#30thAnniversary – EPMD “Business Never Personal”

by Kramos of The CooksAugust 1, 20222 min read

For the fourth round, and the last album before the first breakup, Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith might have created the best material in all of their celebrated discography. It translated into one of their most successful projects, the second album for Def Jam records “Business Never Personal”. Funny enough, EPMD’s first single for this LP “Crossover” became a hit with the catchy Roger Troutman sample, even if the track was stressing about not crossing over to the mainstream and wanting to keep creating “real” Hip Hop. Nonetheless, the album is far from a sellout, but is instead a good dose of hard hitting funky beats and skillfully delivered lyrics in the “slow flows” fashion they are well known for. The Hit Squad/Def Squad also shows up with excellent features on “Head Banger” with K-Solo & The Funk Doc Redman and “Cummin’ at Cha” with Das EFX.

It was the last time Erick & Parrish would make dollars together for some time, since the duo split for around four years before coming back in 1997 with the aptly titled “Back in Business“.