Although his latest J Records album, “React” is fresh on the racks, Erick Sermon is already working on other projects. While he doesn’t rule out a future album by EPMD (the rap duo he and Parrish Smith created in 1987), Sermon says it won’t be in the near future. “Right now, we’re concentrating on Redman’s and Keith Murray’s projects,” Sermon tells Billboard. “Then we’ll have a Def Squad album after that. If EPMD is going to happen next year, it will be late 2003.”
EPMD has been inactive since its 1999 Def Jam album “Out of Business,” which debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums tally. Sermon’s new album is off to a good start, having bowed last month at No. 13 on that survey. The title cut, which features Redman, is No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Tracks chart — not bad for a tune that was never meant to see the light of day.
“The beat was made two years ago for Redman, and I was in the studio rocking it,” Sermon says of the Just Blaze-produced single. “I was playing an old DAT when I came across it. I just started wilding on it, because I was never really trying to make it a real record.”
