Eric Sermon feat. Keith Murray “Hostile” No Pressure Def Jam 1993

During this time of year, when the temperatures begin to slide closer to freezing and daylight gets progressively shorter, I tend to gravitate toward the more rugged, bare-bones style of hip hop production best exhibited by Buckwild, Da Beatminerz, the DITC crew, and of course, Erick Sermon.  The latter’s post-EMPD debut, No Pressure (1993), has been a recent rediscovery for me, a record I hadn’t heard since my early high school years when it initially dropped.  Sermon tends to get overlooked on most Favorite ‘90s Producers lists, which is understandable given the rather thin spectrum of his working methods: sampling “The Payback” for the umpteenth time, adding a chunky Skull Snaps drum loop, a dollop of sub-filtered bass, and a dash of melody from a Zapp or Parliament record, then repeat as necessary.  In short, he really only did one thing but damned if he didn’t do it well, and his work on the first three Redman records, Keith Murray’s first two joints, and his own solo ventures during the mid-‘90s holds up quite impressively when viewed as a whole.  Look closer and the monotony begins to grow tedious, but the unintentional hilarity of Sermon’s lyrics and delivery often makes up for it.  Case in point: “Hostile,” from his debut, which is most notable for introducing the world to an 18 year-old kid from Brentwood, Long Island, named Keith Murray.

I’ve been playing this song once a day for the past week and each time I find something else to love about it.  The first impression one might get is that “Hostile” sounds like it was recorded in an abandoned warehouse somewhere along the East River.  There isn’t a shred of melodic content to latch onto, just a thumping drum pattern and a subterranean bassline that threatens to drown everything out at any moment.  Some dude named Jeff Stewart acts as MC for a lyrical showcase of sorts featuring Sermon and Murray, introducing Sermon by his half-dozen aliases, from the Funk Lord to his preferred secondary nomenclature, The Green-Eyed Bandit.  The E-Double spits a typical 20 bars full of his trademarked braggadocio, complete with phrases that sound great but don’t make a whole lot of sense upon closer inspection (“swinging more shit than Tarzan”).  Murray’s verse, which he amusingly opens with “Keif Murree!” is animated to the point of theatricality, his excessively-delayed vocal ricocheting off the walls and wildly varying in pitch.  He avoids the downbeat on nearly every line, invents words like “beautifullest” and “illiotic,” and threatens to “break out” his “‘get busy’ tools.”  Classic, head-nodding stuff that could have only come out in 1993.

“Hostile” – Eric Sermon feat. Keith Murray 3:38 (No Pressure, Def Jam 2008)