''Strictly Business'' is the debut album by

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

duo

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 ...

. It was released on June 7, 1988, by

Fresh Fresh may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films and television * ''Fresh'' (1994 film), a crime film * ''Fresh'' (2009 film), a documentary film on sustainable agriculture * ''Fresh'' (2022 film), a thriller film *''Fresh with the Aust ...

Sleeping Bag Records Sleeping Bag Records was a New York City-based independent record label founded by musician Arthur Russell (musician), Arthur Russell and entrepreneur Will Socolov. It was active between 1981 and 1992, and specialized in dance music and hip hop. ...

around the world and BCM Records in Germany. It peaked at No. 80 on the ''Billboard'' 200 soon after release, yet it earned an

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

gold album Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

certification within four months of its release. In addition, it has received much positive critical attention since its release. In 2012, the album was ranked number 453 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album is known for its lighthearted party raps and funky sample-reliant production. The album has no guest emcees or producers except DJ K La Boss. The album is broken down track-by-track by the group in Brian Coleman's book ''

Check the Technique ''Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies'' is a book by music journalist Brian Coleman that covers the making of 36 classic hip hop albums, based on interviews with the artists who created them, also providing a track-by-track brea ...

''.

Reception

Initial

''Strictly Business'' peaked at No. 80 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and No. 1 on the

Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

chart. Of its four singles, three landed on the UK Singles Chart and two reached the US

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

chart. Although none of the singles reached the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, the album was able to go

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

within four months of its release. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' opined that the album "does have an intriguing edge to it, but its beats are rigid and its raps—especially 'Jane', EPMD's entry in the genre's tiresome 'Boy, am I a stud!' sweepstakes—are often predictable." The ''

Orange County Register ''The Orange County Register'' is a paid daily List of newspapers in California, newspaper published in California. The ''Register'', published in Orange County, California, is owned by the private equity firm Alden Global Capital via its Digit ...

'' called it "a masterful, minimalist mix of rhythms". ''Strictly Business'' was featured on various 1988 best-of lists. '' The Face'' ranked it as the third best album of the year, and ranked its title track as the 25th best single of the year. ''

Sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

'' judged it to be the 50th best album of the year, while '' Spex'' ranked it as the 8th best.

Retrospect

Years after its release, ''Strictly Business'' has continued to attract critical success.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

called the album "simply amazing". ''

The Source The Source may refer to: Film and television * ''The Source'' (1918 film), 1918 American drama directed by George Melford * ''The Source'' (1999 film), a 1999 documentary film about the Beat generation * ''The Source'' (2002 film), a 2002 scienc ...

'' assigned the album a five-mic rating, making it one of 43 albums to ever receive this rating. In 1994, ''

Pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

'' selected it a complement to Eric B. & Rakim's '' Paid in Full'' on its list of The World's 100 Best Albums + 300 Complements. In 1998, ''The Source'' placed ''Strictly Business'' on its 100 Best Rap Albums list and included two of its singles on its 100 Best Rap Singles list. In 1999, it was judged to be the 4th-best hip hop album of 1988 by '' ego trip''. In 2001, ''Dance de Lux'' ranked ''Strictly Business'' as the 11th-best hip hop record of all time. In 2003, the album was placed on ''

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer (from Latin ''mixus, the PPP of miscere eng. to Mix)'' or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary ...

's'' 500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die list and ranked number 459 on ''

'' magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and was moved up to 453 in a 2012 revised list. Additionally, the ''

Rolling Stone Album Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

'', which initially rated the album as three and a half stars out of five, awarded the album with a five-star rating in 2004. Retrospective reviews by ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' (1995), ''

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music'', which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms.''The Times'', ''The Kno ...

'' (2002), and

Sputnikmusic Sputnikmusic (abbreviated as Sputnik) is a music website that publishes music reviews and news entries. The site hosts both professional and amateur content, covering metal, punk, indie, rock, hip-hop, pop and other styles. Its reviews are us ...

(2006) have respectively allotted the album a nine-out-of-10 rating, a four-star rating, and a seven-out-of-10 rating. ''Strictly Business'' is now widely considered to be a classic release and a seminal hip hop album.

Legacy

The

Mario Winans Mario Mendell Winans ( Brown; born August 29, 1974) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer from South Carolina. An extended member of the Winans musical family, he is best known for his 2004 single " I Don't Wanna Know" (f ...

Enya Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (born 17 May 1961; anglicised as Enya Patricia Brennan) known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish singer and composer. With an estimated equivalent of over 80 million albums sold worldwide, Enya is the best-selli ...

, and P. Diddy song "

I Don't Wanna Know "I Don't Wanna Know" is a song by American singer Mario Winans, featuring American rapper Sean Combs, P. Diddy and Irish singer Enya. The song is based on a sample of the Fugees' song "Ready or Not (Fugees song), Ready or Not", which in turn sam ...

" (2004) and its

Metro Boomin Leland Tyler Wayne (born September 16, 1993), known professionally as Metro Boomin, is an American record producer and music executive. Widely acclaimed for his dark and cinematic production style, he is regarded as one of the most influential p ...

The Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding Pop music, pop, electronic music, electronic and hip-hop stylings ...

, and

21 Savage Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph (born October 22, 1992), known professionally as 21 Savage, is an American-British rapper. Born in London and raised in Atlanta, he began his recording career in 2013 and released three independent mixtapes to regiona ...

remake " Creepin'" (2022) both heavily incorporate the drum outro of the album track "You're a Customer" from ''Strictly Business''. Another Diddy/Winans collaboration, " Through the Pain (She Told Me)" (2007), while not sampling it directly, features a similar drum beat to the "You're a Customer" outro.

Track listing

Personnel

Erick Sermon Erick Sermon (born November 25, 1968) is an American rapper and producer. He is best known as one-third—alongside PMD & DJ Scratch—of 1980s/1990s hip hop group EPMD and for his production work. Early life Erick Sermon was born on November ...

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, producer, writer * Parish Smith – vocals, producer, writer *DJ K La Boss – DJ (

scratching Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and Turntablism, turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a phonograph, turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to ...

) *Jim Foley –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

*Charlie Marotta – engineer *John Poppo – engineer *Al Watts – engineer/mixing *Gordon Davies – assistant engineer *Rich Rahner – assistant engineer *Herb Powers Jr. –

mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

Janette Beckman Janette Beckman is a British documentary photographer who has worked in London, New York and Los Angeles.

– photographer *Eric Haze – artist (EPMD logo art) *Susan Huyser – designer (album artwork)

Release history

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles

Certifications

References

External links

Release history: EPMD
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Literary Kicks: Album Analysis
– by Levi Asher