“Strictly Business” is the debut single by the legendary duo EPMD. The song served as the lead single for their debut album of the same name. The record was the pair’s first charting single and saw minor success on the R&B charts.
Although it was received with mixed reviews when it was first released, “Strictly Business” has aged gracefully and is now considered a Hip-Hop classic.
The song peaked at the No. 25 position on the U.S. R&B Singles chart. On the other hand, it peaked on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales and U.S. Dance Music/Club Play Singles charts in the No. 17 and No. 19 position, respectively.
The song’s main sample is Eric Clapton’s cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff”. Other samples include “Jungle Boogie” by Kool & the Gang and “Long Red” by Mountain.
“Strictly Business” is the debut single by the legendary duo EPMD. The song served as the lead single for their debut album of the same name. The record went on to be the pair’s first charting single and saw minor success on the R&B charts.
Although it was received with mixed reviews when it was first released, “Strictly Business” has aged gracefully and is now considered a Hip-Hop classic.
The song peaked at the No. 25 position on the U.S. R&B Singles chart. On the other hand, it peaked on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales and U.S. Dance Music/Club Play Singles charts in the No. 17 and No. 19 position, respectively.
The song’s main sample is Eric Clapton’s cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff”. Other samples include “Jungle Boogie” by Kool & the Gang and “Long Red” by Mountain.
Happy 54th Birthday Parrish J. Smith, better known as “PMD”, one half of EPMD
EPMD, the famous duo from Brentwood, Long Island, New York, is an acronym that stands for “Erick and Parrish Making Dollars”. The group has been together for more than three decades from the infamous breakup in the mid 1990s. They are one of the most prominent acts to grace the culture of Hip Hop.
After the very public split of the group because of various reasons, PMD continued to navigate the careers of Hip Hop icons Das EFX, who he was responsible for finding, before eventually making amends with Erick Sermon to make another classic EPMD album at the turn of the millennium.
Parrish Smith continues to be a recognizable force within the structure of Hip Hop’s movers and shakers and his contributions will be forever etched in stone.
Salute to PMD on his born day as we here at The Source wish him a happy one and many more!
Coming after what critics would call their worst album, Business Never Personal served as a proper revival and temporary farewell for one of Hip Hop’s greatest duos to touch the mic.
This album is considered EPMD’s third classic album, even though it was their fourth overall and second on the Def Jam label.. Although underground for the majority of their career, this album saw large commercial and mainstream success, peaking higher than any of its predecessors on the Billboard 200 chart at #14 and selling 500,000 copies in the first few months of its release. The popularity of this album came in large part from the breakthrough lead single, ironically titled “Crossover”. This single itself peaked at #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Top Rap singles chart.
Following this project, the duo disbanded only to join forces once again on a fifth LP, Back in Business. The group continued to bounce back and forth between activity and retirement until the release of their final album, We Mean Business in 2008.
Happy 52nd Birthday Parrish J. Smith, better known as “PMD”, one half of EPMD
EPMD, the famous duo from Brentwood, Long Island, New York, is an acronym that stands for “Erick and Parrish Making Dollars”. The group has been together for more than three decades from the infamous breakup in the mid 1990s. They are one of the most prominent acts to grace the culture of Hip Hop.
After the very public split of the group because of various reasons, PMD continued to navigate the careers of Hip Hop icons Das EFX, who he was responsible for finding, before eventually making amends with Erick Sermon to make another classic EPMD album at the turn of the millennium.
Parrish Smith continues to be a recognizable force within the structure of Hip Hop’s movers and shakers and his contributions will be forever etched in stone.
Salute to PMD on his born day as we here at The Source wish him a happy one and many more!
Everyone seems to be dropping their Top 5 Rappers of All Time list all over the place. So it should come to no surprise that Joseph Sikora aka Tommy from 50 Cent’s hit television drama, Power, has one too. What will surprise you is who falls on the Chicago Gen Xer’s list.
There were rules to the game though. You could not say the usual suspects: No JAY-Z, BIGGIE, TUPAC, RAKIM, EMINEM, or KRS1.
But he was not frazzled at all. He was able to drop his top 5 with no hesitation and conviction. Check out oh Joey Boy giving it to us really real… And of course, he got 50 up in his list.
