Today in Hip-Hop — October 30: Erick Sermon’s Music Turns 25, and Marvin Gaye Got the Feature

October 30, 2001. Erick Sermon releases Music, his fourth solo album, and it turns 25 today. The jewel is in the title track’s credits. Marvin Gaye is listed as co-writer and lead vocalist, 17 years after he died. Sermon was digging through the Midnight Love and the Sexual Healing Sessions reissue and found an a cappella demo of “Turn On Some Music,” which started life as “I’ve Got My Music.” He built a beat under it. The Green-Eyed Bandit didn’t flip a sample, he produced a duet with a ghost.

The Duet That Shouldn’t Have Worked

“Music” came out as a single on June 12, 2001, and it led the soundtrack to the Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito comedy What’s the Worst That Could Happen? The record went to No. 2 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop chart, No. 4 on the rap chart and No. 22 on the Hot 100. It’s still Sermon’s biggest solo hit, and it gave Gaye one last posthumous Top 40 hit. The video cut between scenes from the movie and old footage of Marvin performing, so it played like the two of them had been in the booth together.

The album around it was nearly all Sermon. He made it at his L.I.T.E. Studios on Long Island and produced every track except “It’s Nuttin’,” which Rockwilder handled. The Def Squad family shows up: Redman and Keith Murray are on “Now Whut’s Up,” and LL Cool J and Scarface share “Do-Re-Mi.” Then there’s the deep cut for real heads. “Ain’t No Future…2001” is Sermon covering “Ain’t No Future in Yo’ Frontin’,” the 1991 Flint, Michigan record by MC Breed & DFC. A Long Island legend tipping his cap to the Midwest. That’s real knowledge of the culture.

Music peaked at No. 33 on the Billboard 200, his second-best solo showing. It came out on J Records, Clive Davis’s new label at the time, making it Sermon’s first album there. That’s 13 years after “You Gots to Chill.” The man who taught a generation to loop a Zapp break had moved on to collaborating with Marvin Gaye’s vocal tapes.

Where the E in EPMD Started

Before the Def Squad and before the Marvin duet, there was Brentwood, Long Island, Parrish Smith, and a 1988 debut that made slow, heavy funk the sound of the East. We made an EPMD Strictly Business tee for the heads who know the Green-Eyed Bandit’s résumé starts there. For the full story, read our breakdowns of Strictly Business and the samples behind “You Gots to Chill”.

Also Today in Hip-Hop

• 2002: We lost Jam Master Jay. Jason Mizell was shot and killed in his recording studio on Merrick Boulevard in Queens. He was the turntables behind Run-DMC, the Hollis DJ who, in The Guardian’s words, “created almost every sound that Run and DMC would rap over.” His JMJ Records signed Onyx and gave an unknown 50 Cent an early shot. He went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Run-DMC in 2009. Honor the legend with the Jam Master Jay tee. Rest easy, Jay.
• 2012: Sean Price’s Mic Tyson (14 years). P! came out swinging on Duck Down, over beats from The Alchemist, 9th Wonder, Evidence and Khrysis. It debuted at No. 59 with about 7,000 copies sold, and it ended up as the last album released while he was alive. Rep the Brownsville Ruckus with the Mic Tyson tee.
• 2001: CunninLynguists’ Will Rap for Food (25 years). This was the debut from Deacon the Villain and Kno, mostly produced by Kno, on the same day as Sermon’s album. It was the first page of a catalog that later got to Death Is Silent.
• 2015: MED, Blu and Madlib’s Bad Neighbor (11 years). It’s a three-way Oxnard-meets-L.A. album, with Madlib behind the boards and two underrated rappers trading verses.

Stay creative — The Custom Creative Team

Jon Jones