After New York hip-hop pioneers
EPMD split in the early '90s,
Parrish Smith went solo and simply dropped the "e" from the duo's name -- which stood for
Erick, as in
Erick Sermon -- to record as
PMD (as in "Parrish Making Dollars"). As with
EPMD,
Smith's solo work is hardcore rap in its purest form, with strong rhymes delivered over booming beats, and a defiantly non-mainstream attitude. In 1994,
PMD released
Shadé Business (featuring guest spots from
Das EFX and
Top Quality), and 1996 saw the release of a better follow-up,
Business Is Business (with a few more
Das EFX appearances).
Smith joined back up with
Sermon (and
Def Jam) for 1997's
Back in Business,
EPMD's fifth album, and a sixth album with his partner --
Out of Business -- came in 1999. The duo broke up a second time, and
PMD collaborated with Japan's
DJ Honda for several singles and the 2002 full-length Underground Connection, which was only released in Asia.
PMD's third solo album,
The Awakening, appeared on Boondox Records in 2003, and
Smith executive-produced
Zero Tolerance, a reunion album from
EPMD's long-running
Hit Squad crew, which appeared in 2004.
EPMD reunited again in 2006, releasing
We Mean Business in 2008. After a few years of silence,
PMD resurfaced in 2013, collaborating with German crew
Snowgoons and Queens-based rapper Sean Strange for an album called Welcome to the Goondox.
PMD returned in 2017 with
Business Mentality, which he co-produced along with
Snowgoons and
Agallah. ~ Andy Kellman & Paul Simpson