Hip Hop
It's My Thing / You're A Customer
MR BONGOMRB7196
Hip Hop
7"
£11.66 (£13.99 incl. VAT)
EPMD's initial success in 1987 seemed to take a lot of people by surprise
Without build- up or fanfare, they launched this stunning debut 12" and, so illprepared
were people for it, that the label was still misspelling their name.Those
early 12" copies of 'It's My Thing' – and the hard to find UK 7" that followed shortly
after – have them billed as EPEE MD. Before they were signed, they were going by
EEPMD, but they decided to drop an E due to the success of the west coast's Eazy
E. The one person not surprised by their success, however, was hip-hop pioneer
and producer Kurtis Mantronik, who actually signed them to Fresh Records.It's
fitting that he's the man that saw their promise, as he himself was one to go
against the grain. His electro-influenced productions for Mantronix and Just Ice
were ahead of their time, and perhaps in EPMD he saw kindred spirits. Because,
at the time this dropped, hip-hop was going up tempo, taking its cue from James
Brown samples and picking up the pace.
On both 'It's My Thing' – underpinned by the languorous 'Seven Minutes of Funk'
by The Whole Darn Family – and 'You're a Customer', with its combination of ZZ
Top and Steve Miller Band – Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith slow things right
down. It gives their vocals time to breathe and allows us to enjoy the interplay of
their metaphor and simile-heavy lyrics. As calling cards go, they don't come any
better than this.
Stunning debut that has become a Hip Hop classic.Only previous 7" release very
hard to find.