Words By Jason Hortillas

Hate for the opposite sex is not foreign in Hip-Hop. What is however is that
in depth relationship talk. You know, that deep rooted, malicious type shit.
1990′s “looking At The Front Door” by Main Source epitomized this for me. This wasn’t a
chick at the club tale. Neither was it some “chicken head ho eating heroes”
character assassination. This was venting.

“We fight every night now that’s not kosher,
I reminisce with bliss of when we was closer.”

To the untrained listener this is sappy. But Main Source front man Large
Professor accomplished an impossible task-capturing frustration in about
three minutes. “Looking” couldn’t be too lyrical- it required Large Pro to get to the point. One liners like, “You treat me like I’m a burnt piece of bacon” exemplified such, adding to the list of cliché quotations to the Hip-Hop lexicon.

Not too many tracks especially during this time period address these kind of emotions. Unlike many others in the subgenre of Hip-Hop chick songs, there are no traces of boning here. In that rarity this joint is even more effective-it’s what us guys call, “taking the power back.” Insert your laugh here fellas.

What made “Looking” work was dealing with these male insecurities. The difference though was the logic of Large Pro. Superbly using his emcee arrogance while downplaying his peers’ “stuck up rapper role,” he effectively tells the girl in question, “it’s not me it’s you,” so to speak. “Looking” is also conversational and listener can relate to anecdotes The Extra P uses as evidence to prove his point.

So when you feel like you want to ditch wifey for greener pastures, throwing this joint on is that quintessential song dudes like myself use as an outlet. But before you make any rash decisions to dump your broad, take some advice from the Donald Byrd classic that Main Source sampled for this – all you got to do is “Think Twice.”