EPMD

'We Mean Business'

Hip-hop legends avoid the bozack with funky fresh flow.

Spin Rating5 of 10

EPMD are back together again, more than a decade after the Long Island duo's initial 1997 reunion. Despite some truly awful lyrics -- "Don't make me get mad and Barack O-bomb-ya" is particularly wince-worthy -- both Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith sound reenergized, boosted by spirited cameos from Redman, Method Man, and Keith Murray. But this nostalgia trip has its slip-ups: "Backstabber" is a retread of the 1990 track "Gold Digger," and the latest entry in their femme-fatale "Jane" series flogs a concept, not to mention a lumbering beat, that was tired long ago.

By Thomas Golianopoulos

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