- EPMD - Rap Is Still Outta Control (Feat. Busta Rhymes) EPMD - Right Now. EPMD - Strictly Business.
- The ‘Out Of Business’ album brought the classic EPMD feel of soul and funk mixed with the boom-bap hip-hop by utilizing classic samples. Starting with the “Intro” that sampled one of the songs “Going The Distance” from the legendary movie ‘Rocky’.
- Jul 20, 1999 Out Of Business, EPMD's sixth album (and ultimately their final one for Def Jam Records, their label home since 1990), was designed as the defining statement that would end this particular chapter in hip hop history. It offered the intended audience a little bit of everything.
View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1999 CD release of Out Of Business on Discogs.
Happy 20th anniversary to EPMD’s album “Out Of Business” the dynamic duo’s sixth studio album, originally released on July 20th, 1999. This was also the time when they changed its initialism for the release from Erick & Parrish Making Dollars to Erick & Parrish Millennium Ducats. A limited-edition version of the album was also released with a bonus greatest hits disc that features tracks spanning from 1987 to 1997.
This summer was filled with releases from artist like Gang Starr, Too Short and even Lil Cease made his solo debut. But one single came out and started to shake the summer and that was Symphony 2000 feat Method Man, Redman, and Lady Luck. That song happens to be the last charting single from EPMD making it on the hip hop and R&B charts. The album also had features by Busta Rhymes, M.O.P. and Agallah.
EPMD hails from Brentwood, New York. They were originally known as EPEEMD but chose to go with EPMD after being managed by Russell Simmons’ RUSH Management. Lyor Cohen suggested the change and hired the artist who designed the Run DMC logo to create EPMD’s.
The “Out of Business” album brought the classic EPMD feel of soul and funk mixed with the boom-bap hip-hop by utilizing classic samples. Starting with the “Intro” that sampled one of the songs “Going the Distance” from the legendary movie Rocky. The song was a salute to their DJ, Scratch who turned producer and was the key to their early success.
Another highlight of this album was “Rap is still out of control”, the revised version of a song from 1990 called “Rap is Outta Control”. This song features Busta Rhymes on the hook and he’s bringing his energy to the track with the Busta style adlibs all through the song. “U Got Shot” features Agallah and has the late Ol’ Dirty Bastards’s vocals sampled in the hook and ODB’s Brooklyn Zoo as the beats main sample. The album also features the song “Jane 6” which happens to be a staple of EPMD’s albums along with having The word Business in the albums name.
EPMD’s impact on the culture was and still is heavy. They are the most sampled group in Hip Hop history, with people like Action Bronson who used “Rampage” for his song “Strictly for my Jeeps”. Jay-Z, who used “It’s My Thing” for his single “Ain’t No Nigga” and Kanye West single “Golddigger” was produced in EPMD’s mold. Even sparking the career of a young DMX whose first single “Get At Me Dog” was a sample of “Get The Bosac” followed by The Ruff Ryders using “The Headbanga” as their own anthem song. EPMD’s sound was singlehandedly responsible for an entire era of hip hop. Even R&B acts like Jodeci with “Come And Talk to Me” was an EPMD sampled record, to this day they are still being sampled.
EPMD’s E-Double went on to produce big hits like “Reservoir Dogs” for Jay Z. He also produced the hit 4,3,2,1, for LL Cool J and even the Late Heavy D. E also had R&B artist like Angie Stone and Dave Hollister call him to work. He was called on by Lyor Cohen to help break most of the artist from the 90’s era that was signed to Def Jam. The EPMD sound was so unique that some of their music was considered West Coast Gang Bang music. Even though they were east coast artists, their main fan base was LA. Influencing a whole different culture on the west coast.
EPMD ushered in a hardcore style that influenced the gangsta style rap, similar to what NWA was to the west coast. They were the first to form what was called a supergroup, The HitSquad, that featured Redman, Das Efx, and K-Solo. Each member, Redman, and K-Solo went on to have solo success. Das Efx, who was a group that had hit single after hit single while under the tutelage of EPMD. The album Out Of Business showed that the Dynamic Duo EPMD still could hang.
The duo’s album managed to peak at number thirteen on the Billboard Top 200 and second on Top R&B/Hip Hop albums. The album also featured a limited version of the album that was released with a bonus greatest hit disc. The disc features songs from 1987-1997 and the songs from the first two albums were re-recorded because EMI wouldn’t license the songs to Def Jam. In all the EPMD didn’t let its audience down with the album. If you were a fan of their sound, you were left satisfied with this album. Salute to the 20 year anniversary of Out of Business. Listen below.
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