During the early ‘90s, acclaimed rapper and producer, Large Professor, supplied Nas with beats for his Illmatic album and in a new video interview with Out Da Box TV the former Main Source member reminisces about working with the Queensbridge rapper.
“There’s a lot of memories man but I remember there was one time–because he [Nas] was staying in Flushing a lot while he was doing the Illmatic album–he let me hear ‘N.Y. State of Mind’ after he and Q-Tip knocked it out,” Large Pro recalled. “He let me hear the joint and he said, ‘So now I’m jetting to the building lobby/And it was filled with children probably couldn’t see as high as I be.’ When I heard that he put those two together in a rhyme, I remember laughing mad hard and bugging out.
“He always would come out of the norm as far as the words he would rhyme and it was always very impressive,” he continued. “That’s what always made me have faith in Nas.”
During the interview, the Harlem native listed both Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. as rappers he would’ve liked the chance to work with in the ‘90s. And in regard to his current music, he says that his focus remains on wordplay. “Things that inspire me are just my interest in the English language, slang, and writing,” he explained. “We grew up hip-hop saying all different kinds of words and slang–this is for us, this is our language. I don’t speak all these different languages, so my language is slang.”
In 2002 Large Professor released his debut 1st Class which featured guest appearances from Nas, Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip. And in late 2010, he revealed that he had recorded new tracks with Nas but did not elaborate on when they would be released.
RELATED: Large Professor And Neek The Exotic Talk Nas, “Still On The Hustle”
shoutout Large Pro
@beezlebud on twitter…
One of the GOAT producers. And somehow he doesn’t get enough credit with being such.
As far as those new Nas/Large Pro gifts of collabs…
CAN’T WAIT!!!
Greatest hip hop song of all time. Wordplay, Rhymes, Storytelling, Chorus, Beat, delivery, flow, all perfect.
naaaaaah, bro. the song’s sikk….but not better than RAKIM’s “FOLLOW THE LEADER”.
your right it’s not better than Follow The Leader……..it’s WAAAAAAAY than Follow The Leader
Props to Large Pro a.k.a. Extra P…. Dude been dope since back in the day, solid video.. Dead @ “You know how much pussy that would’ve got me??”
Nuff respect to Large Pro! Thanks to a mutual friend (Sef). I had the pleasure of hearing numerous ill beats before they had vocals on`em. He even laced us with a couple @ Echo Sound studios back in the early 90`s.
I`m kind of confused though,I thought Premo produced N.Y. State of Mind not Tip…
He was originally speaking about “One Love” when he mentioned Tip, he then switched up and spoke on “NY State of Mind” which of course Preem laced.
Cormega said the realest shit. Large Pro IS one of the most underappreciated cats in Hip-Hop, especially when it comes to his bars. He gets love for his production but people sleep on him as an MC. Lyrically, “Friendly Game Of Baseball” is right up there with “I Gave You Power”, “Stray Bullet” or any other conceptual joint you could think of. Extra P is still that joint.
You’re right.
Yup
Yo I totally said the same thing when I heard Cormega state how under-appreciated Large Pro is. There are aspects to the industry that I just don’t get. It’s like Large Pro is totally Gimmick-Free, a real dude who’s just all about the music. You don’t hear him beefing with this dude or that dude on Tweeter, you dont hear about him getting locked up or any of that dumbness these wack dudes are into, Large Pro is just all about great music, yet he’s so under-rated. I thank God he hasn’t given up on hip hop, we need him in there, we need him in there to keep us hopeful, real will always recognize real. I’m really digging the fact that not one post on here is the all too common hater post, everyone on here is showing him love, that keeps me hopeful.
Another real statement about Large Pro that was made is that he’s a real B-Boy. Till this very day his beats are that hard boom bap NYC hip hop, no flashy stuff, no commercial stuff, and like one of the comments on here said, his lyrics are crazy as hell too. I most definitely support anything I see his name on, and would love to hear him and Alchemist do an album together, that’ll definitely be dope. PEACE!!
Pardon me, I meant that dude.
I actually prefer Ak and Extra P’s Vagina Diner to Breaking Atoms. That truly is an under rated classic, on par with Illmatic, if not better.
No one cares
No way! The rapping on Breaking Atoms was much more historic.
Harlem native? he’s from Flushing Queens you morons…
born in harlem.bred in queens
on LARGE PRO’s wiki page, it says that LARGE was born in HARLEM.
True Master.
I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, GetCent . com
I wish he rapped on Fake ID that track was hard
I didn’t know pro has been doing so much for the hip hop community that is nice to find out.
Share website it has changed my life and my families. Now I am trying to get my friends to go and find out more about God http://www.christianlivingbible.com
Love God and Love your Neighbors (all Humans) Matthew 5-7 and Exodus 20 God bless u and obey. http://www.christianlivingbible.com
God loves you and everyone around you pass this on because you care about people like God cares about you http://www.christianlivingbible.com
Please love God and become his property take ownership away from the flesh and the world and give it to God http://www.christianlivingbible.com
No disrespect to Diamond D, but I’ve always considered Large Pro the best producer on the mic.
Friendly Game of Baseball is hands down one of the best hip hop songs EVER!
cosign. so is “PEACE IS NOT THE WORD TO PLAY”.
much thanks to hiphopdx and everyone of you who commented on this Large Pro piece we recently put together. It’s really good to hear LP get the props he deserves, it’s long over due. BTW, part 2 will be up online later (Monday June 27th). Thanks again.
Yo this site is killing me with the talking about these old ass songs dude! Maybe I can reminisce about when I learned to wipe my own ass!
Give me a break!!
^^ Then just stop clicking on the articles and take yo bitch ass to the kiddie section…