Erick Sermon : Rock Da House (from Stay Real 12")

Erick Sermon : Rock Da House (Def Jam, 1993)

"Stay Real" was the second solo single Erick Sermon put out after EPMD's breakup, and that's when people start to realize how much imput the Green Eyed Bandit had on their final album. When they were doing music together Erick and Parrish simply gave credit to EPMD, so even though you could guess that their engineers DJ Doc and Charlie Marotta were involved in the creative process, people didn't really know who did what. Judging from their post-EPMD career you would bet that Erick was doing most of the production, but actually Parrish was the one bringing most of the samples, at least on the first album (by the way, go buy and read "Rakim Told Me").

I always thought that there was a major change in their sound on "Business Never Personnal". Erick Sermon got more and more into producing by 1992, he produced most of Redman's first album which sound funkier than K Solo's "Tell The World My Name" (an album almost entirely credited to Parrish). On "Rock Da House" you had the same loud crisp drums, almost saturated that EPMD had on "Scratch Bring It Back", "Cumin At Cha" or "Boon Dox". The only problem was that Erick wasn't really able to write three decent verses, the good thing is that "Rock Da House" only had two !

Erick Sermon : Rock Da House (Def Jam, 1993)

"Stay Real" est le second maxi de Erick Sermon en solo après "Hittin Switches", et c'est à partir de ce moment que les gens ont commencé à se rendre compte combien le role du Green Eyed Bandit était crucial sur leur ultime album. Tant qu'ils faisaient de la musique ensemble Erick et Parrish créditaient simplement EPMD, et bien qu'on se doute un peu que leurs ingénieurs Ivan "Doc" Rodriguez et Charlie Marotta devaient être très impliqués, on ne savait pas réellement qui faisait quoi. En écoutant leurs oeuvres post-EPMD respectives on s'imagine que Erick Sermon devait faire l'essentiel de la production, pourtant dans les faits c'est Parrish qui amenait la plupart des samples, au moins sur le premier album (pour en savoir plus allez acheter le livre de Brian Coleman "Rakim Told Me").

J'ai toujours trouvé qu'il y avait une grosse difference entre le son de "Business Never Personnal" et les trois premiers albums d'EPMD. En 1992 Erick Sermon s'était plongé de plus en plus dans la production, réalisant l'essentiel du premier album de Redman, un album carrément plus funky que celui de K Solo (celui là entièrement crédité à Parrish). Sur Rock Da House on retrouve le même type de batterie lourde à la limite de la saturation qu'on avait entendu sur certain titres du dernier EPMD comme "Scratch Bring It Back", "Cumin At Cha" ou "Boon Dox". La grosse différence entre EPMD et Erick Sermon tout seul est qu'Erick a du mal à écrire troiv couplets décents. Ca tombe bien il n'y en a que deux sur Rock Da House !