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Strictly Business
Studio album by EPMD
Released	June 7, 1988
Studio	North Shore Soundworks, Island Media Studios (West Babylon, New York)
Genre	Hip hop
Length	45:22
Label	Fresh Sleeping Bag
Producer	EPMD
EPMD chronology
Strictly Business (1988) Unfinished Business (1989)
Singles from Strictly Business
"It's My Thing" Released: 1987 "I'm Housin" Released: 1988 "You Gots to Chill" Released: April 30, 1988 "Strictly Business" Released: September 10, 1988

Strictly Business is the debut album by hip-hop duo EPMD. It was released on June 7, 1988, by Fresh/Sleeping Bag Records around the world and BCM Records in Germany. It peaked at No. 80 on the Billboard 200 soon after release, yet it earned an RIAA gold album certification within four months of its release. In addition, it has received much positive critical attention since its release. In 2012, the album was ranked number 453 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The album is known for its lighthearted party raps and funky sample-reliant production. The album has no guest emcees or producers except DJ K La Boss. The album is broken down track-by-track by the group in Brian Coleman's book Check the Technique.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Los Angeles Times
Mojo
NME	9/10
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Record Mirror	4/5
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
The Source
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10
The Village Voice	A−

Initial

Strictly Business peaked at No. 80 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart. Of its four singles, three landed on the UK Singles Chart and two reached the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Although none of the singles reached the Billboard Hot 100, the album was able to go gold within four months of its release. The Washington Post opined that the album "does have an intriguing edge to it, but its beats are rigid and its raps—especially 'Jane', EPMD's entry in the genre's tiresome 'Boy, am I a stud!' sweepstakes—are often predictable." The Orange County Register called it "a masterful, minimalist mix of rhythms". Strictly Business was featured on various 1988 best-of lists. The Face ranked it as the third best album of the year, and ranked its title track as the 25th best single of the year. Sounds judged it to be the 50th best album of the year, while Spex ranked it as the 8th best.

Retrospect

Years after its release, Strictly Business has continued to attract critical success. AllMusic called the album "simply amazing". The Source assigned the album a five-mic rating, making it one of 43 albums to ever receive this rating. In 1994, Pop selected it a complement to Eric B. & Rakim's Paid in Full on its list of The World's 100 Best Albums + 300 Complements. In 1998, The Source placed Strictly Business on its 100 Best Rap Albums list and included two of its singles on its 100 Best Rap Singles list. In 1999, it was judged to be the 4th-best hip hop album of 1988 by ego trip. In 2001, Dance de Lux ranked Strictly Business as the 11th-best hip hop record of all time. In 2003, the album was placed on Blender's 500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die list and ranked number 459 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and was moved up to 453 in a 2012 revised list. Additionally, the Rolling Stone Album Guide, which initially rated the album as three and a half stars out of five, awarded the album with a five-star rating in 2004. Retrospective reviews by Spin (1995), The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2002), and Sputnikmusic (2006) have respectively allotted the album a nine-out-of-10 rating, a four-star rating, and a seven-out-of-10 rating. Strictly Business is now widely considered to be a classic release and a seminal hip hop album.

Legacy

The Mario Winans, Enya, and P. Diddy song "I Don't Wanna Know" (2004) and its Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, and 21 Savage remake "Creepin'" (2022) both heavily incorporate the drum outro of the album track "You're a Customer" from Strictly Business. Another Diddy/Winans collaboration, "Through the Pain (She Told Me)" (2007), while not sampling it directly, features a similar drum beat to the "You're a Customer" outro.

Track listing

Personnel

• Erick Sermon – vocals, producer, writer
• Parish Smith – vocals, producer, writer
• DJ K La Boss – DJ (scratching)
• Jim Foley – engineer
• Charlie Marotta – engineer
• John Poppo – engineer
• Al Watts – engineer/mixing
• Gordon Davies – assistant engineer
• Rich Rahner – assistant engineer
• Herb Powers Jr. – mastering engineer
• Janette Beckman – photographer
• Eric Haze – artist (EPMD logo art)
• Susan Huyser – designer (album artwork)

Release history

Charts

Singles

Certifications

References

1. ^ "EPMD > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums". Allmusic. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
2. ^ "RIAA – Gold & Platinum – Searchable Database". RIAA. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
3. ^ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time". Rolling Stone. 2012. Retrieved September 2, 2019.
4. Coleman, Brian. Check The Technique: Liner Notes For Hip-Hop Junkies. New York: Villard/Random House, 2007.
5. ^ Bush, John. "Strictly Business – EPMD". AllMusic. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
6. Gold, Jonathan (September 11, 1988). "The World of Hard Rap". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
7. Batey, Angus (May 2010). "EPMD: Strictly Business". Mojo. No. 198. London. p. 115.
8. Witter, Simon (August 27, 1988). "Top Billin'". NME. London. p. 34.
9. Tucker, Ken (July 21, 1988). "EPMD: Strictly Business (Fresh)". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
10. Halasa, Malu (September 17, 1988). "EPMD: Strictly Business". Record Mirror. London. p. 32.
11. ^ Ryan, Chris; Brackett, Nathan (2004). "EPMD". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 281. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
12. "Got Five On It". The Source. No. 150. New York. March 2002. pp. 174–179.
13. Coker, Cheo (1995). "EPMD". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 130–131. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
14. Christgau, Robert (August 30, 1988). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
15. Jenkins, Mark (July 22, 1988). "House of Hip-Hop: Boys Gotta Bad Rap". The Washington Post. p. N19.
16. Darling, Cary (August 26, 1988). "Critic's Choice: Pop". Orange County Register. p. P35.
17. "The Face Lists". RockListMusic.co.uk. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
18. "Sounds Lists". RockListMusic.co.uk. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
19. "SPEX – Popular Music Best-Of-List – 1988". Home.Rhein-Zeitung.de. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
20. "The Source's 5 Mic Albums". ListofBests.com. Archived from the original on January 11, 2009. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
21. "The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums + 100 Best Rap Singles". Rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
22. Sacha Jenkins, Elliot Wilson; et al. (1999). Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists. St. Martin's Griffin/Macmillan USA. ISBN 0-312-24298-0.
23. Larkin, Colin, ed. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus. p. 499. OL 11913831M.
24. de Sylvia, Dave. "EPMD – Strictly Business Review". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
25. Bush, John. "EPMD > Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
26. "EPMD, TLP". Billboard. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
27. "EPMD, BLP". Billboard. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
28. "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 1988". Billboard. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
29. "EPMD > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
30. "American album certifications – EPMD – Strictly Business". Recording Industry Association of America.

External links

• Release history: EPMD at Discogs
• Literary Kicks: Album Analysis – by Levi Asher

See also

• List of number-one R&B albums of 1988 (U.S.)

• 1988 debut albums
• EPMD albums
• Fresh Records (US) albums
• Priority Records albums
• Albums produced by Erick Sermon
• Albums produced by Parrish Smith