Monday, August 8, 2011

Featured Producer Of The Week : Large Professor






Large Professor (born William Paul Mitchell on March 21, 1972, in the Harlem section of New York, New York.), also known as Large Pro and Xtra P, is aNew York City-based hip hop record producer and emcee. He is also best known as a founding member of the influential underground hip hop group Main Source, and as a frequent collaborator with Nas. About.com ranked Large Professor #5 on its Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers list.


Early life and career

Mitchell moved in his early childhood to Flushing, Queens, where he was raised. His production career started early in his adolescence. As a young teenager, he would make pause tapes, in which he would pause a beat and blend it in with other sequences. Eventually, he managed to own a Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard that allowed him to make his beats in the comfort of his own home. He became a protégé of the late Paul C, a record producer and musician with whom he credits for teaching him virtually everything he knows about record production as well as the associated technology used for making hip-hop music. Paul C was doing production work with Eric B. & Rakim and Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, and then, at age 17, Large was given the opportunity to program beats for Eric B. & Rakim's album Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em (1990) while still attending high school. While working with them, he discovered Nas, who got a management deal with Serchlite Publishing (headed by MC Serch from former group 3rd Bass) and produced three tracks on Nas's debut album, Illmatic (1994), after he was signed by Columbia Records. His work with Eric B. & Rakim eventually led him to work on Kool G Rap & DJ Polo's Wanted: Dead or Alive (1990), producing (officially credited as a co-producer) the album's lead single and iconic hip-hop classic, “Streets of New York.”


Career with Main Source

In 1989, he joined the group Main Source, which also included K-Cut and Sir Scratch from Toronto. Main Source recorded one album with Large called Breaking Atoms, which was released in 1991. It included hits such as "Just Hangin' Out", "Looking at the Front Door," and featured Nas' first public appearance on a track called "Live at the Barbeque", along with Akinyele and Joe Fatal.[1] In 1992, their success allowed them to record "Fakin' the Funk", a track on the White Men Can't Jump motion-picture soundtrack. Because of business differences, Large and Main Source quietly parted ways and Large went on to sign with Geffen/MCA Records. During and after his tenure with Main Source, he worked with Pete Rock & CL Smooth, and he produced a number of tracks for Nas, Busta Rhymes, Masta Ace, The X-Ecutioners, Tragedy Khadafi, Big Daddy Kane, Mobb Deep, and others during the 1990s.


Solo career

In 1996, he released two singles for Geffen/MCA Records, "Ijuswannachill" and "The Mad Scientist", for which videos were produced for both tracks. He was to have his highly anticipated solo album The LPreleased around the same time, but it was never released because of label politics.[1] Geffen and Large Professor eventually parted ways, and he signed with Matador Records, which generally specialized in marketing and promoting contemporary rock and alternative tracks as well as electronic music. Although his album for Matador, 1st Class did not receive mainstream acceptance, it gained favorable reviews by fans and critics. The album included guest appearances by Nas, Busta Rhymes, and Q-Tip. The album also included the moderate street hit "Radioactive."
Large's publishing company is named Paul Sea Productions as an homage to his late mentor.
For many years, people thought that Large Professor directly taught DJ Premier how to use the Emu SP-1200 sampling drum machine, which Large used to help program many of his beats during the 1990s. However, according to Large Professor, he just showed DJ Premier to enhance what he already had. This is an excerpt from the November/December issue of Scratch Magazine:
“Since people see Professor, they say, 'He taught Preemo'. Nah, what happened was that we traded off. Preem showed me an ill beat and at the time I was filtering records like taking the bassline out of a record and filtering. I showed him how to do that on the Akai S-950. Premier doesn't even use the 1200; he's never used the 1200. Just people throughout the years to take shit and run with it. We just traded off. He shown me the "Brethren" (break) beat and I showed him how to muffle out the bassline. That's all it was”
Large Professor DJs at clubs, parties, and events worldwide and still engages in music production. He released an instrumental LP in 2006 called Beatz Vol. 1. Its sequel, Beats Vol. 2, was released in 2007.
His latest album, Main Source, was released in 2008 and features production by him and others including Marco Polo and verses from Big Noyd, Styles P, Jeru the Damaja, AZ and Lil Dap.
*Newest project with Neek The Exotic & Large Pro called "Still On The Hustle" its good to see the old Main    Source crew still bringing that heat i have this album in heavy rotation it was released in may 2011, Large Pro did about 85% of the production and is featured on all the tracks spitting a verse or punch lining or dropping the hook



