Deep Album Cuts Vol. 360: EPMD
I felt like making a playlist of Erick and Parrish Making Dollars, keeping in the era of my recent Rakim and Big Daddy Kane playlists.
EPMD album cuts (Spotify playlist):
1. Underground
EPMD album cuts (Spotify playlist):
1. Underground
2. Get The Bozack
3. Do It Again
4. You're A Customer
5. Rap Is Outta Control
6. Knick Knack Patty Wack
7. Boon Dox
8. The Steve Martin
9. Hardcore (featuring Redman)
10. They Tell Me (featuring Keith Murray)
11. Cummin' At Cha (featuring Das EFX)
12. Please Listen To My Demo
13. Hold Me Down
14. I'm Mad
15. Put On
16. Jane
17. Jane II
18. Jane 3
19. Who Killed Jane
20. Jane 5
21. Jane 6
22. Jane
Tracks 4, 8 and 16 from Strictly Business (1988)
Tracks 4, 8 and 16 from Strictly Business (1988)
Tracks 2, 6, 12 and 17 from Unfinished Business (1989)
Tracks 1, 5, 9, 14 and 18 from Business As Usual (1991)
Tracks 7, 11 and 19 from Business Never Personal (1992)
Tracks 3, 15 and 20 from Back In Business (1997)
Tracks 13 and 21 from Out Of Business (1999)
Tracks 10 and 22 from We Mean Business (2008)
EPMD had an interesting niche in hip-hop. Their first five albums all went gold, without any of them going platinum, so they really cultivated a loyal fanbase without ever totally crossing over (although of course their biggest Hot 100 hit, "Crossover," was itself a critique of pop rappers like Vanilla Ice and Hammer).
EPMD were kind of part of Def Jam's second wave and really a key transitional act between '80s rap and '90s rap. They could sound natural on tracks with Run-DMC and LL Cool J, but they also mentored rising stars like Redman, Keith Murray and Das EFX. Erick Sermon's production style was definitely influential on both Death Row and Bad Boy, and EPMD's whole nonchalant style and focus on "business" really set the tone for a lot of '90s rappers. They had a nice variety of sounds and tones, though, "The Steve Martin" is a pretty goofy song, kinda feels like EPMD were making their version of Joeski Love's "Pee Wee's Dance."
One of the fun things about EPMD's albums is that they had this recurring storyline with "Jane" and sequels on every subsequent album. Errick and Parrish aren't exactly storytellers on the level of Slick Rick so there's not a totally coherent narrative, it's mostly shit talking and jokes, but it's fun to hear them keep returning to the theme, often with a new flip of the same Rick James sample from the original "Jane."
EPMD was sampled by a lot of other hip-hop acts, but producers would also use loops the same way Erick Sermon used them without sampling EPMD per se. "Get The Bozack" was basically the prototype for DMX's "Get At Me Dog" with the way it used the B.T. Express loop. The Grover Washington sample on "Underground" was used similarly on A Tribe Called Quest's "Check the Rhime." The Joe Cocker loop on "Knick Knack Patty Wack" was the template for 2Pac's "California Love." Black Thought also quoted "Knick Knack Patty Wack" on The Roots' "What They Do," and Prodigy quoted "I'm Mad" on "Keep It Thoro." And the first "Jane" was sampled a couple times by MF Doom.
"You're A Customer" was never released as a single, but it's become possibly EPMD's most profitable song via samples. The song's drums were used on "I Don't Wanna Know" by Mario Winans, and subsequently by a remake of that song that was an even bigger hit, "Creepin'" by Metro Boomin and The Weeknd. Erick Sermon revealed a couple months ago that he made $720K last year off of his 4% cut of "Creepin'." And Parrish's line "I get goosebumps when the bassline thumps" has been quoted by a whole lot of people (Snoop, Jermaine Dupri, Jurassic 5, etc.).
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