EPMD = Puff Daddy?

I love how people always pull out the "EPMD Argument" in a Puff Daddy debate. It's become the #1 line of defense for anti-"playa haters". They're like, "You love EPMD right? They were players. Martini and Rossi, Asti Spumante. They rocked gold chains and silk suits. And they jacked Zapp beats the way that Puff Daddy jacks Sting. Same diff."

WRONG. It's not the same. EPMD came up from the ground up. They worked their name on the Long Isle, the Strong Isle. Built a rep. Released an underground album which QUIETLY went gold on the strength, OVER TIME. They were not an overnight sensation the way Puffy was or the was Mase became one. That's my first point. My second point is that HIP-HOP FANS made EPMD. Four straight gold albums. The MEDIA made Puff Daddy. You never heard EPMD in the pop top 20, but every wack song that Puffy releases whether it's his own, a group he produces, or a remix hits the top of the charts. It's a self-feeding cycle -- Puff creates simple music because the public eats it up, and since it's an easy media story to recycle the press keeps feeding into what Puffy does as "genuis". He was handed his success. EPMD never hit plat once. Now my third point: I never *SAID* that EPMD was creative. You assume that I was going to make the argument in their defense that they are creative and Puffy isn't. Wrong. EPMD was jackers too. I don't consider that the hallmark of their creativity. What I *do* like about EPMD is the style of rhymes they had. Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith together was like cookie dough and chocolate chips: you could eat either of them seperately but they're SO good together you wouldn't even think about it. PMD was the smooth mack, Erick was crisp with the lisp. Their sound was unique, and their rhymeplay if not pure oral genuis was at least the equal of their contemporaries. NOBODY was coming out with pure oral poetry a la Pharoahe Monch or Aceyalone back in those days.

And you know something? I like the beats EPMD jacked. Creative or not, those beats like "Jungle Boogie" and "More Bounce" are just plain FUNKY. I can't say the same about the Puff Squad. They're not FUNKY, they're FAMILIAR. People don't dance to it because it grooves, they dance to it because they KNOW it already. It fits like an old glove. The entire music industry has become one big game of fitting gloves on people that we already know fit in the first place. We're deathly afraid of trying on anything new -- you'd think the inseams were laced up with arsenic.

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