"Strictly Business" came out in 1988 as the debut album from the East Coast Hip Hop duo, EPMD. Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith (Erick and Parrish Making Dollars), and saw it dropped around the time that Eric B. & Rakim were blowing up, and in a similar fashion this pair were built on sample-heavy material, and used lots of Funk and Rock in their work.
1. "Strictly Business"
For an opener, it is a successful one as they immediately show what they are about with hardcore rhymes on top of some fresh beats from them. They come with straight quality in their lyrics as they go on some late Funk. Although it is what the track is largely built on, I wasn't keen on the "I Shot The Sheriff" sample here, as it seemed a little out of place.
**Four Stars**
2. "I'm Housin'"
After a track which focused on their beats, this one gives them a chance to really go all-out whsilt displaying their lyrical talent. it gets them evidently excited by it all as they come up with lines out of nowhere, showing how
original their stuff was at the time. hey are relentless with their flow, and it becomes especially clear in the breaks where you attention is put on the words.
**Four Stars**
3. "Let The Funk Flow"
Many will recognise it as it was sampled in Nas' "Nastradamus", and the funky beat in this is just too much. I can't imagine someone who wouldn't fall for it, and it absolutely kills off the thing. It wouldn't matter what was rapped to it, as it in itself is just amazing. However they do make an effort, and give fresh rhymes to match the quality of the production. I have to admit that Nas was better at making it work with the content of the lyrics though, as this one suffered will over-use of samples as they stick in a little Beastie Boys, without it really suiting things.
**Five Stars**
4. "You Gots to Chill"
This must have been the inspiration for people such as Warren G and Dr. Dre as G-Funk pioneers, as this one does just what they did throughout the early 90s by doing some P-Funk-based work which uses work from Zapp & Roger and Kool & The Gang. You can't help but enjoy this one as they take it down and slow it for the listeners.
**Five Stars**
5. "It's My Thing"
In recent times, the West Coast vet, Daz Dillinger remade this one on the same beat, and as long as you use that same riff from Tyrone Thomas and The Whole Darn Family, you are bound to come out with fantastic results, and you get just this from this funk-based track. Its a great example of the skills of the artists for both picking great beats, and mixing them together.
**Five Stars**
6. "You're a Customer"
You have theme sampling Kool & The Gang's "Jungle Boogie", and the come up with new take on it as they use minimal elements of it and input their own original beats on it, and these them self have been used by others in Hip Hop. It is a hard, street jam from them, and takes the energy levels down to give them a chance to show what they can do without up-tempo backing.
**Five Stars**
7. "The Steve Martin"
This one takes off the Pee-We dance, and gets them doing their own as hey do one dedicated to Steve martin, and gets them doing a dance for him. It is an exciting one, and has them do more than just describe the movements, but also give the reactions to the dance in public.
**Four Stars**
8. "Get Off The Bandwagon"
They come up with an interesting original composition for this one, it is a strange one, but you quickly get into it as they give some odd synth to it, and provide exactly what is required to match the fly raps which they come up with. The words come out so effortlessly, and the content of them reflects the lack of structure to them.
**Four Stars**
9. "D.J. K La Boss"
This is an chance for their DJ, who name is stated in the title, it just get busy and do a big mix, with only three tunes, and come out with great results as you get a hard breakbeat used and then scratched on top. There are no lyrics to this, but this is needed for the things.
**Four Stars**
10. "Jane"
To end things off, you have them doing a rap which gets them focussing in an telling the story for the listeners. They do very well whilst in this style and taking from Slick Rick The Ruler to make each line fit in with the set amount of syllables for each line. With a rigid structure, they come up with great results.
**Four Stars**
Although I liked this album very much, I couldn't help but feel a little annoyed by the fact that they weren't rapping as if they were truly feeling the samples, and the Funk which they use is of the highest quality as it forces you to groove along to it. I just didn't think this carrier through into their words, despite the fact they must clearly enjoy it greatly (otherwise they wouldn't have been able to come up with such great compositions.
This is a classic, and deserves to be viewed in such a way as there is nothing but quality from start to finish and there isn't a single weak point in the album. However, a couple of them weren't quite livley enough to be given the top ratings.
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