EPMD / Strictly Business / 1988
Let the Funk Flow
confident, loose, playfully combative
A straightforward late-80s boast track in which Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith trade verses establishing their skill, confidence, and appeal, with the title phrase working as both a command to the DJ and a description of their own effortless flow. There's no narrative arc beyond self-assertion -- it's a showcase of battle-ready braggadocio built on car, movie, and pop-culture references.
braggadocio mic skill as competition self-mythologizing pleasure/groove as its own justification genre pride (hip-hop vs rock)
Who's speaking
Two first-person narrators (Sermon and Smith) addressing rivals, fans, and each other directly; both voices are fully reliable in the sense that the song never pretends otherwise -- this is pure self-presentation, not storytelling with ambiguity.
What happens
There isn't a plot so much as an alternating set of boasts: each MC takes a turn asserting superiority over other rappers, describing his own stage presence, and inviting the listener to let the groove carry them. The piece moves from individual self-description to a brief swipe at rock fandom and a defense of hip-hop's value, then resolves with a shared refrain affirming the track's own funkiness.
How it's built
The song alternates verses between the two MCs, each roughly ten to twelve lines, punctuated by a short call-and-response hook that repeats the title phrase. There's no bridge or formal turn -- the structure is additive, built from stacked boasts rather than rising action, which suits its function as a posse-style flex track. The closing exchange, where the two comment on the beat itself, breaks the fourth wall and closes the loop.
Section by section
Parrish's opening verse
Smith sets the terms of the track immediately, positioning himself as unbothered and in control, someone who can tax or dismiss challengers at will. The verse ends by handing off the energy to the hook, treating the funk almost as a separate entity being released rather than created.
Erick's opening verse
“same fuel as mario andretti”
Sermon's verse leans on velocity and showmanship, tying his lyrical delivery to speed and spectacle. The car-racing comparison frames rapping as competitive performance, a race he's naturally built to win.
First chorus
The short call-and-response between the two functions almost as a punctuation mark, a release valve after each verse rather than a hook with its own content.
Erick's second verse
Here the boasting shifts toward romantic appeal and stage presence -- staying past his welcome because the crowd wants more. It's a lighter, more charismatic register than the aggressive dismissals elsewhere.
Parrish's second verse
“eighty-eight, no wait I think it's too late”
Smith turns more explicitly combative, describing rivals as prey and framing himself and Sermon as predators sorting out who deserves attention. The dated topical reference anchors the boast in a specific competitive moment within the genre's history.
Parrish's third verse
The Superman-style costume-change imagery and emphasis on never repeating himself reinforce a persona built around transformation and consistency simultaneously -- always adapting, but always recognizably himself.
Erick's closing verse
The pivot to criticizing rock and beer culture functions as a genre-pride statement, positioning hip-hop as the more legitimate, earned pleasure. The verse closes by shrugging off criticism entirely, framing any dislike as the listener's failure rather than his own.
Final exchange
The two comment casually on the beat itself, dissolving the performance frame and suggesting their confidence isn't rehearsed bravado but genuine, almost incidental, self-assurance.
Craft
- simile
- Comparisons to Mario Andretti, Michael Jackson's spin move, Clark Kent, and Freddy Krueger ground abstract boasts about speed, flair, and intimidation in recognizable pop-culture images, making the self-praise vivid and quotable.
- anaphora/refrain
- The repeated command to let the funk flow functions as a structural anchor between verses, reinforcing the song's central conceit that the music itself is an unstoppable force the rappers are simply channeling.
- direct address
- Both MCs repeatedly speak straight to rivals and listeners, which gives the boasting an interactive, confrontational energy typical of battle rap of the era.
- genre contrast
- Erick's verse that name-checks rock and metal before pivoting back to hip-hop sets up an implicit argument for the superiority and specificity of their own tradition.
Reading it
The most direct reading is that this is a pure skills-and-persona record, with 'funk' operating as a stand-in for an uninterruptable creative and physical energy the duo claims sole ownership of; the repeated command to let it flow suggests both surrender to groove and a threat that no one can stop them. A secondary reading treats the genre dig at rock fans as a more pointed cultural statement, EPMD asserting hip-hop's legitimacy and durability at a moment when the genre still had to argue for its staying power, dating itself explicitly to the late 1980s as proof of intentional timestamping.
Context
Strictly Business (1988) was EPMD's debut album, released at a point when East Coast hip-hop was moving toward denser sample-based production and when duos trading battle-style verses over a repeating groove were a common commercial format. The references to specific years and to rock/metal fandom reflect ongoing genre-boundary debates of the period, though I don't have confirmed details about this track's recording or chart history.
Listen for
- the repeated command phrase functioning as a loose chorus rather than a fully written hook
- the shift in tone between Sermon's romantic/charismatic verse and Smith's more combative ones
- the pop-culture similes used to dramatize abstract boasts
- the closing unscripted-sounding exchange about the beat itself
About 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.
1986 - present / United States
Full biography and catalogue