Monday, August 10, 2009

Large Professor- The LP


Outside of Jeanius and Kaamal The Abstract I don’t think there have been any other albums that have been given the bizness, the bootleg treatment like Large Pro’s The LP. On Tribe’s revered classic album, Midnight Marauders, Large Professor spit, Queens represent buy the album when I drop it; I am positive he [Xtra P] didn’t have sixteen years in mind when he said when. Nevertheless, the delay was clearly attributed to label politics and not the man who is largely known for inviting Nas to that legendary barbeque. To his credit, apart from the endless list of production credits, as well as rap features, Large Pro has released two albums not including the instrumental albums since that now infamous line namely 1st Class and Main Source. A decade and then some years later and this LP is still bouncy fresh, as it should be the norm for a good hip-hop album. While it was not the Mad Scientist’s intent to have its initial release lag, he ultimately made an album that stood the vices of time- it still bumps in ‘09. Evident in this release is Xtra P’s adherence to having fun on his records, in so many words he don’t wanna ill he juswanna chill and keep his hand around a hundred dollar bill- who doesn’t? Large Pro’s hooks sometimes take a nonsensical but always direct approach and every so often end up being damn near laughable case in point, cos I’m hungry, boy am I hungry. Holding his own on the mic, Xtra P (producer first) more than compensates for minor inadequacies (he just doesn’t make you hit rewind solely for his rhymes) on the mic with his production on all but two tracks; Large Pro:Verbs and Spacey, produced by Vandamator and Toney Rome respectively. One Plus One, is indicative of why Nas and Large Pro need to collaborate more often, “Hey Nas here’s an idea how about another double LP to compensate for Street’s Disciple and for not sticking to your gunz on you last LP. You should get Preemo to handle all the production on Disc I and Large Pro on Disc II. I mean Street’s Disciple, that shit was aight but it wasn’t no Ready To Die or All Eyez On Me and the Untitled album damn shon SMH a lot of songs on the Nigger Tape were more suitable than say either Make The World Go Round or Hero, I am jusayin’”All in all, not only does The LP prove that hip-hop can still be fun without sounding like or being representative of a coon, but it is also exemplar of an excellent not classic album; I mean it was set for release years ago and it still has a lot of playback appeal today (I found myself listening over and over again). Which begs to question: what if Large Professor’s The LP was in fact released as originally planned? The Large Professor's The LP is in stores now!

TURN OFF THE RADIO!
(I really had a hard time picking what tracks to share[4 good reasons])
The Large Professor - I Juswanna Chill
The Large Professor - Mad Scientist
The Large Professor - Hard
The Large Professor feat. Nas - One Plus One

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