As the "E" in EPMD, Sermon's hit streak began with Strictly Business, the classic album featuring the jeep-crushing funk of "You Gots To Chill" and "It's My Thing." Strictly Business sold 300,000 units the day of its release, and was quickly certified RIAA gold. Each EPMD album since -- Unfinished Business (with "So What Ya Sayin"), Business As Usual ("Gold Digger"), and the group's final Def Jam/RAL/Columbia outing, 1992's Business Never Personal ("Crossover") -- outsold and outcharted its predecessor, setting the course for the laid-back funk style that now runs rampant in hip-hop.
When EPMD broke up late in 1992, Sermon didn't look back. "I was writing non-stop. it must have been from God or something. I won't take nothing from EPMD, but everything that's good must end."
And from that end comes more good.
No Pressure (Def Jam/RAL/Chaos), Erick Sermon's self-produced solo debut, is 12 tracks of vintage, funk-flavored hip-hop, no frills and no filler. "You get into the song and you get the f*ck out," he explains. "The less songs, and the shorter they are, the better. You want people to fiend, to rewind, not to fast-forward." The CD features a bonus track, the wise-cracking "Female Species."
No Pressure features a series of between-song skits in which cynical journalists -- male and female -- frantically dog sermon, questioning whether he can still bring the funk as a solo artist. In typical style, he lets his music do the talking
Sermon recently hit back in late 2001 with his new album 'Music' with songs that sample marvin gaye and also has artists like redman keith murray LL Cool J and others.