EPMD

EPMD is an American hip hop duo from Brentwood, New York. The duo's name is an initialism for "Erick and Parrish Making Dollars", referring to its members: emcees Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith.

Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith built one of East Coast hip-hop's most durable blueprints when they formed EPMD in 1987, turning their initials into a literal business model with *Strictly Business*. The Brentwood duo didn't just make albums—they established the Hit Squad as a creative collective that nurtured talent across multiple generations, with Nas emerging from that same New York lineage that EPMD helped shape. Their production sensibility, rooted in funk samples and crisp boom-bap, influenced the very sound that would define mid-90s East Coast rap, even as the group's own output proved inconsistent post-reunion. What set them apart wasn't just longevity but their refusal to chase trends; EPMD stayed committed to their formula when others chased novelty, cementing their reputation as architects rather than passengers in hip-hop's evolution.