A few years ago, I was at a Summerstage show that included the legendary Large Professor got on the stage and literally half the audience had no idea who the man was – nor did they seem to know his contribution to one of the great hip-hop albums ever, Nas‘ Illmatic,. And I could remember feeling incensed and deeply concerned about hip-hop’s future at that very moment; after all, how can one be a hip-hop head without knowing it’s past, right? 

In any case, Big Noyd teamed up with two hip hop legends, the aforementioned Large Professor and a legendary emcee’s emcee Kool G. Rap teamed up for “Naturally Born.” Interestingly, the Spanish duo of Cookin’ Soul. known for almost a decade worth of remixes and mashups remixed the Queens All Star emcee track, pairing the vocal tracks with old school-era scratching, big room-rattling beats and a bombastic horn beat which give the song a towering, New York street hip-hop swagger.