Nine years after they went
Out of Business, veteran hip-hop duo
EPMD (
Erick Sermon and
Parrish Smith) return with a new album, and you'd think it was only nine months. Save the appearance of young buck
Skyzoo plus some street slang that's very 2008,
We Mean Business is right in line with the cold, hard, and funky sound of
EPMD in the '90s. Considering the time off, the loyal fan base, and the simple addictiveness of the crew's music, this is hardly a bad thing and -- just like the fans like it -- almost all the productions come from in-house, with
Sermon handling twice the amount of tracks headed by
Smith. The few guest producers include
9th Wonder, who contributes to the
Skyzoo feature "Left 4 Dead," plus
DJ Honda, who puts an infectious spy guitar riff underneath the great "Never Defeat 'Em" with
Method Man. The old vocoder and golden age scratching from DJ 4our 5ive make the crooked "Roc-Da-Spot" the big throwback track but it's the following "Blow" that really shines, with its tightly cut loops and classic bravado boasts like "You a queen with drama/Don't make me get mad and
Barack O-Bomb-Ya." As far as guest rappers, old friends like
Teddy Riley,
Keith Murray,
Redman,
Havoc, plus an especially on fire
KRS-One are here, making this album short on new developments but greatly appealing to those who long for the way it used to be. ~ David Jeffries