Large Professor, rapper/producer extraordinaire and the man responsible one of the great rap albums, recently took a break from milking your cow and hitting your heifer so he could talk to us about his old crew Main Source and his new solo album Main Source. Hit the jump for the Q&A.



Noz: Did you you get your start as a rapper or a producer?
Extra P: Well really, I was a breakdancer first and coming up I just gravitated towards the music. I had some of the records in my home and started figuring out, ‘yo this is what they doing, they scratching these records up’ and I started getting into the music, starting to rhyme and everything and write on walls. So all of that was just the culture.
When did it seem like something you would try to peruse as a career as opposed to just the hobby?
Around ’88 I really started taking my own money and going in the studio and trying to make tapes.
How’d you link up with Main Source?
Main Source was basically three dudes in the same high school who had the same hobbies – DJing and scratching records and everything, just really having an after school hobby. Scratching these records and just getting busy. Their mom took an interest in supporting us and started putting us in the studio and the rest is history.
On Breaking Atoms you guys were going a lot deeper than a lot of other acts as far as what you were sampling. How’d you get into that?
I was definitely deep into getting and collecting records. My elder, Sergeant LeFunk used to give me lists. He would put me up on records like “yo – you gotta get this, you gotta get that” so I would go out and find a lot of the records. And some of them were challenges. He’d be like ‘yo you not gonna find a copy of this” and I would find ‘em. So it was like when I couldn’t go outside of the house I would just sit there and study records on my little portable turntable. I kinda had the knack for what to use like “yo put this with that and that with that” and boom it’s good money. It was just having that knack.
How do you feel about the response to that record? Do you think it did what it should’ve in the marketplace?
I mean it’s years later now and a lot of people say “yo [that's a] classic, a legend” and all of that, but in those times it didn’t do what it was supposed to do, it didn’t even go gold. It was cool, we got our point across and it did get out there. But didn’t do the monetary numbers that it should’ve.
So obviously “Live At The Barbecue” is one of the more memorable cuts. When Nas came through for that did you have any idea that he would go on to be what he went on to be.
Definitely. I knew Nas was gonna be crazy. I had all the faith in the world in him. I knew he would do it and that’s why I put him first on “Barbecue”. A lot of dudes at the time had the opportunity to present Nas and they weren’t and I just said “yo I gotta make sure that I put him out there and let people know that this talent exists.”
How’d you first meet him?
Just being in the Queens community, word of of mouth. Dudes saying “yo we got this ill kid on the mic, yo I got this ill dude on the beats, let’s put ‘em together”. Joe Fatal, one day after school he came to my high school and was like “yo we got this dude his name is Nas, he’s ill on the mic and we want you to produce a demo for him.” And you know, we took it from there.
I read an interview with Joe Fatal where he said there’s an entirely different “Live at the Barbecue” with everybody spitting different verses on it.
That I don’t know about. I think there might be a different song, but it’s not the “Live at the Barbecue” beat. We was in there just experimenting and trying different things all the time, but it wasn’t over that “Barbecue” beat.
There’s a lot of speculation as to what, if anything Main Source recorded for the second record before you guys broke up.
Yeah we started working on a second album. What happened basically was, the two DJs mother was our manager, so that started turning into a big conflict of interests because when the money was to be dispersed they got hit first. And sometimes I wouldn’t even get hit at all. So after a while of dealing with that I had to just go ahead and make moves.
What was your next move after the split?
Well I was already heavy into production and I didn’t have any doubt that I could survive on my own. While we were doing the Main Source album, even before we were doing the Main Source album, I was working on Eric B. & Rakim’s album, working on G Rap’s album, so I already had my little knack for production, so I just said I’ll work on my own tapes and continue doing my production.
When did you decide to go forward with the solo career?
Right after, because I had already had rhymes and beats made and done, so I just made that smooth transition.
Did you hear the album Main Source made with Mikey D replacing you? How’d you feel about that?
Of course. I liked it, I liked the beats, I liked what they tried to do, that was nice. It was good that they just kept it moving just like I did.
So you stayed on relatively good terms with those guys.
I’m real cool with K-Kut, that was the original member that I had met.
They must have not taken to kindly to your line on the Tribe joint “fuck them two DJs”.
Yeah well, it is what it is. You take a dudes money, what you expect him to do? It’s good that it was only words. They know what they did. So it wasn’t like I was coming for no reason with that. It’s only words. They had they little things that they was saying on the album too.
Tell me a little about the situation at Geffen.
After Wild Pitch folded, Geffen expressed interest in trying to work with me, so I went to Geffen records and gave it a try over there. I put two singles out, “Mad Scientist” and “Ijustwannachill” and I was working on the album all along. After a while of working on the album, they kinda pulled out of the deal. I guess what I did wrong is that I had the album finished and I was putting the singles out. So they were going off of the buzz of the singles and once the singles wasn’t really buzzing like that they kinda pulled out of the deal, they got cold feet.
And that album remains unreleased, more or less.
Yeah there’s been bootlegs. I think [Geffen] put it out themselves. They tried to make it appear like it was from overseas or something but they put it out. But they paid for that so it’s all good.
So what do you think about the state of New York hip hop right now? It’s seeming a little stagnant.
Yeah New York hip hop is crazy right now. But that’s why I wanted to put this project out there, just to let people know that it still exists and that it’s still strong, regardless of what some of the forefront representers may do. A lot of dudes who represent New York hip hop have been doing a lot of experimenting and doing different types of things instead of doing what they known for and that’s why the world is getting it twisted. But that’s why I wanted to put this project out.
What do you think needs to be done to get New York back to where it was, say, 15 years ago?
I mean New York doesn’t need to get back to where it was. New York needs to do New York just like the south is doing the south. Just do what you do. A lot of people are crossing borders, which is cool, that’s healthy and everything but you kinda got a responsibility after a while to rep where you from. That’s just what hip hop is. You could take any other genre of music and it’s not like that. But hip hop is like that because it comes from the streets, with gangs and all of that. So you got New York dudes they trying to do crunk, they trying to do dirty south, and that’s why shit is all twisted up right now.
Why’d you decide to bring back the name Main Source on the new album?
Just to let people know that I still embrace that. A lot of people when they think of Large Professor they think “Oh Breaking Atoms, Main Source” and I still rock with that, especially after dismissing the DJs, a lot of people think I cut ties with me ever being in Main Source and I just wanted to let them know that I embrace that. Like I said back in the days, Main Source forever.



