Epmd Tickets

Epmd
Standing amongst some of the most prominent east coast hip hop acts, EPMD, has been performing for past 20 years, being a hip hop group originating from Brentwood, New York.

Initially the group was called Erick and Parrish Making Dollars, for which they used the acronyms EPMD; however it was later changed to Erick and Parrish Millenium Ducats.

The original line up of the group consists of MC Parrish Smith, MC Erick Sermon, and MC Diamond J, along with DJ Scratch and DJ K La Boss.

EPMD came out with its debut album, Strictly Business, in 1988 and was led by groups first hit, Strictly Business. The track was based on the sample of the cover of Bob Marleys I Shot the Sheriff, sang by Eric Clapton.

Initially Group started with more stress on heavy hip hop samples, but later they drifted more towards electronic music genre. Every album released by the group utilizes the word Business in its title and all the albums have a song titled Jane. Jane is a track about a romantic endeavor went bad.

EPMDs Strictly Business was released again this time with Kurtis Mantronik, after the group signed a record deal with Fresh/Sleeping Bag Records.

The album was led by hit singles including the title track along with You Gots to chill, which took the albums sales up to 500,000 units, fetching it a certified Gold Status by RIAA.

Groups following album Unfinished Business that was released in 1989 also received certified Gold Status. Later in 1992, due to financial downfall faced by Fresh/Sleeping Bag Records, the two albums by EPMD were attained by EMI Records, while their contract with Sleeping Bag Records was then acquired by Def Jam.

EPMD released its follow up album Business As Usual in 1990 which was later followed by Business Never Personal released in 1992.

In late 1991, Smiths house was robbed, and as one of the robbers was apprehended he gave out Sermons name, who he said had paid him to do so. Following this event tension among the duo started to rise, and basing on the statement made by the burglar, Sermon was detained for some time for questioning but was released later.

Due to this upsetting event the Duo decided to split up and pursue their solo careers, in 1993. The same year Sermon made his debut as a solo act with his album titled No Pressure followed by a series of several other albums that were Double or Nothing, Def Squad Presents Erick Onasis, Music and React, which were released in 1995, 2000, 2001, and 2002 respectively.

Smith also did the same and released to albums on his own that were Shade Business released in 1994 and Business is Business released in 1996. Both Smith and Sermon reunited and released Back in Business, a comeback LP, in 1997.

Almost two years later in 1999, they released their last LP titled Out of Business. Two version of the LP were release, standard version was released on single CD while the limited edition came on Double CD.