Even though Jay-Z has proven that age doesn’t automatically lead to rap-retirement, it’s still to be seen that many rappers of the same age within in the (still) comparatively young Hip Hop scene fall into a musical identity crises when reaching the age of forty. There are only two ways leading out of that dilemma: either one turns towards more »grown up« areas or styles of music, or one becomes a refugee in a random retro-niche. Large Professor definitely belongs to the latter, and it sure is good that way! Imagine if the producer of »Let the Rhythm Hit ’Em« started to get talked into dubstep. Instead, we’re all quite happy that »Professor @ Large« banks on the traditional formula of rumbling Boom Bap and dusty sample-loops. Every beat on the 15 tracks which the mad scientist loaded from his drum-machine ooze with the year of 1995 – and prove with the dry-as-a-bone-QB-anthem »Focused Up« together with Cormega and Tragedy Khadafi that 90 BPM is still the very best tempo for proper head-nodding. Even more of this throwback feeling sets in when »Mack Don Illz« (!) and even Grand Daddy I.U. are pulled to the daylight and sat in front of the membrane. But instead of becoming a grumpy old man living in the past, which nostalgia might sometimes lead to, Xtra P solves this problem by handing over the torch to young pups like Marco Polo, Action Bronson or Roc Marciano. The fact that Large Pro is exposing himself to a dual burden as »Producer On The Mic« makes him not always come up with impressive pieces of wisdom – but only the generation »Fruity Loops« might care about that considering all the other timeless Boom-Bap-pearls on this record. And those didn’t even exist in 1995.

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Large Professor
Professor @ Large

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