EPMD / Strictly Business / 1988
You're a Customer
confident, combative, self-assured
This is a boast track built almost entirely on the battle-rap tradition: Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith trade verses establishing their superiority over unnamed rival MCs, using the era's slang term for a fraud or wannabe as a recurring taunt. There's no narrative arc so much as a sustained performance of dominance, delivered over a stripped-down funk groove typical of the duo's early sound.
braggadocio authenticity vs imitation competitive rap tradition status and reputation artistic mastery
Who's speaking
Both MCs speak in first person directly to a generalized rival or audience, alternating verses; the addressee shifts between a specific imitator, the crowd, and the listener at large. The voice is entirely reliable within its own boastful logic—there's no self-doubt, only assertion.
What happens
The song doesn't build a story so much as accumulate proof of credibility. Each verse restates the same core claim—that the speaker is superior, original, and untouchable—through new metaphors and scenarios: hunting imagery, boxing references, domestic product comparisons, and callbacks to their own live shows. The recurring insult functions as a refrain that ties the verses together and reasserts the central thesis each time it appears.
How it's built
The track alternates verses between the two rappers, unified by a call-and-response internal logic even without a traditional hook. The insult line acts as a quasi-chorus, dropped at structurally important points to punctuate a verse's boasts. There's no bridge or turn in the conventional sense—the structure is additive, verse stacked on verse, each one a fresh angle on the same claim rather than a narrative escalation.
Section by section
Erick Sermon's opening verse
Opens with a twisted nursery rhyme that immediately signals playfulness mixed with menace—the childhood reference gets weaponized into a warning. Sermon establishes his identity claim early, anticipating doubters who might question his authenticity.
PMD's first verse
Parrish counters with a colder, more clinical tone, using a household cleaning product simile to frame his lyrical violence as almost mechanical and inevitable rather than emotional.eling
Erick Sermon's crowd verse
Shifts from combat imagery to social proof—describing being recognized in public by both men and women. This section functions as evidence-gathering, using perceived fame as validation of the earlier boasts.
PMD's DJ verse
“you have to be in it to win it”
Introduces the DJ (Diamond J) as an external arbiter of quality, tying the group's credibility to a third party's taste rather than pure self-assertion, which slightly complicates the otherwise self-contained boasting.
Erick Sermon's hunting verse
The predator imagery peaks here, with cinematic references to marksmanship and camouflage. This is the most aggressive stretch of the song, escalating the metaphorical violence against rival MCs to its most vivid point.
PMD's dermatological verse
“pop you like a pimple”
Uses grotesque bodily imagery—skin blemishes, produce being sliced—to degrade the rival MC's status, turning the insult comedic and visceral at once.
Closing verses
The final exchanges wind down with a boxing-referee framing, asking whether the rival can continue, before Sermon closes with a wry acknowledgment that his confidence might read as arrogance to some, followed by the final restatement of the central insult.
Craft
- extended metaphor
- Sermon uses a hunting/predator conceit—smelling blood, cornering prey in the dark—to cast rival MCs as helpless targets, reinforcing the theme of dominance through violence-adjacent imagery.
- simile stacking
- Both rappers pile up rapid-fire similes (boxing, produce, household products, playground rhymes) to demonstrate rhetorical dexterity itself as proof of skill—the form performs the content.
- refrain/insult as chorus
- The repeated branding of the rival as fraudulent substitutes for a traditional hook, giving the track a structural anchor while reinforcing the song's thesis every time it recurs.
- direct address
- Frequent second-person accusations create an adversarial energy, positioning the listener or an implied rival as the target of the rappers' scorn.
Reading it
Read straightforwardly, the song is a text-book example of hip-hop braggadocio: assert dominance, mock pretenders, repeat. The most persuasive reading treats the recurring insult not as aimed at any single person but as a genre convention—a ritualized way of establishing hierarchy within the culture, similar to boxing trash talk. An alternative reading might see specific verses (the DJ shoutout, the fan club mention) as grounding the boasts in actual scene-specific credibility, suggesting the song doubles as a promotional artifact for the duo's live reputation as much as a pure lyrical exercise.
Context
Strictly Business (1988) was EPMD's debut album and helped define a stripped-down, funk-sampling East Coast sound distinct from the more elaborate production trends of the time. The duo were known for their laid-back, unhurried flows contrasted with aggressive lyrical content, and this track fits within the classic battle-rap subgenre common to the era, where boasting and dismissing rivals was a core mode of self-presentation rather than aimed at any specific named target.
Listen for
- the shift in each rapper's flow—Sermon's more playful, PMD's more clipped and clinical
- the recurring insult and how its placement punctuates each verse like a hook
- the funk bassline and how the sparse production leaves room for the vocal interplay
- the boxing and hunting metaphors that recur across different rappers' verses
- the moment fame and public recognition get folded into the boasting as evidence
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
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