spawned Supercat/Burro Banton era of dancehall than I am the new school of Jamaican Ying Yang twin schlock that I hear most of the time and the young Marley definitely can chat with the best of the old school. The pairing with Nas is somewhat unexpected, but not without its high points.

Probably the most surprising thing about Distant Relatives is how adult it is. Not Rudy Ray Moore, more grown-folks Curtis Mayfield kinda adult. Both parties are no stranger to addressing society issues, I'm just surprised that it's over tracks that are as mellow as they are. This is a real big-picture project, there are guest spots from the likes of our dear locked down Weezy, but it's on a track with Joss Stone. More often than not, the guest spots are from the likes of African rapper K'naan, Dennis Brown or even Stephen Marley. Again, far from bad, but not the tact I would have expected the duo to take. The JS-NYC horse sense is impeccable, as Distant Relatives hit the charts at number five, and they were on Kimmel fairly recently, so it would appear this project might have some legs, despite the JS-NYC perceived lack of ragamuffinery. Grab a copy and find out more about the charitable contributions that are slated to benefit from the project here.

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Large Professor - The LP

Save for the mighty Lord Finesse and Joell Ortiz, there are few, save for Sean Price that can do no wrong as JS-NYC HQ. Large Professor is another of the lucky few that make the cut. He's maintained a steady profile, if unobtrusive profile in contemporary hip-hop. Coming up in the classic Main Source, he was the main MC and significant production player on the seminal Breaking Atoms, a record that also introduced Nas, Akinyele and Joe Fatal to the world via Live At The Barbecue. Large Pro made a big enough impression that it was more Main Source's loss than anyone when he bailed over money and creative issues soon after the albums release.

Production dollars kept the lights on, but Xtra P's solo career was somewhat less auspicious. Despite producing any number of hits for heavyweights like Nas and Busta Rhymes, neither Matador nor Geffen could do much with Large Professor solo records. The LP was initially recorded for Geffen, but shelved after the lead singles Mad Scientist and IJUSTWANNACHILL didn't perform to suit Geffen suit standards. When he eventually dropped 1st Class on Matador a bit later, promo copies were allegedly given away when ordered through the Matador web engine. I got a copy through less than legal means and really enjoyed it, despite the fact that I couldn't really see the radio of the early 2000s playing anything, save for perhaps the Nas collabo. Not that 1st Class terrorized the airwaves or the charts, but in neither incarnation was the product anything less than Grade A hip-hop. Now that The LP is finally seeing an official release via Xtra P's Paul Sea records, new jacks should do the stanky leg over to the nearest purveyor and snap this up stat. Most, if not all of The LP is better than anything I've heard on Hot 97 or public access recently (that isn't the new Boot Camp roster, the aforementioned MCs and/or Slaughterhouse) . The aforementioned Nas collabo, One Plus One is straight fire and even the non LP helmed tracks like Large Pro:Verbs are strong as hell. Trust me, if you like real hip-hop, you want The LP.

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