Def Jam Records had made some of the most iconic Hip-Hop albums of all-time during the 1980s. After some sluggish years in the early 1990s, the label started by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin rebounded in a major way in 1998. That was the same year that the imprint forecast its future with the Def Jam 2000 campaign. A string of albums included #1 releases. DMX’s It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot and same year follow-up, Flesh Of My Flesh Of Blood Of My Blood topped the charts. So did JAY-Z’s Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life, Foxy Brown’s Chyna Doll, and Method Man’s Tical 2000: Judgement Day. With the irons hot, Def Jam returned to focus on an act it had been working with for a decade: EPMD.
Released on July 20, 1999, Out Of Business was the sixth album for Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith. Standout single “Symphony 2000” gave the listeners a taste of raw lyrics and futuristic production featuring haunting strings from “Uccellacci Uccellini” by Italian composer Ennio Morricone. A previously recorded version of the song originally called “Symphony” featured M.O.P. and is also present on Out Of Business. Decisions were made at the label to push a version with more of an in-house, Def Jam feel. Erick Sermon protege (and Def Squad band-mate) Redman was recruited, along with Method Man, an artist who the Green-Eyed Bandit also worked closely with. Newer Def Jam act Lady Luck was chosen to spar in the Rap ring in which some would call the grand finale of what would be the last release of an EPMD’s historic Def Jam run.
With direction from Steve Carr, the visual for “Symphony 2000” is based on the theme of Horror movies where all artists are present in a warehouse and also shown in scenes were they are dressed as his or her favorite scary movie character while releasing virulent lines to their victims.
PMD, as “Michael Myers,” starts the track off prepared for lyrical warfare as he spits, “I grab the mic and grip it hard like it’s my time to shine / I want the chrome and the cream so I can put it down for mine / Ill cat / Slick talk / Slang New York / To break it down to straight English / What the f*ck you want / Remember me / You punk fa**ot / Crab MC / Get your sh*t broke in half for f*cking with P / Hey yo’ strike two / My style Brooklyn like the zoo / Hey you / Look ni**a / One more strike you through.” Part of the delivery and style seems to salute Meth’s Wu-Tang Clan brother Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
Next up to carry the devilish torch is Erick Sermon as “LeatherFace” from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. While having a woman tied to a chair screaming, he taunts her with his gruesome family members while rapping, “Time to rock / The sound I got / It reigns hot / Making necks snap back / Like a slingshot / E hustle / And muscle my way in / The tussle for days in / On my own with guns blazing / Not for the fun of it / Just for those who want me to run it / Then leave them like / Who done it / Sucka’ duck / I do what I feel right now / When I spit the illest sh*t / Cats be like wow!”
One of the most memorable parts of the music video is when Funk Doc channels his inner Jack Nicholson while showcasing his own version of The Shining’s famous scene when “Jack Torrance” has become possessed and begins to chase his wife while hacking through walls and doors with an axe. After Redman breaks through the bathroom window, he shouts “Here’s Reggie!” Red then proceeds by starting his verse with a melody familiar to R. Kelly’s “Did You Ever Think.” Did you ever think you would catch a cap? / Yo, did you ever think you would get a slap? / Yo, did you ever think you would get robbed? / At gunpoint, stripped and thrown out the car?/ It’s Funk Doc, you know my name, h*e / My style dirty underground, or Ukraine po’ / When it hit you, pain pumps Kool-aid, through the vein and sh*t / Snatch the trap / Then I dash, like Damon did.”
Method Man dressed as “Dr. Giggles” takes a stab at the track and his patient as she lays on an examination chair in pain with agony written all over her face. While dancing around and playing with surgical tools, Iron Lung hits the listeners’ head with, “Youth on the move / Paying them dues / Nothing to lose / Street kids, broken and bruised / Eyeing your jewels / Bad News, baring they souls through rhyming blues / Hardcore, to make them brothers act a fool / Hands on the steel, flip your heads over heel / Smell the daffodils / From the lyric overkill.”
When it comes to “Symphony 2000,” it seems the team gave way to a hungry MC. Seventeen-year-old Lady Luck channels “Carries.” At one point of her verse the Englewood, New Jersey rapper spits, “It’s written / We in the game, but I ball different/ Point game like Jordan, y’all play the role of Pippen / Style switching / Like tight ass after sticking / Man, listen / Stop your crying and your b*tchin’ / Like E and P’s last CD, You’re out of business.” Even with another high-powered appearance on Pharoahe Monch’s “Simon Says (Remix),” Lady Luck was never able to deliver a Def Jam release in the changing climate. These days she appears on Bravo’s First Family Of Hip-Hop reality series.
