Large Pro: Main Source

There aren’t very many albums that can rival the production of Breaking Atoms, the 1991 Main Source masterpiece. While there were plenty of ‘meh’ lyrical tracks on the album and the wider debut of Nasir Jones, Large Professor provided a back drop of beats that has set high standards for full length album production in hip hop. As the group’s front-man, Extra P was also the lead MC. He was sufficient on the microphone, but most of the attention had no choice but to be diverted to the unparallel drums and fantastic sampling. Main Source is the Professor’s second solo album and it showcases his production as well as his skills on the microphone. Would there be more of a balance or would the production once again reign so supreme that the emceeing is degraded down to a static?

The opening guitar riff on “The Entrance” is powerful enough to keep up with the massive drums and Large is able to keep up with his own beat. So far, so good. The mic skills remain impressive on “Hot: Sizzling, Scorching, Torching, Blazing.” All of these words are appropriate to describe the track. The title doesn’t fit as appropriately for “The Hardest,” which features AZ and Styles P over a beat that doesn’t really bang that hard. The features are surprisingly weak and seemingly uninterested.

“RuDopeDapnNoyd” is a three song mash up consisting of Jeru Da Damaja, Lil’ Dap, and Big Noyd. The 3 joints stringed together provide for an interesting listen and Noyd gets the best beat of the bunch. All three rappers sound lazy and don’t really deliver anything of substance, but they only have about 30-45 seconds to do so. Extra P delivers a fairly cheesy beat for “Rockin’ Hip Hop” and this is in tact with cheesy rhymes like: “My super strength powers embrace you and makes you/ do the right thing now get on your h-u/ s-t-l-e/ Extra LP/ through the front door kid, let’s stay healthy/ next is wealthy, then comes wise/ and I like eating A-1 sauce on fries.” Yeah.

This trend of ‘huh’ rhymes continues on “Large Pro Says” when he shouts dancing instructions throughout the cut. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Extra P fan, but this is exactly what his music should be combating AGAINST. This is the “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach. “To The Meadows” is another poor lyrics display over a pretty dope guitar loop. The beat seemingly goes to waste as Large Pro tells a quick 35 second story. It was still painful.

The most frustrating factor of these terrible songs is that they are on the same album as the fantastic “Hardcore Hip Hop.” Surely, this song can keep up with classics such as “Fakin the Funk” or “Snake Eyes.” Even his lyricism is great on this and it is easily the premier track of the album. “In The Ghetto” is about as introspective as Extra will get and even though he means well on it, the delivery is boring and the beat is hardly evident. It acts as an acapella and when buying a Large Pro album, isn’t that the last thing you want? The fact that the song “Party Time” comes before “In The Ghetto” is even more hilarious when listening in sequence.

The production on some of the tracks is stellar. The aforementioned “Hardcore Hip Hop” is great, as well as the two opening tracks “The Entrance” and “Hot.” “Classic Emergency” has a great piano loop and is another classic trademark of Extra P, but, most of the other tracks have the listener anticipating something more like on “Sewin’ Love,” but the beat goes no where. This is tremendously upsetting given the fact that Large Professor is easily one of the top 5 producers this genre has to offer. His high quality production is evident on the album, very rarely, and it is certainly outmatched by some of the tacky and out of place beats. The track he gave Termanology (“Sorry I Lied to You” on Politics As Usual) was good and shows that he still has it, sadly, that wouldn’t even be able to help this album. His influence is everlasting and his skill is still evidently there and because of that, this album can easily go over as a bad lecture for the Professor.

Overall Score: 60/100

Standout Tracks:

“The Entrance”

“Classic Emergency”

“Hardcore Hip Hop”