The Greatest Music
Strictly Business
by EPMD
The 398th greatest album of all time
Strictly Business (1988) is the debut album by EPMD, the Long Island duo of Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith. Musically it pairs laid-back, funk-heavy production built from looped grooves and sparse drum patterns with the duo's relaxed, braggadocious vocal interplay and witty wordplay. The album emphasizes groove and chemistry over dense lyricism and helped popularize a stripped-down, sample-driven East Coast hip hop sound in the late 1980s, notable for its use of 1970s funk and soul textures.
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