How EPMD Is Still ‘Business As Usual’ 25 Years Later (2024)

Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith’s legacy is built on consistency. As EPMD, the hip-hop group’s formula for success wasdelivering hardcore raps over laidback funk grooves, resultingin theirfirst two albums – Strictly Business (1988) and Unfinished Business (1989) – going gold. With the popularity of gangsta rap rising in the ‘90s, EPMD injected the genrewith a harder edge and dense storytelling, often samplingfunk masters like George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic and Roger Troutman. More importantly, they steered clear of industry trendsand stressed the importance of being independent whiletaking control of your brand.

By the time they released Business As Usual in 1990, they were hitting a creative stridethat was unparalleled in the rap game. Although EPMD would later tell Billboard that their first album is held to a higher regard than Business As Usual by fans, the releaseis still significant,markingtheir Def Jam debut after transitioning from Sleeping Bag Records. The LP yielded collaborations with LL Cool J (“Rampage”) and Redman (“Hardcore,” “Brothers on My Jock”), who EPMDclaimedas an early discovery.

Present-day EPMD still possesses the same fire as the Brentwood brothers on the come-up.While their previous mission was to keep hip-hop culture alive, they’re now zoning in to the business side of themusic industry to help further EPMD. Sermon and Smith,now 47, have an idea in the works to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Business As Usual in 2016. “We’re trying to put together the tour for Business As Usual,” Sermon says. “And do it really big where we have EPMD 25th Anniversary Business As Usual[tour] featuring Red & Meth, possiblyMobb Deep, Keith Murray. PossiblyDe La Soul.”

Would they play the album in full on said tour? “We would play the majority of the album in full, but also give [singles] like what Bruce Springsteen is doing,” Sermon says, referencing the rock vet. “Bruce Springsteen is doing his tour right now for that one album, but he’s also saying you’ll hear some of the hit records though too.”

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Smith continues,“It’s hard to do.You in there doing one album and they’re like, ‘No, ‘You Gots To Chill?’’ Yo, what the f**k?’ You know? We trying to get LL [Cool J] to come out support for “Rampage.” Get Kanye [West] to come out for “Gold Digger” and support us.”

Those hefty plans come aftermonths of brainstorminga way to bring attention to one of their classics. At the Def Squad offices in Long Island, EPMD and theirHit Squad collective’saccomplishments adornnearly every wall, including their gold plaques. The space is also home to Def Rugs, Sermon’s latest business venture with Fox Floors that produces rugs with the Def Squad logos,as well as artists he respects like X Clan, D Block, Beastie Boys and more. There’s enough room for a fully equipped studio as records stuffed in shelves and crates line the building’s second floor. About an hour drive away from the major labels in Manhattan, it’s easy to see whythe pair chooses to base theiroperations in Long Island. Their successes in the past can only motivate their future.

As veterans of the golden era, EPMD shared with Billboardtheir insights on how to sustain longevity in hip-hop while reflecting on the 25 years of their third studio album. Take notes.

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BE ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS

Parrish Smith:“On all our business titles, our first album was basically titled Strictly Business because we put everything on the line. We gave up a lot just to be a part of the hip-hop culture so [the name of the album]had to be Strictly Business. You couldn’t lose. Once you get into the game,people kind of put the pressure on you, likethe sophom*ore jinx or [saying] you can’t do it.So Erick and I came back around with Unfinished Business[which hosted]“So Wat Cha Sayin’” and “The Big Payback.” So we always answered into response to way the fans and the way the game responded to us. It’s always been about business to us no matter how much fun we were having in the music.”

EARN YOUR RESPECT

Parrish Smith: “We just was doing [music]because of the love of hip-hop. Us coming from Long Island, we always felt like we had to work harder than the artists from the five boroughs. So once we got the opportunity to step up, we just kept doing it and doing it, bringing dope talent with us, but just really trying to representhip-hop andtrying to get that approval from our colleagues.And they was more advanced. [Big Daddy]Kane would havethe robe on after the shows. The slippers. The bottle. We wasn’t advanced like that, you know?”

