In 1989, hip-hop produced several classic albums and EPMD’s sophomore release, Unfinished Business is among the best. Hailing from the town of Brentwood, a neighborhood in Long Island, New York, EPMD, comprised of Erick “E-Double” Sermon and Parrish “PMD” Smith (an acronym for "Erick and Parrish Making Dollars"), burst onto the scene with their seminal debut, Strickly Business in 1988. While most rap acts of the era heavily sampled James Brown’s extensive canon, EPMD used funk-laden samples from Parliament-Funkadelic, Kool & the Gang, and rock acts such as the Steve Miller Band for their own unique production sound.

EPMD also went against the grain with their laid-back, slow flow at a time when most rappers were known for their loud, energetic rap styles.

Set to prove that a sophomore jinx was not in the works and that they were major players on the hip-hop landscape, EPMD came through with another stellar project with Unfinished Business.

Originally released on August 1, 1989, the album was the soundtrack of the summer and the remainder of the year with 12 tracks spanning almost an hour in time. The album got played in clubs and on the street.

“So Wat Cha Sayin’” the opening track and first single from the album, was an instant classic and is a quintessential EPMD production. The foundation of the track is a dubplate of Soul II Soul’s “Fairplay,” which is a revamped version of the classic The Honey Dripper's “Impeach the President” drum break. Sermon picked that while on tour in London. Combining funky guitar licks from BT Express’ “If It Don’t Turn You On (You Ought To Leave It Alone)” and DJ Scratch’s precise and innovative scratching, “So Wat Cha Sayin’” was unlike anything that came before it. 

Without question, Smith’s MCing goes to another level on the track. He raps, “Well, I'm known to be the master in the MC field/No respect in '87, '88, you kneel/'Cause I produce and get loose when it's time to perform/Wax a sucker like Mop & Glo, that's word bond/Smacked a second time, but on a different assignment/And do a sucker new jack who needs a rappin' alignment/'Cause I'm the cream of the crop when it's time to do a show/Girlies on my jock for my dope intro.”

In 2001, Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek paid tribute to EPMD by covering the song on Sigel's “The Reason" album. Sigel covered Sermon's verses and Bleek covered Smith's lyrics.

On “The Big Payback,” featuring a chopped version of the James Brown tune, was the second single and is another showcase of the dynamic duo's incredible production. Lyrically, Sermon and Smith rap some of their hardest rhymes on the album. The star-studded video for the song featured guest appearances from NWA’s Eazy E., Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, K-Solo, and Tone Loc who are letting off massive amounts of rounds at a shooting range and displaying a mutual respect between rappers from both coasts..

One of the best deep buts of EPMD’s catalog, and the era at large, is the funkdafied “Please Listen to My Demo.” Sampling Faze-O’s “Ridin' High”, the song details the group’s efforts to get someone to check out their music before they made it big. Sermon shines on this cut reflecting on their journey. He raps, “In the year eighty-seven when we first took off/When I jumped on P-6-8 and broke North/Walked the big city streets of Manhattan/Buildings, the whole nine yards, so enchantin/Thinkin if we got a chance, we could rock it/Funky fresh demo tape in my pocket/We was walkin, and got dissed twice today/Then we stopped at 1974 Broadway.”

Other standouts on the album include the in-your-face braggadocio bars of “Total Kaos”, the continuation of the group's interesting interactions with a “sketchy” woman on “Jane II”, the hilarious “Get the Bozack”, and “Knick Knack Patty Wack” where the group’s protege K-Solo makes his highly-regarded debut on wax.

Unfinished Business was a commercial success, eventually going platinum and garnered critical acclaim, destroying the notion that Brentwood’s finest could not top their impressive debut album. EPMD holds the rare distinction of creating a classic debut album and a follow-up LP that was even better along with Public Enemy’s  It Takes a Nation of Millions (1988), Boogie Down Productions’ By All Means Necessary (1988), and Eric B. & Rakim’s Follow the Leader (1988) who all accomplished the feat.

35 years later, Unfinished Business is the album that cemented EPMD as an iconic duo in the pantheon of hip-hop. A self-produced (with assistance from DJ Scratch) body of work, EPMD created a blueprint that would be followed and adapted by The Beatnuts, Mobb Deep, 8Ball & MJG, Outkast, UGK, and many more.

For almost four decades, EPMD have been standing on business and Unfinished Business captures Sermon and Smith in their greatest creative zone.