{"id":6633,"date":"2025-11-12T16:21:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T16:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/back-to-business\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T16:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T16:21:17","slug":"back-to-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/back-to-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-1507116078.jpg\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" alt=\"Erick Sermon performs at the 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture\u2122 at Caesars Superdome on June 30, 2023, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Credit: Josh Brasted\/WireImage)\"><figcaption>Erick Sermon performs at the 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture\u2122 at Caesars Superdome on June 30, 2023, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Credit: Josh Brasted\/WireImage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kanye West called Erick Sermon sometime in May 2023 and wanted the EPMD co-founder to hop a flight to Los Angeles to work on a new project.<\/p>\n<p>Sermon\u2019s ailing mother, Belinda, was in hospice care at the time and knew about the trip but didn\u2019t want to hamper her son\u2019s opportunity. Sermon protested but was convinced by his sister Kim to go anyway.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/11\/robyn-new-single\/\">Robyn Roars Back With \u2018Dopamine\u2019<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/11\/oh-what-fun-soundtrack\/\">Gwen Stefani, Jeff Tweedy Lead Amazon\u2019s \u2018Fun\u2019 Soundtrack<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/11\/fresh-spin-exploring-ais-new-frontier\/\">Fresh SPIN: Exploring AI\u2019s New Frontier<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cAs soon as I landed, my best friend Bernard Alexander passed me the phone,\u201d he remembers. \u201cIt was my sister who told me my mom had transitioned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>West, who lost his own mother in 2007, told Sermon he experienced a similar situation, and the studio proved to be their safe haven.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went to the lab and started working with him the next day,\u201d he says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy though. Kanye helped me a lot because he had went through it. He was like, \u2018Yo Erick, listen, I went through it. Come to the studio tomorrow.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sermon tried to outrun his grief, relocating to Miami for a spell, but learned he wasn\u2019t a big fan of the Sunshine State.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never really mourned,\u201d he says. \u201cI asked people about that part. I never got to that part. I had escaped to Miami. I had to get away.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Music continued to be his catharsis. After seven albums with EPMD, including 1988\u2019s gold-certified <em>Strictly Business<\/em>, eight solo albums, and a production discography that includes Redman, Run-DMC, En Vogue, Jodeci, Conway the Machine, Keith Murray, and D\u2019Angelo, to name a few, Sermon dove into recording and will return with <em>Dynamic Duos Vol. 1 <\/em>on November 21.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"857\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2222729816.jpg\" alt=\"Redman, Erick Sermon, and K-Solo attend the 2025 Rock The Bells Festival on June 28, 2025, in Newark, New Jersey. (Credit: Johnny Nunez\/WireImage)\" class=\"wp-image-648180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2222729816.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2222729816-340x243.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2222729816-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2222729816-498x356.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Redman, Erick Sermon, and K-Solo attend the 2025 Rock The Bells Festival on June 28, 2025, in Newark, New Jersey. (Credit: Johnny Nunez\/WireImage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The project boasts a potent roster of legendary duos that bridge eras of hip-hop and highlight Sermon\u2019s curatorial vision\u2014from Mobb Deep, Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, and Public Enemy to Cypress Hill, M.O.P., Conway the Machine, and The Game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Talking about the album, there\u2019s a sense Sermon is a little frustrated that Mass Appeal\u2019s <em>Legend Has It <\/em>series beat him to the punch with albums by Big L, Mobb Deep, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon, but he\u2019s also relieved there\u2019s still ample space and demand for pioneering hip-hop artists that made their mark in the \u201980s and \u201990s.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis album has been in the making for years\u2014since COVID,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t know, Nas was going to do the Mass Appeal thing. I was doing this in the beginning because I felt like nobody wanted to make records. They felt like they was getting shunned by people saying they were too old and can\u2019t make records. I made <em>Dynamic Duos<\/em> for that reason.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ageism has been a recurring topic in hip-hop circles, with sexagenarians like Ice-T and Public Enemy\u2019s Chuck D and Flavor Flav scoffing at the notion the genre is solely a young man\u2019s game. But Sermon credits Clipse co-founders Pusha T and Malice for closing the generational gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClipse opened up all of this that we\u2019re seeing right now,\u201d he says. \u201cBefore the Clipse, did you see eyes like we see right now? Since Clipse came back, they got new and old people. It opened up hip-hop because one is 53 and one is 48 years old. It was spectacular.