Erick Sermon:“And not knowing that we found out later that we was the threat for [other artists]. That’s the part that bugs me out. Everybody feared us. While we are trying to get approval from them, they fearing us cause we had consecutive No. 1 albums, consecutive selling Gold albums. They wasn’t doing that.”

STAY IN YOUR LANE

Parrish Smith:“If you feel something in your heart musicallyand want respect from a culture that you respect, stick to what you step forward [with]. That should be the path that you stay on because that’s what the artists andfans know you for. Hip-hop has always been a problem.That’s why we did the song“Crossover” with Large Professor.I just think that’s the biggest thing to stay true as an artist.”

Erick Sermon: “Stay in your lane, stay true and alsoknow that it is a business.It comes with a lot of work; it keeps you staying on your job because again you could be put in predicaments. If people wouldknow that it is a business from the door, it won’t be that muchturmoil and problems [in the industry].”

BE HUMBLE

Erick Sermon: “Russell Simmons told us to stay humble. That was a gift and a curse for us because we didn’t step out there [showing off] and act like what we were ‘cause we were the sh*t. We wasn’t upfront as somebody with that much fame and success would have been.What we did [was stay with] our own crews. We were Long Island people. We liked it.We weren’t the [kind of]people tobe out there flossing. We had some jewelry, but after a while, that all came off.”

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KNOW YOUR BRAND

Erick Sermon:“We still have funbut it is mostly business things that we do. Parrish is getting up to it too about social media. I’m not really a big fanbut I do it because of [the fans]. We [have already blown up]. Now, it’s about knowing our brand.We trying to get the recognition of something we haven’t done in a long time. God bless the dead Jam Master Jay is not here. When [critics] speak about groups—Run-D.M.C. [comes up], EPMD comes next. We are trying to put that into play.”

TAKE CONTROL

Erick Sermon:“I think it’s cool to be able to call the shotsbut it comes with responsibility.”

Parrish Smith:“Again, that goes back to the work ethic because if we never went on the Business Never Personal tour, we would have never met Das EFX. We was like, ‘Oh, it’s a war. It’s snowing. We ain’t going.’ The people were like, ‘Yo, listen, you better go.’ We went. And here comes Das EFX.”

Erick Sermon:“Being independent, it comes with responsibility butwe come from that. Sleeping Bag [Records]was independent. Def Jam was independent. They was all subsidiary through a major label. We know that now but it feels good too because me and Parrish ’cause we always [had control]. Our labels didn’t know what we was making. Sleeping Bag was like, ‘This is dope.’”

Parrish Smith: “[We] never went by our contracts. E would tell me all the time. We only sign them and that was it. Every company we was with let us do what we want.”

Erick Sermon:“We kind of know that we come from that. We come from knowing cause nobody questioned us, especially when we started really making hit records. Like, ‘Yo, what are you gonna tell them? Look at what they are doing. Whatever they touching, it’s working.’ The only fact about independent right now is that you have to do everything yourself. There’s not a label doing it. That’s what’s happening to a lot of acts that’s shocking.

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Red andMeth had a situation with that too adjusting to being independent. Like, ‘Oh, sh*t, we don’t have a major label. We don’t have nobody doing this for us. Things are different.’ You gotta do it yourself. So it is a gift and a curse because it could be a giftlike a Macklemore. You could have that [level of]success. Then,you can have other the success of a lot of independents who didn’t get nowhere because they didn’t have the right backing or the know-how on how to move this record so you could be independent, but you have to have the know-how on how to move this record like a major would do it.”

KEEP WORKING

Erick Sermon: “Me and Parrish working on a new single right now. Hopefully, we do something that’s dope and maybe even an EP. But like L said, ‘If you’re gonna do an EP, that’s four more songs until an album.’ You do an album [next]. Again, you don’t want to go out there and do something and it doesn’t [feel] right. That’s the only thing you worry about. You try it so you don’t disappoint fans. “