Backspin: EPMD — Strictly Business (1988)
With their funk fueled debut, EPMD embodied the east and laid a blueprint for the west. (90/100)
I was introduced to EPMD by my friend from New Jersey by way of their 1988 debut, Strictly Business. I always looked forward to his bi-annual visits with his father, because with him would come the latest sounds out of New York, usually months before they penetrated the go-go bubble that encapsulated the my DC region. I wore out my dubbed copy of Strictly Business because to me it epitomized the New York swagger that made golden era hip-hop so alluring.
Years later, I was schooled on its seismic impact by the Californians I went to college with. Nothing sums up the contrasts that defined the Long Island duo better than the trajectory of this album, which initially shook up the tri-state area with its quintessential New York aesthetic, but went on to become even more influential albums on the west coast thanks to its embrace of freewheeling funk samples. Few acts in hip-hop have made contrasts as captivating as Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith the Microphone Doctor. Few albums are as timelessly infectious as their 1988 debut.
Seminal releases from ’86 and ’87 leaned heavily on James Brown’s catalogue, leveraging the precision and crispness of his drum breaks to…
