DX: As you’re telling me that, I’m thinking of the Stretch & Bobbito show, which you were instrumental in rocking with and bringing premier guests to. Not to ignore DJ Eclipse’s Halftime Show and so many great radio and video outlets still doing it, but do you see the Internet as the new place for media to present that real?
Large Professor: Definitely. But there’s so much more to choose from. It’s not a tunnel. The Internet is a hall. It’s a gymnasium. [Laughs] When you listened to Stretch & Bob [click to read], that was a tunnel. Aiight, you got what you could get, and you trusted them that they would be playin’ that shit for you. But now the Internet, you can go anywhere. There’s some sites that are really tight that people rely on. But the Internet is just a broader scope. It’s a hallway compared to a tunnel. It’s definitely servin’ its purpose. I rocks with the Internet. I shied away from it in the earliest, earliest stages, man, but now, it’s like I’m full-fledged. I check for stuff; I get put up on stuff by the Internet and all of that. It’s all good.

DX: Another track on the album that jumps out is “Noyd” with Big Noyd [click to read]. To be real, I want to say that in 15 years of him doing it, I never really looked at Noyd as a lyricist. Through your production and rhyming beside him, you showed that. That’s arguably been the case with Akinyele, Tragedy and others. For you, where does it come from, when you’re able to take rappers and show them as emcees?
Large Professor: I think it’s just the original recipe. It ain’t no funny business, man. When I’m playin’ the track, it’s coming from the root, where it’s the purest form of what it is. Anybody who got that street thing about them, know what the realness is, know what grabbin’ a mic is. I haven’t met one person who has that who hasn’t been able [to show it]. The game makes dudes do so many other things, ‘cause you want to survive in this. You’ll hear a lot of experiments goin’ on with dudes, man. But when they get that bucket of original recipe [laughing], they just go in on it, man. That’s what we want.

DX: On “The Entrance,” you also rhyme “ex-graffiti vandal.” I never realized you came from that. You’re a man who’s perfected rapping, deejaying, done graffiti, and I’m sure you’ve been a breaker at one time or another. What does it mean to you to be a living testament to the four elements of Hip Hop and beyond?
Large Professor: Yo, that’s very important! If you want to call yourself Hip Hop or whatever – that’s not important these days or whatever, but back then, that’s all we had, man! People were shooing us of the street. “Get outta here!” Everything that was Hip Hop was rebellious. We was out here tryin’, just tryin’ to let the world know, “Yo, we got these skills.” Now it’s lightened up. It’s lightened up a lot. The world embraces it more. But it comes from that rebellion, man. Being able to do all of that kept dudes out of trouble. It was a lot. “Yo, embrace this, man, and live!” For dudes who didn’t have the rich inheritance and all of that, it was “Live, man! Live! This is somethin’ for you to do, right here.” Then too, it was all about skills. Breakin’, all of that. It involved skills. That’s all skills. If you was nice, it was good. “He’s nice with it. He could do this, he could do a burner on a train.” For us, back then, it was, “Yeah, that’s me! That’s me. Yeah, I did that. I could do this right here.” It just changed a lot. But yeah, that’s very important, from where I come from, to have done all of that and know what that’s about. Very important.

DX: Hip Hop scholar Adisa Banjoko was arguing that “A Friendly Game of Baseball” was more evocative than N.W.A.’s “Fuck The Police” at calling out police. With all the events going on in the world, in Philadelphia, Sean Bell, all these things, that is a timeless record. How does a joint like that sit in your catalogue today as that problem of police brutality does not really seem to be going away?
Large Professor: That’s like a blessing. It all lined up right. “Yo, speak on it.” I remember, to this day…I’m in the house [now], where I hooked it up, looped the joint up, and just went in. I just stayed in, all day, and wrote that joint. I didn’t even go outside. It was a nice day too, like summertime. I just stayed in and wrote the whole joint up. To put it out there, it was like a news report almost. Coming from working with a dude like Kool G Rap [click to read], that dude kinda had me on my toes kinda. You can’t just be up there rappin’; you’ve got to have some kind of knowledge to you. It’s crazy. I listen to it, and I look at what’s going on, and it’s like, “Aiight, cool.” I kinda played a part. If dudes are upset or they goin’ crazy...if shit ain’t right out in the world, they can listen to that and that’ll pacify ‘em. “LP said it, I don’t have to say it.” Continued on page 3 »