Album Review: We Mean Business by EPMD

Nine years after they went Out of Business, veteran hip-hop duo EPMD (Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith) return with a new album, and you'd think it was only nine months. Save the appearance of young buck Skyzoo plus some street slang that's very 2008, We Mean Business is right in line with the cold, hard, and funky sound of EPMD in the '90s. Considering the time off, the loyal fan base, and the simple addictiveness of the crew's music, this is hardly a bad thing and -- just like the fans like it -- almost all the productions come from in-house, with Sermon handling twice the amount of tracks headed by Smith.

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EPMD :: We Mean BusinessHit Squad/EP Records/Fontana DistributionAuthor: Steve 'Flash' JuonAfter 20 years of listening to EPMD albums I never thought it would come to the point where I couldn't find one of their releases in stores. Even back in the day when stores like Target really didn't carry hip-hop, the promotional muscle of Def Jam insured that "Business as Usual" made its way to the retail shelf of my local store. I've waxed poetic on the greatness of that album at length already so I won't do so here again, but I will say I was firmly convinced EPMD would keep putting out one great "Business" album a year for the rest of my life.

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