What's interesting to me about your new album is that it seems more like an attempt to perfect a certain older sound than an attempt to capture that new, hot thing that's going get you on Hot 97 radio.
Right. Right. It was definitely to just solidify and to reinforce what hip hop is. Not to really take it anywhere new. Just regular hip hop. Just good ole hip hop. That's really what I was trying to make, and I think I did a pretty good job. I mean, you know, it has the boom-bap. Just hip hop.
Right. Because I think so much hip hop gets dated so quickly, because everyone is always reaching for that new sound.
Right. And you take it somewhere where it's not supposed to go. Now, you know, it's just so far gone. I just wanted to reinforce what hip hop, or what I feel hip hop is. Definitely.
When you're looking to capture that good hip hop feel, what are the things that you draw on for inspiration?
A lot of the good memories that I have is just seeing dudes in sheepskins with sheepskin gloves and, you know, dancing. And people have the new, fresh sneakers on. And they're crispy and they don't want to dance too furiously because their sneakers are crisp. So they're a little stiff. That's the stuff that I always draw on, and that's why I always know, regardless of what review I get, I know that this is hip hop. Because of that feeling. People of today might not know it, and I try to bring it to them. That's just those memories.
I just draw on the way, way back in the days. People sitting there, the DJ cutting and all that. I just always think about that. Those days. Those are my fondest memories. Breaking, just all of that, man. I love that. When I went to Amsterdam, they have these symbols like...they have one with a spray paint can, one with a guy doing windmills, one with a microphone, and one with a turntable. And that's hip hop to them. But now, in New York, hip hop is just a record that plays on the radio. You still got dudes who do graffiti and everything, but it's just...It's crazy right now. Because I remember how it was when people were doing whole cars and breaking and all of that. So that's what I think about. Definitely.
Now there are a lot of newer producers who talk about, brag about how they never use samples. But samples, to me, are what hip hop is about, and I personally have been educated by samples a lot.
Right. See, that's so creative to me, because you're taking something that is already saying something and you're changing what it's saying. Just flipping it and re-freshening it. It's still amazing to me to sample. To just come up with different things out of. I don't know. I can't even really describe it, but that's a good feeling, man. To flip something or chop something, it's like "Wow. This is crazy. It was saying this before, but now I got it like." It's crazy.
And it's your own.
Yeah. You redid it to where it's something else. Then you put your rhymes over it and now you've made this other song have a whole new definition. And that goes back to the roots. That's like reggae, everyone sounding over the same beats. It's just...it's just raw, man. I can't even describe it.
So then as beat maker, let me ask what is the difference between a good song and good song to sample?
There's a picture that always comes in my mind: it's someone standing in front of a store with a big speaker and something funky just coming out of the speaker. That's how I know. When I'm listening to a record and I'm saying 'Yo, I could flip that like this' and I just get that picture in my mind.
Shit. Really?
Yeah. It's crazy.
So let's say, for example, you used that Rodriguez in "You're the man." Twice you used that sample. So that's kind of the vibe you had listening to that record?
Um, that was....I don't know. The way that he performed it, and it's saying "Sugar man," but then I'm cutting the S part off, and then it's flipped to where you give the illusion that it's saying "You're the man." So that's more with the record than anything. You know, messing with the records, chopping them and cutting little pieces off.
Also, on "Rewind" you used the T-LaRock.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. T-LaRock. Some people didn't take to it too good, because they don't know. But that's kind of my mission. Hip hop is so far gone that I would take a record and maybe some of the old school people who used to listen to T-LaRock but don't listen to hip hop anymore might hear it and say, "Yo! That's 'It's Yours!' Hip hop is back!" So that really was my purpose for that.
But that's so good, because "It's Yyours" is like a real old school.
That's hip hop.
†

I want to talk a little bit about digging for records. Because you're someone who's spent a lot of time digging.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I was just in Long Island the other day just picking some stuff up.
OK, let's start with that then. What are the some of the best places that you go for digging?
Definitely Long Island. That's a gold mine out there. You'll find crazy stuff. And Brooklyn, my God. Brooklyn, like those reggae shops, some of the basements what they've got down there like as far as soul and funk.my God. Queens used to be good, but a few stores shut down, but even now it's, you know, little places. And now, where I live in Queens, a lot of people have records in their basements. I can post up a sign "If you have any records for sale." It's different for me now. I'm getting stuff from all over the place now, because a lot of people say "Aw, you know, we don't use these anymore," and they give them, and I got them. So it's a lot for me now. It's coming from everywhere.
What about some other cities?
San Francisco's hot. San Francisco is hot, because it just seems like they have every record is right. They sift the nonsense out, and every record you go through is hot. Cali. LA also. You know, they had a jazz record center out there that was tremendous. There was just stuff that I was finding out there. UmChicago, the 45s out there are just crazy. And Texas too. Yeah, Texas is crazy. I'm sure that everywhere you go in America you can find something. And even when I went to Holland they had some ill stuff. I can find something anywhere. So I'm straight, because I'll find something by anyone anywhere. Word.
So you just delve into it. You don't go with any list or plan, do you?
No, because you never know what you're gonna get or what you're gonna see. So you've got to you feel it out. You know, especially for prices, because for a while the record conventions changed the game. Because all of a sudden the records are 600 and 700 dollars!? It's like "What!? This isn't digging! This is purchasing; this is putting a down payment on something!" I think that people will always come in this game and try to industrialize it and make it commercial. They want to put a big price on it now.
But, you know, we as hip hoppers have to weave around that. They're gonna start putting $600 price tags on the funk records, so we're gonna have to go to the Latin or foreign records. Because we can't bow down to this commercialism. I've always seen it like we're bandits, you know what I'm saying? We grab something up, just like a graffiti writer would go out at night and throw his name up. We're grabbing records up, and putting it out there like "Yo, this is alright." So I always want to keep that bandit feeling, but I can catch something anywhere.
Someone like Puffy...I've seen where he'll take a real obvious sample and just loop it and use it like that. But he'll just pay for it. And it'll be plain as day on the back: Al Green "Blah, blah, blah." We still try to keep it bandit. So that people have to dig for it and say "Yo! Oh, this is what he used! Man, I didn't know." We try not to play the industry's game, we want the industry to play our game.
†

