EPMD often get asked about their heartbreaking disbanding 25 years ago. But, as Erick Sermon points out, he and Parish Smith have been back together doing shows for over ten years now. In fact, the two were a part of Ice-T’s and Mickey Bentson’s recent ‘The Art of Rap: The History of Hip-Hop’ tour. And during the stop at New Jersey’s NJPAC center, the duo said they are hitting the road in the next few months with some more heavyweights.

“I can’t give the announcement yet, but I can tell you about the big tour happening this summer,” Sermon said. “I can’t even tell you ’cause, again, the bill is crazy. We’re working on it right now with [booking agent] Cara Lewis, with Eric B. I just got the phone call. It’s gonna be humongous this summer. Crazy. This year, this summer is, again, the EPMD tour with our friends, with other people. I think people gon’ be happy with this, this summer. Trust me.”

EPMD will have some new material to perform when they hit the road. The legends have started crafting a project.

“We got one record right now that we’re doing, it’s insane,” Sermon promised. “It’s called ