Music / EPMD

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EPMD (Erick & Parrish Making Dollars) is a hip-hop duo from Brentwood, NY, that reached the peak of their fame in the late Eighties and early Nineties during The Golden Age of Hip Hop. The two are known for their laid-back style of rapping — provided by Erick "E-Double" Sermon's tenor and Parrish "PMD (Microphone Doctor)" Smith's baritone — which contrasted well with the louder, more hyper-sounding rap acts of the time. There have been a couple of breakups through the years, but EPMD are still active as of lately.

Albums:

• Strictly Business (1988)
• Unfinished Business (1989)
• Business As Usual (1991)
• Business Never Personal (1992)
• Back In Business (1997)
• Out Of Business (1999)
• We Mean Business (2008)^note (Sense a pattern here yet?)

Tropes all up in their business:

• Beware the Nice Ones: Best personified in "You Gots To Chill":
  Never have to act ill, but if I have to, I kill / So believe me, boy... you gots to chill.
• Boastful Rap: Many examples.
• Catch-Phrase Spouting Duo: They do incorporate a lot of pop culture references in their rhymes.
• "Crossover": From Business Never Personal. They're against it.
• Dance Sensation: "The Steve Martin".
• "Gold Digger": Found on their Business As Usual album; a rap about the evils of women who date and marry guys just to get as much money and gifts from them as possible.
• I Call Him "Mister Happy": "Mr. Bozack", depicting a conversation between a man and his STD-ridden genitalia.
• One-Woman Song: The "Jane" series.
• Recurring Character: Some girl named Jane. Every EPMD album has a track with "Jane" in the title.
• Sampling:
  • Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" for "Strictly Business."
  • Zapp's "More Bounce to the Ounce" for "You Gots to Chill
• Sequel Song: "You Gots To Chill '97", from Back In Business. (Followed up "You Gots To Chill" from Strictly Business.)
• Serious Business: It's in their album titles, after all.
• Song Style Shift: "Scratch Bring It Back Part 2 (Mic Doc)" - PMD stops the beat in the middle of the track, and tells the DJ to put something different on. He then proceeds to make an altogether different-sounding rap.
• STD Immunity: Averted on "Mr. Bozack".
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: "Jane 3" is about a hard-up gangsta named Jay. Once the rappers visit Jay's place, though, they find out more about "him"...
  • And then "Jane 6" goes in the opposite direction.
• Visual Pun: The entire video for "You Gots To Chill", which was shot inside an ice-cube packaging facility along with stock footage of old refrigerators.
• Word Sequel: There's "Jane", "Jane 2", "Jane 3", ...and then "Who Killed Jane".
  • Followed by "Jane 5", "Jane 6"... and then, just "Jane" for We Mean Business.