Business? Not cool, is it? Stiffs in suits and ties grafting at a desk and thinking only of profit? Where\u2019s the fun in that? EPMD<\/a><\/strong> found it. And let\u2019s be clear \u2013 these guys were serious about profit. That\u2019s why they were called Erick And Parrish Making Dollars. Their debut album, Strictly Business<\/em>, did it for them; they made plenty of Benjamins. And the rest of us? We had a party from hearing them do it.<\/p>\n Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith emerged in the mid-80s. These united microphone princes of Brentwood, Long Island, cut their debut single, \u201cIt\u2019s My Thing,\u201d in 1987, for the Manhattan-based indie label Sleeping Bag, who put them on its Fresh imprint, which until that point had a rap roster mostly comprising the underrated giants T La Rock and Just Ice. EPMD would soon become Fresh\u2019s biggest-selling act, enjoying a rise to pop chart success that began with Strictly Business<\/em>, the 1988 album that made No.1 on Billboard<\/em>\u2019s R&B chart. It\u2019s not hard to see why: downbeat, effortlessly funky, lean and raw, Strictly Business<\/em> is strictly bigness: it\u2019s irresistible.\n<\/p>\n Kicking off with the title track, EPMD make their style clear from the off: their dry, relaxed voices talk to you without haranguing, stating their business and telling it as they see it. It\u2019s here that you can immediately hear the numerous others they influenced; the vocal flow of UMCs and a proportion of the phrasing of Shock G of Digital Underground, for example. The deliberately unfussy use of beats, keeping it funky and direct, would sway some of the artists on Delicious Vinyl a few years later. And EPMD took beats where they found them: did Eric Clapton<\/a><\/strong> ever sound as funky as he does in inadvertent support of \u201cStrictly Business\u201d?<\/p>\n \u201cLet The Funk Flow\u201d beautifully slices and re-edits The JB\u2019s \u201c(It\u2019s Not The Express) It\u2019s The JB\u2019s Monaurail\u201d to create a slow and heavyweight grind that churns below a here\u2019s what\u2019s happening right now<\/em> lyric: you\u2019re listening to the moment we\u2019re creating while you\u2019re hearing it. The mission statement \u201cYou Gots To Chill\u201d (there is none more chilled than Erick and Parrish) betrays the influence of Eric B & Rakim<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s \u201cPaid In Full,\u201d dropping as ashy as a saltfish in the Gobi desert and making good use of Zapp\u2019s rubberfunk classic \u201cMore Bounce To The Ounce.\u201d Chill? They do nothing else, even sounding utterly languid when warning off bitin\u2019 rivals. The record went on to sway Snoop Dogg<\/a><\/strong>, one of many MCs to give it a nod of lyrical approval.\n<\/p>\n Even when the guys are messin\u2019 wit\u2019 ya, as on \u201cThe Steve Martin,\u201d a dance-craze tune that didn\u2019t quite start a dance craze, the beats still slide like an oiled sidewinder. \u201cYou\u2019re A Customer,\u201d with its alluring snatches of Steve Miller<\/a><\/strong> Band\u2019s \u201cFly Like An Eagle\u201d and the album\u2019s second chunk of Kool & The Gang\u2019s \u201cJungle Boogie,\u201d still resonates through hip-hop today, with the mighty Parrish being particularly lyrically ripe, comparing rivals to something toilet paper might wipe off, and Erick paying off with the line that other MCs are basically paying to be sustained by their perfect verbal product.\n<\/p>\n EPMD\u2019s debut single, the Lyn Collins<\/a><\/strong>-sampling \u201cIt\u2019s My Thing,\u201d and the \u201cgive the DJ some\u201d \u201cDJ K La Boss\u201d are both in perfect step with the rest: this is an utterly cohesive affair. \u201cI\u2019m Housin\u2019,\u201d which made an exploratory showing in the UK charts after a chunky dance remix, shrugs along on a sample of Aretha\u2019s \u201cRock Steady\u201d that\u2019s total groove. Like \u201cGet Off The Bandwagon\u201d and virtually every other track on Strictly Business<\/em>, this is an assertion of EPMD\u2019s right to be where their rivals are not.<\/p>\n You could argue that EPMD\u2019s debut record found a formula and stuck with it. But it never loses its gleam, being sufficiently varied and, yes, genuine enough to retain your attention. For purists, this is the real deal. For casual listeners, it shakes the butt and tickles the brain with mentions of, say, fabric softener and a brand of cooking oil. And there are innuendoes aplenty, delivered without the slightest mugging: when they suggest you take off your coat, you think they wanna leave it at that?\n<\/p>\n Released on June 7, 1988, Strictly Business<\/em> may be a debut album, but it fed numerous other MCs as well as EPMD\u2019s own soon-to-be-soaring status. And they left calling cards for their future work: all their albums have \u201cBusiness\u201d in their title, plus the record closes with \u201cJane,\u201d the opening assault in a sex and dissin\u2019 saga that has helped sustain the duo for decades. Strictly Business<\/em> is strictly cool. And when an album is this good, no wonder Erick and Parrish made dollars.\n<\/p>\n Listen to Strictly Business<\/em> now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\nPerfect product<\/h2>\n
The real deal<\/h2>\n