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.'”
Erick Sermon Performs At The Essence Festival Of Culture
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.
[Via]