Many people say that Atlanta has taken the crown from New York as the home of hip hop. There is a multitude of today's leading artists who call the southern city home. When people think about rappers who helped put Atlanta on the map, there are plenty of Georgia natives who come to mind, but EPMD icon Erick Sermon claims that he's responsible for making Atlanta the hip hop hub it is today.
"David Banner said, too, 'Erick, do not let somebody else talk about Atlanta, Georgia and don't mention your name,'" the New York rapper told No Filter Podcast. He then mentioned that he had visited Killer Mike's Trigger Warning where someone stood up and said, "These people, these hoes, everything in here is because of you." Apparently, the man added, "I don't care what anybody say, everybody in here, they owe you."
Erick talked about owning a rim shop in Georgia that catered to celebrities. "Now, people did [music] videos, but not downtown," he added. "I brung the cameras downtown. So then the front page of The Constitution, which is the paper down there, says 'Erick Sermon moves to Atlanta.' And I'm like, yo, what's the big deal? But to them, it was because why did you chose to come here out of all the places?"
According to Sermon, it was then that hip hop artists began to descend on the city to visit him at his shop. He added that when his songs used to play on the radio stations in the ATL, DJs would say, "Atlanta's own Erick Sermon." He continued, "If you ask everybody that's there like Jack Thriller, he made a big statement, too, on his show... 'You were Atlanta'." Sermon even said that the mayor tried to give him the key to the city but he refused.
Watch Sermon boast about why he says he was once the King of Atlanta below.
