This week’s Throwback Thursday is dedicated to Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith collectively known as EPMD (Erick and Parrish Making Dollars). Their first album, Strictly Business, was released in 1988 and had heaters after heaters. “You Gots to Chill”, “It’s My Thing” and “Strictly Business” to name a few. The first time I heard “You Gots to Chill” I went nuts, that beat was sooooo nasty. It wouldn’t be long til we heard from the duo again as they dropped Unfinished Business the very next year with bangers like “Get the Bozack” and my personal favorite “So Wat Cha Sayin”, this rhyme right here had me hitting rewind over and over:
“Yo, I’m the hip-hopper, plus the show shocker
Down with MD, yes the microphone doctor
One wrecks, the other destroys
And if you think that you’re ready to mess (kill the noise)”
There would be more hits along the way with jams like “Gold Digger”, “Rampage” which had LL Cool J on the track, “Give The People” and “Crossover”, but after that 1992 album, Business Never Personal, the two had a falling out and split apart with Parrish basically pointing the finger at Erick being responsible for his home being robbed. The two went their separate ways and did solo careers and founded some dope emcees along the way, such as Redman, Das EFX, K-Solo and Keith Murray to name a few heads. Eventually though the two reconciled their differences and teamed up once again, their album would be one of the most anticipated hip-hop albums ever, Back In Business, personally not my favorite, but it was dope to see the group re-united again. They would release two more albums with the last one coming out just this past December ‘08 called We Mean Business, which I personally haven’t heard yet.
EPMD “You Gots to Chill”
EPMD “Strictly Business”
EPMD “So Wat Cha Sayin’”
EPMD “Crossover”
EPMD “Goldigger”
