Erick Sermon Says Clipse Helped Spark Renewed Spotlight Classic Hip-Hop

Erick Sermon didn't mince words when he sat down with AllHipHop at WonWorld Studios to talk about his long-awaited Dynamic Duos project. The legendary producer said the resurgence of interest in classic Hip-Hop groups isn't a coincidence and he credits Clipse with helping reopen the floodgates.

Sermon revealed that he first developed his idea before the pandemic, during a time when many of his peers had essentially stopped releasing new material.




"I've been having this [concept] since COVID and before COVID," he explained, describing a concept built entirely on putting legendary rap duos back in the booth. He counted more than 23 groups he wanted to bring together. "I said, I'm just going to do as many as I can and I'm going to produce them."




He reached out to virtually everyone from the classic era. Some responded quickly, others took time, and a few didn't hit him back at all, but the ones who did shared his excitement about teaming with a producer who helped define a generation of sound.

As the idea gained traction, Sermon said 300 Entertainment eventually stepped in to support the project before its ownership shifted. "People was hitting me up like, yo Eric is Dr. Dre, he's never coming out," he joked, acknowledging how long fans have been waiting. "But people don't know the ins and outs of things."




The final version isn't short on heavyweight names. Sermon confirmed the album includes combinations ranging from Tupac and Biggie to Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, Dogg Pound, Heltah Skeltah, Mobb Deep, M.O.P, EPMD, Cypress Hill, plus a Redman and Method Man single already out in the world. He said additional pairings were slated for later volumes.




He also let interviewers Chuck Jigsaw Creekmur and DJ Thoro listen to an exclusive The Game, Conway The Machine and Lil Wayne.




Sermon spoke casually about reuniting with Redman and Method Man, calling it routine work among longtime friends.




"Those are my boys," he said.

The double threat producer/MC also noted that he has scaled back to just himself and Boogieman Beats, reflecting a return to the sound people still expect from him. "They looking to hear me," the Long Island native said.




But when discussing what pushed the broader industry back toward classic voices and legacy artists, Sermon pointed to one specific catalyst. "The Clipse opened everybody's eyes open again," he said. He cited how their emergence helped listeners tune back into acts like Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Big L and Mobb Deep, framing it as a cultural reset that arrived before the momentum of newer revival projects. "I think that Clipse did that."




The comments land in a year where the culture has seen a renewed embrace of older Hip-Hop aesthetics, a shift Sermon welcomed while preparing three full volumes of Dynamic Duos.




Stay tuned to see our full interview on AllHipHopTV.

via: https://allhiphop.com/features/erick-sermon-says-clipse-helped-spark-renewed-spotlight-classic-hip-hop/