He’s the guy often credited with discovering Nas. As a member of 1990s trio Main Source (with Toronto brothers and DJs K-Cut and Sir Scratch), New York producer and MC Large Professor gave the then-teenage MC his recording debut on their seminal hip-hop album Breakin’ Atoms and also produced 33.3 per cent of Nas’ Illmatic, one of the most revered and critically acclaimed rap recordings of all time. Notably, Large Pro’s achievements and influence in his own right date back to his uncredited production work for Eric B. & Rakim — while he was in high school. But since the acrimonious break up of Main Source and a shelved solo debut (which created Chinese Democracy–level anticipation), he’s been a rather elusive figure. EYE WEEKLY spoke to Large Pro about his provocatively titled new project, Main Source.

Why did you call this album Main Source?
The potion I used for this album is the original hip-hop, which is the main source of all what is going on now. It started off with boom-bap — New York style rapping — so I just felt like with this album… the feeling of it, the style of it embodies that main source, that original recipe of hip-hop.

So was this spirit behind the name of the group Main Source in the first place?
Yeah. It’s to let people know that I still embrace my part of Main Source. [With] how we tapered off before, a lot of people probably thought I wasn’t still embracing the Main Source thing.

Do you think a lot of that response had to do with your lyrics on A Tribe Called Quest’s “Keep It Rollin’”?
Definitely. Because I shitted on the DJs. It was a lot of internal things that I never told anyone about that led me to that. I’m still affected by what happened with that to this day, but I still have love for my brother K-Cut. We get up, we talk and everything like that. It’s just [that as] a man coming up in the streets, I wasn’t raised on anything. I worked hard to do what I do and to have something put in your path to try to stop you, to take away from you, you gotta do it how you gotta do it. We brothers, we have our foundation. I can’t go to them with any violence; we made a mark in this world. That’s how I did it. I spit on the record, that’s harmless. It’s just letting people know that I don’t rock with that funny shit like that. That’s all that was.

Can you talk a little bit about how you’ve maintained the Toronto connection by working with Toronto producer Marco Polo on this album?
It’s never been a territorial thing with me. Like, “You’re from here? I can’t work with you.” If the original energy is there as well and, like, Marco Polo comes from that. He played me some tracks and I was, like, “This one. That one. That one. Those are hot joints. Yo, let’s go.” So we did it. He’s the man.

For someone with your track record, you seem to prefer being low profile as opposed to saying, “Hey, look at me!”
When you’re dealing with hip-hop, it’s different, because it comes from the street. [There are] different rules. You get too flashy; people start seeing, they start wanting. I’ve been around flashiness and things like that, but I come from a humble home. It was not too over-the-top. It was more spiritual and that’s where I like to keep it. Like, “Yo, this is something that I do, but it’s not my whole life.” It’s like I do have a life that I live at the same time.

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