Eric B & Rakim. Biz Markie’s ‘All Samples Cleared’. Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s ‘Mecca and the Soul Brother’. Nas’s ‘Illmatic’ and ‘Stillmatic’. Diamond D’s ‘Stunts, Blunts & Hip-hop’. Kool G Rap. Big Daddy Kane. A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders. Rob Swift. The Beastie Boys. Roxanne Shante. Gang Starr. Main Source.

Sound familiar? Then you know Large Professor. Go ahead, check the credits. We’ll wait.

Not impressed yet? Try this: at seventeen, going to school by day, Large Professor spent his nights programming beats for Eric B & Rakim’s Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em. That led to a call to work on Kool G. Rap’s Wanted Dead or Alive. And by that time his rep was already growing amongst those in the know: 15-year old Nasir Jones — uh, NAS — had already enrolled with the Professor.

LP’s sound is as timeless as hip-hop gets. A beat scientist of first order, no one gets more out a drum machine, and he serves up his beats garnished with just enough melody to keep things moving. P’s a chef: his creations breathe. They get your head noddin’ and let the MC do the rest.

1st Class, the long-awaited solo full-length album from Large Professor, was released in 2003. It includes guest appearances by Busta Rhymes, Nas and Q-Tip.