Saturday, October 4, 2008

Strictly Business

I'm by no means an expert on the hip hop, but I do believe that EPMD's first album Strictly Business is one of the greatest rap albums of all time, and it's probably because they sound incredibly high and Eric Sermon sounds like he has a mouth full of candy. Oh, and the line "I'm as deadly as AIDS when it's time to rock the party" doesn't hurt. Have you ever managed to get the words "AIDS" and "Party" into the same sentence? Didn't think so. Two guys, with about a hundred similes to tell you how awesome they are at what they do. Lazy and stoned, in 1988 this is about as cool as it got.

9 comments:

shane said...

Agreed. Always loved EPMD even if I could never understand how an MC can sound practically retarded but still dope like Eric Sermon.

Dave G said...

Definitely one of the top old school hip hop albums. I actually saw EPMD live and high in 87.

L. said...

"And if you never seen it, then I'll be startin
My brand new funky dance, called the Steve Martin"
Awesome.....

Icky said...

Word.
Erick Sermon is definitely one of the greatest MC's of all time.

Check out Sean Price "The Brokest Rapper You Know" from Boot Camp Click/Heltah Skeltah fame as far as contemporary rappers go he may be the best these days.
There's also R.A. the Rugged Man...

Hit me up if you want a taste of that shit.

brandi said...

EPMD and Big Daddy Kane dually hold the honor of being the only rappers that I can quote whole songs. When this came out, I think I listened to it about 300 times in one day. Or, something.

Aesop said...

Yeah, I was prety infatuated with "Long Live The Kane" but I listened to it recently and it didn't hold up. Now "Paid In Full" by Eric B and Rakim, that's still gold to my tin ear.

brandi said...

This is really the only era of rap that I have ever been into at all... somewhere from about 1986 or so through about 90. After that it's pretty much a world of suck and gangsta rap. I haven't listened to most of it since then, so I am kinda interested to see how I like this one now. (Just finished downloading...) I may have to search out the b-i-g-d-a-doubled-y-k-a-n-e at some point and see if I still dig it.

brandi said...

A ha! Anything you're looking for is probably right here:

http://etalonhiphop.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Favorite rap group in the world.