What You Need / Merrick Blvd.
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Album Summary
Main Source, the Queens-bred hip-hop trio anchored by the production genius of Large Professor, dropped this two-track single in 1993 on Wild Pitch Records, a label that had been one of the realest homes for underground hip-hop in New York City. Coming out of sessions that kept that raw, sample-flipping, boom-bap sound alive at a time when the genre was pulling in a thousand different directions, 'What You Need / Merrick Blvd.' was a double-sided 12-inch that gave the people exactly what the title promised — something with weight, something with soul. Large Professor held down production duties with the kind of understated mastery that made heads stop and rewind, and the release served up both radio-friendly and LP mixes of 'What You Need' alongside instrumentals for the DJs to tear apart on the ones and twos.
Reception
- The single moved through hip-hop circles with strong underground credibility, resonating deeply with the New York rap community that valued lyricism and authentic production above commercial gloss.
- Critical recognition at the time centered on the craftsmanship of the production and the group's ability to deliver tightly constructed rap music that felt both street-level and timeless.
Significance
- 'Merrick Blvd.' stands as a vivid piece of geographic storytelling, rooting itself in the Southeast Queens landscape and representing the kind of place-specific hip-hop that gave New York rap its neighborhood-by-neighborhood texture and authenticity.
- This single captured Main Source at a moment when New York underground hip-hop was asserting its identity against the rising tide of commercial rap, and the group's commitment to that raw, uncompromising sound made releases like this a touchstone for purists.
- The inclusion of instrumental versions on both sides of this 12-inch reflected the deep respect the group and label had for DJ culture, ensuring that the beats could live and breathe on their own in the hands of turntablists and mixtape architects.
Tracklist
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A1 What You Need (Radio Version) —
4:14
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A2 What You Need (LP Mix) —
4:14
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A3 What You Need (Instrumental) —
4:09
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B1 Merrick Blvd. (LP Version) —
3:29
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B2 Merrick Blvd. (Instrumental) —
3:28
Artist Details
Main Source was a hip-hop trio that came together out of Toronto, Canada and Harlem, New York in the late 1980s, built around the heavyweight production duo of Large Professor alongside brothers K-Cut and Sir Scratch, cooking up a gritty, jazz-infused boom-bap sound that hit the streets hard with their landmark 1991 debut *Breaking Atoms*. That record, baby, wasn't just an album — it was a masterclass in East Coast hip-hop production, featuring one of the most sampled and celebrated tracks in rap history, "Looking at the Front Door," and the chilling street narrative "Just a Friendly Game of Baseball." Main Source planted seeds that grew into the entire Golden Age harvest of the '90s, with Large Professor's dense, soulful production style influencing damn near every producer who came after him, cementing the group's place as unsung architects of hip-hop's most celebrated era.
