Erick Sermon Credits Dr. Dre For Changing His Approach To Making Music

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#TBT Night Presented By BuzzFeed and Mastercard with Slick Rick, EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, and Ghostface Killah with Raekwon
#TBT Night Presented By BuzzFeed and Mastercard with Slick Rick, EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, and Ghostface Killah with Raekwon NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 25 Erick Sermon of EPMD performs onstage during #TBT Night Presented By BuzzFeed at Mastercard House on January 25, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Christopher PolkGetty Images for Mastercard)

Working with Dr. Dre changed the way Erick Sermon makes music.

Erick Sermon says working with Dr. Dre changed his approach to making music. Speaking with HipHopDX for a new interview, Sermon recalled getting in the studio with the legendary producer and learning that his writing process is entirely different than he was expecting.

“We go to Malibu. As soon as I press play, we do one record. I press play again, we do two records. I press play again, we do three records — in one night. The guys said, ‘Erick, we’ve been here for eight years, we ain’t never seen that before. Nobody has done what you did today.’ I put another beat on and he calls Snoop over. Snoop been working on the records that I did. Then I come back and Dre is working on the record that he rapped on. So I said, ‘Yo, let me rap on that. Let me do your style how you rhyme and how you put your records together.'”

Read More: Erick Sermon Talks Turning Down Nas's "Illmatic" & Rejecting Biggie Feature

Erick Sermon Performs At The Essence Festival Of Culture

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - JUNE 30: Erick Sermon performs on day 1 of the 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture™ at Caesars Superdome on June 30, 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images)

From there, Sermon says he pulled out a pen and paper to begin constructing rhymes, but someone told him they "don’t do that here.” He then recalled Smitty telling him: “Dre would say the cadence and then we would all say a rhyme, and then if the rhyme sounds good, then we put that down. So there’s no writing; it’s just 16 bars of whatever your freestyle may be.” Sermon added: “The process was something I had never seen before in my life and had never experienced in my life getting produced by somebody. It makes you not want to [write rhymes] no more. That method is undeniable. You can’t go wrong because you got a room of people that is agreeing with the line and if the line is not right then it doesn’t go. So everything is right… and my verse was spectacular.”

Erick Sermon Speaks On Working With Dr. Dre

Sermon is best known for his work in the hip-hop group EPMD. He's also produced music for many renowned artists over the years. Be on the lookout for further updates on Erick Sermon on HotNewHipHop.

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About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.