Erick Sermon (born November 25, 1968) is an American rapper and producer. He is best known as one-third—alongside PMD &

DJ Scratch George Spivey (born June 21, 1968), known professionally as DJ Scratch, is an American hip hop music, hip hop DJ and producer from Brooklyn, New York. DJ Scratch is the 1988 New Music Seminar Battle For World Supremacy DJ champion, the 2010 M ...

—of 1980s/1990s hip hop group

EPMD EPMD is an American hip hop duo from Brentwood, New York. The duo's name is an initialism for "Erick and Parrish Making Dollars", referring to its members: emcees Erick Sermon ("E" a.k.a. E Double) and Parrish Smith ("PMD" a.k.a. Parrish Mi ...

and for his production work.

Early life

Erick Sermon was born on November 25, 1968, in Bay Shore on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Career

Sermon started professionally in 1986 as a producer and artist of the hip hop group EPMD. He began recording solo albums for

Def Jam Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The ...

in 1993; in 1997, he rejoined EPMD. The following year, Sermon, Murray and Redman recorded a cover version of "

Rapper's Delight "Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 rap song that serves as the debut single of American hip-hop trio the Sugarhill Gang, produced by Sylvia Robinson. Although it was shortly preceded by the Fatback Band's " King Tim III (Personality Jock)", "Rapper ...

" by the Sugarhill Gang. EPMD disbanded a second time in 1999. 2004 NBA All-Star Jam Session - Erick Sermon

In 2000, Sermon moved over to

J Records J Records was an American record label owned and operated by Bertelsmann Music Group until it was transferred to Sony Music Entertainment when they acquired all of BMG's record labels in late 2008 at the end of their merger. It was distribut ...

, and released the album ''

Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

'' the following year. The album's first single, "Music", featured guest vocals from

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...

, which Sermon reportedly culled from unreleased recordings found in a small record shop in London. "Music" went on to become Sermon's highest-charting song, peaking at number 22 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number 2 on the R&B

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

. Sermon's second album on J Records, '' React'', was released in 2002. ''React's'' title track peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100, but the album sold poorly and Sermon was dropped from the label in 2003. In a June 30, 2004 interview with '' HipHopDX.com'', Sermon told music journalist Bayer Mack, "Things weren't right at J Records.

Clive Davis Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer, A&R executive, record executive, and lawyer. He has won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a non-performer, in 2000. From 1967 to 1 ...

and them don't believe in promotion. When Puffy had Bad Boy at Arista, it was him doing all the romotionalwork." He also stated

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after National Football League, NFL and Canadian Football Lea ...

and

Wyclef Jean Nel Ust Wyclef Jean ( ; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, singer, and record producer. Born in Haiti, Jean emigrated to the Northeastern United States, United States as a child. He gained fame as a founding member of the Fugees, a Ne ...

had similar issues with J Records. Sermon went on to establish his Def Squad imprint with

Universal Records Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

and released his sixth solo album, '' Chilltown, New York'', in 2004. The album was powered by the single "Feel It" (which contained a sample of reggae/R&B singer

Sean Paul Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques (born 9 January 1973) is a Jamaican dancehall musician. Paul's first album, ''Stage One'', was released in 2000. He gained international fame with his second album, ''Dutty Rock'', in 2002. Its single "Get Busy ...

), a song which became a success in the United States. In an interview, he stated that he was going to step aside and try to get upcoming artists in the spotlight. However, Sermon has not stopped in the

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

, as he produced the song "Goldmine" on

' album, '' The Big Bang'' in 2006. Soon after, Sermon has recorded "Don't Make No Sense" with

Def Squad Def Squad is an American rap supergroup consisting of Erick Sermon, Redman, Keith Murray, Hurricane G, and Jamal Jamaal ( ''/'') is an Arabic given name and surname meaning "beauty."Redman and produced a few songs on the album '' Red Gone Wild'' while also making an appearance with Def Squad member Keith Murray. In early 2008, Sermon and Smith started their own record label called EP Records, distributed by RBS/Universal Music Group. The seventh EPMD album, '' We Mean Business'', came out in December 2008. Sermon was featured in the final episode of ''

Yo! MTV Raps ''Yo! MTV Raps'' is an American two-hour television music video program, which first aired on MTV Europe from 1987 to mid-1990s and on MTV, MTV US from August 1988 to August 1995. The American version of the program (created by Ted Demme and Pe ...

'' in a freestyle session featuring artists such as

Rakim William Michael Griffin Jr. (born January 28, 1968), better known by his stage name Rakim (), is an American rapper. He is one half of Golden age hip-hop, golden age hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, with whom he released four albums: ''Paid in Full ...

KRS-One Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from the Bronx. He rose to prominence as part of the ...

Chubb Rock Richard Anthony Simpson (born May 28, 1968), also known as Chubb Rock, is a Jamaican-American rapper who released several successful hip hop albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A National Merit Scholar, Chubb Rock dropped out of Brown Un ...

, MC Serch and

Craig Mack Craig Jamieson Mack (May 10, 1970 – March 12, 2018) was an American rapper and record producer. He is best known for his tenure with Bad Boy Records, during which he released his 1994 single " Flava in Ya Ear" (1994), which peaked within the ' ...

. In 2018, Sermon teamed up with

Lost Boyz Lost Boyz are an American Hip hop music, hip hop group from Queens, New York (state), New York, consisting of Master of ceremonies, MC Mr. Cheeks, DJ Spigg Nice, Pretty Lou, and Freaky Kah, with the latter replacing his father Freaky Tah who w ...

' own Mr Cheeks & broadcaster Ryan Verneuille to become the executive producer on their FM radio program, "The Ryan Show". Sermon is part of Tracklib's Creators Advisory Board.

Personal life

On September 25, 2001, Sermon was injured when he fell from the third floor of an apartment building. Police claimed Sermon attempted suicide, but he claimed it was accidental. On November 12, 2011, he suffered a heart attack, from which he recovered.

Discography

;Studio albums * '' No Pressure'' (1993) * '' Double or Nothing'' (1995) * '' Erick Onasis'' (2000) * ''

'' (2001) * '' React'' (2002) * '' Chilltown, New York'' (2004) * '' E.S.P. (Erick Sermon's Perception)'' (2015) * '' Vernia'' (2019) ;Collaboration albums *''

El Niño EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

'' with Def Squad (1998)

Video games

*''

Def Jam Fight For NY ''Def Jam: Fight for NY'' is a 3D fighting video game developed by AKI Corporation and EA Canada and published by EA Games. It was released for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox on September 21, 2004. The game is the second main insta ...

'' (2004) as Himself *'' Def Jam Fight for NY: The Takeover'' (2006) as Himself

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sermon, Erick 1968 births Living people African-American male rappers 20th-century American male rappers Def Jam Recordings artists American hip-hop record producers Motown artists DreamWorks Records artists Rappers from New York City People from Bay Shore, New York People from Brentwood, New York African-American record producers East Coast hip-hop musicians 20th-century American rappers 21st-century American rappers EPMD members Record producers from New York (state) 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians 20th-century African-American musicians 21st-century African-American musicians