Main Source
"Breakin' Atoms"
Rating: 4.5 mics

Breakin' Atoms is New York hip-hop at its best.  It's slamming beats and smooth, nod-your-head-to-this grooves thick with jazz-infused samples.  It's clever rhymes that you want to follow word-for-word.  You won't even need your fast-forward button for this one.

At the center of this creative tornado is The Large Professor, an 18-year-old rap wunderkid born in Harlem, raised in Queens.  The Professor has several production credits under his belt (Kool G Rap, Roxanne Shante, The Intelligent Hoodlum), and working with DJ's Dir Scratch and K-Kut, a unique flavor is given to the tracks.  The key is the musical arrangements - like jazz, they're loose and complex at the same time.  The Large Professor is the main lyricist for the group, and he proves to be a skillful rhymer who poetic metaphors add spice to a cooled-out style.  Sir Scratch and K-Cut, who are actually brothers from Toronto, Canada, get loose in the breaks with quick and skillful scratches.

Both sides are great, but I usually start with Side B.  In "Peace Is Not A Word To Play," The Professor talks about the lost meaning of the word "peace" while a great track bumps along behind.  "Vamos A Rapair" is about how rap is losing its true roots in the street, and "He Got So Much Soul" is an ode to The Professor's skills with a fonke beat and fat bass.

But watch out! "Live At The Barbeque" is a posse cut where a quartet of incredible rhymers pass the mic and get biz: Nas, Fatal (a.k.a. Merciful), Akinyele, and The Large Professor - definitely jeep pumping material.  The Professor raps: "I grab up girls like jacks/Add'em on like tax, and I'm over like Hot Tracks," and asks: "Why's my name The Large Professor?/ 'Cause I milked your cow, in other words I hit your heffer." Side A features the recent single "Lookin' At The Front Door" - a definite hip-hop masterpiece - and the standout cut "Just A Friendly Game Of Baseball," where The Professor uses baseball as a metaphor to describe how the cops treat kids in the inner city: "I guess when they shoot up a crew it's a grand slam/ And when its one, it's a home run."  The album also contains the previously-released "Watch Roger Do His Thing" and "Large Professor," both slamming in their own right.

As a debut album, Breaking Atoms is a bright beacon of hope that New York artists can continue to advance rap to new heights of musical and lyrical depth.  They approach rap as an art form, not a money game.  As Large Professor says: "We built it up this far without selling out/ And still got clout/ So you continue to sell and be a sap/ And when you're ready to snap back, I'll tell 'ya, let's rap!"

- written by J The Sultan, originally appearing in The Source, May 1991