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey was back with Pharrell again, and look at the rollout and the response they got. Then it was like, \u2018Oh, Raekwon is coming. Ghostface is coming. Slick Rick is coming. Big L is coming. Mobb Deep is coming. Clipse opened up everything that we are seeing now as far as getting looks on hip-hop at this magnitude.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"808\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-1329772185.jpg\" alt=\"Erick Sermon in 1993. (Credit: Al Pereira\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)\" class=\"wp-image-648182\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-1329772185.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-1329772185-340x229.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-1329772185-768x517.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-1329772185-498x335.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Erick Sermon in 1993. (Credit: Al Pereira\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Much like Pusha T and Malice reunited as Clipse for <em>Let God Sort Em Out,<\/em> Sermon reconnected with Parrish Smith and DJ Scratch to record a long-overdue reunion record with his EPMD brethren. In fact, the song was intended for the forthcoming project, but they couldn\u2019t get a particular sample cleared in time, though he was able to get permission from Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur\u2019s estates for a single featuring both hip-hop giants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s how <em>Volume 2 <\/em>is gonna jump off,\u201d he reveals. \u201cI was able to get Biggie cleared. That was Puffy [Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs]. He cleared it in like two weeks. But Tupac\u2019s sister is going through it with another label, so she couldn\u2019t clear it at that specific time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sermon also tapped back into his producer\u2019s bag for the album, crafting nine out of the 10 tracks. But he admits he\u2019s \u201cnever been much of a diggin\u2019 in the crates\u201d type of producer\u2014even with EPMD.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMe and P [Parrish] used what was in front of us,\u201d he says. \u201cSome records came from when we first signed with Sleeping Bag Records. We found them in the office. Some came from mom and dad. My dad had mad records. Now what I do is go on YouTube, because you don\u2019t have to go to the record store.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to AI, however, that\u2019s where he draws the line\u2014at least for now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want to use something that\u2019s going to make me not be me,\u201d he explains. \u201cI don\u2019t want to do that. I can\u2019t put myself in that space at this moment to take away my creation, my hands, and my mind. That\u2019s not me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sermon recruited Method Man and Redman for the album\u2019s lead single, \u201cLook At \u2019Em,\u201d which arrived in October. He returned with \u201cLike That\u201d featuring Snoop Dogg and a posthumous appearance from Nate Dogg earlier this month. But fans will have to wait until the second volume to hear the EPMD track\u2014and making it happen was no easy feat. Following two breakups (\u201993 and \u201999) and years of public discourse, the trio had to mend some fences to get to a place where they could record together again.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2170828130.jpg\" alt=\"Parish Smith and Erick Sermon in 2024. (Credit: Johnny Nunez\/WireImage)\" class=\"wp-image-648181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2170828130.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2170828130-340x227.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2170828130-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2170828130-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2170828130-498x332.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Parish Smith and Erick Sermon in 2024. (Credit: Johnny Nunez\/WireImage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe did a show about four months ago in Milwaukee that we brought DJ Scratch out for after 11 years,\u201d he says. \u201cIt just so happened that we only did four songs because a storm came in. At the end of the day, EPMD got things to work out. We\u2019ve been in the game so long. I love it, but it\u2019s not worth the headache sometimes as far as my mind state in that type of atmosphere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Whatever EPMD decides to do in the future isn\u2019t really his concern at the present moment. Sermon is laser focused on <em>Dynamic Duos Vol. 1 <\/em>and the two additional volumes to follow as well as smashing the notion that hip-hop artists over 40 are \u201ctoo old\u201d to keep making music.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember Queen Latifah insisting that \u2018old school\u2019 be taken out from the start of her name at an awards show,\u201d he says. \u201cChuck D feels the same. Nas is the only one I know who really embraces \u2018old school\u2019\u2014he doesn\u2019t mind it. But I\u2019m glad that the terms \u2018legend\u2019 and \u2018iconic\u2019 came into use. Now, we can put those names on a list and celebrate our legends, not just call them \u2018old school.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur genre isn\u2019t like others; look at Barbra Streisand, dropping seven different colored vinyls. It\u2019s only hip-hop that gets labeled as \u2018old school.\u2019 Why do we have to stop when others don\u2019t? It doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erick Sermon performs at the 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture\u2122 at Caesars Superdome on June 30, 2023, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Credit: Josh Brasted\/WireImage) Kanye West called Erick Sermon sometime&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4419,31,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-erick-sermon","category-features","category-pushly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}