You had this album. It was supposed to come out on Geffen, but it never came out.
Right. Geffen Records is a big rock record company that was trying to get into hip hop. And just off of street buzz, all of these clichÈs that these record companies are going off, they decided that they wanted to sign Large Professor. And I think that, after a while, they just didn't know the level of hip hop that I was bringing. So then it all just disintegrated.
So you figure they didn't know what they were getting just from the very beginning?
Yeah, from the very beginning. I think they wanted something more friendly. I was more rebellious, especially on the mic. I don't think it was the beats. I just think it was more what I was saying on the mic was just too much for them.
They couldn't make it into something that they could put on MTV.
Right. Exactly.
But as a person with bills to pay and a living to make, I'm sure there must be some temptation to cash in on something that's fake but probably will sell.
Definitely. Around '96, '97 when I was with Geffen and those guys kind of bailed out on me, that was a point where, you know, "Do I try to do this new stuff or do I stick to my guns and just keep it real?" And really it wasn't even a question in my mind. Because no matter what, I can't avoid it: these pictures are in my head. When I see the dudes in the sheepskins and they're saying "Ho!" and all of that, you know, I'm just stuck to it.
Did you have a feeling that they were gonna drop you?
Yeah I had a feeling, because it just started taking so long. And it was just a lot of nonsense. But the one thing that's good is that hip hop showed me love.
You are on a much smaller label now. How are you finding that?
Oh, it feels great, because musically I can do what I want to do. And that's all I've ever wanted. I mean, you definitely want to get paid; you want to be compensated if you're selling records. But that's not mymain objective. My main objective is just put that original hip hop out there, you know, for us as a hip hop community so that we can stay strong.
From what I've heard, you're somebody who's been really generous with your knowledge and who's tried to lend a hand, and one thing about hip hop going back a little bit is the idea of each one teaching one.
Right. Definitely.
So how has that philosophy influenced your career and, beyond that, your life?
Right. Well, that's just how I was brought up, you know, by my parents as just a general way of life. And it just carried over into hip hop. Because [hip hop's] becoming so industrialized, and the industry has so much to say about it, it's like, "We have to look out for one another." So, you know, I just try to do that. I try to look out for the next man as much as possible.
So what have you been doing for these younger artists who haven't spent as much time as you?
I tell them, "First, this is business. Hip hop, you know, we might love it as a music, but when you're making a record, sales matter. All of these things matter. Don't wholeheartedly think of it as business, but always remember that, when it all boils down, it's business. Let your creativity shine, but always remember that it's business."
Because everybody's got horror stories.
Yeah, exactly. Because that's when you come into this thinking "Well, I don't care about that! I don't care about the contract!" And you just want to keep your vibes right and you want to make some good music. Now you've made the good music and people start coming up to you like "Man, why you don't have this or that?" And you're like "Ah man, I should have that? Word! Why don't I have a car?!" And the record company is getting fat, you know? And I was so naive. And that's how it happens, man. That's how it happens. And the thing is that this industry takes them from when they're very young, man. Very young, it's like from day one of these kids' lives, man.They get 'em and they got 'em. And that's it.




Discography


Albums


Production


Vocal appearances

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