EPMD

Given that Eric Sermon and Parrish Smith obviously set out to release the worst hip hop album conceivable they ended up making something of a hash of it. The album contains some blatantly lazy samples, primarily "I Shot the Sheriff" on the title track and "Jungle Boogie" on "It's My Thing", and both MCs rap in an amateurish deadpan monologue, with barely any variation in pitch or emotion, some of the strangest hip hop lyrics I have ever come across. Whilst it is undeniably amusing to hear them brag about 'spraying niggers' and the like in a tone usually reserved for reading off a shopping list, or indulge in banalities concerning their favourite beer (Budweiser, not Miller), the album is at its best when their macho mask slips completely and they are revealed for the true nerds they really are - such as when they compare themselves to the Hardy Boys on "Get Off the Bandwagon" or their inexplicably proud admission that they don't do coke because their parents wouldn't approve. Of course, the fact that EPMD are New York boys through and through therefore dispels any doubts that this is actually rubbish rather than ultra-cool as they consciously set themselves at the laidback extreme from the agitated all-action assaults of LA rappers. Obviously concentrating on deadpan duologues over a basic backing track over the course of a whole album can get a little monotonous and it is to the credit of E and P that their 'creative' (or, at least, original) approach to lyrics means things rarely drag. Only "Get Off the Bandwagon", with its sterile synth beats, comes close to varying the pace and tone but they keep things brief for it not to be a huge problem. That said, the grade has been inflated somewhat by the fact this album contains what I currently regard as the greatest rap song ever (in my virginal state as a hip hop fan) - "I'm Housin'". I will be honest and admit I mainly got this album because I was impressed by Rage Against the Machine's cover of it on Renegades (and thanks to James Parrish's delightfully disagreeable email) but it turned out that Rage were disguising a song of far, far greater quality. Of course, their version is noticeably different in delivery but, in retrospect, de la Rocha's decision to add due gravitas to the lyrics in his vocals detracts from EPMD's wonderfully detached style. The relentlessly funky sample (easily the most successful on the album) provides ample room for Sermon and Smith to deliver a monstrously egotistical and aggressive narrative whilst sounding like they are trying not to be distracted from watching the TV. They trade off on each other throughout the album but never more successfully than on that number ('were you packing?'/'you know I'm strapped') and the song ends up sounding like the coolest four minutes in hip hop history. Unfortunately, no other song comes close to matching that quality but the opening title track gets furthest with its verbose stream of dialogue, whilst the laidback "Let the Funk Flow" probably benefits merely from being near the start and therefore before the album starts blending into one. Of course, it is a wonder the album succeeds at all and coming from any other city perhaps it would not have done but, instead, it is blessed by New York's inherently post-modernist cool. It also benefits somewhat from featuring one of the greatest and coolest songs the genre ever produced. Not bad for hip hop's self-appointed version of the Hardy Boys.

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Email me at: jackfeeny@yahoo.co.uk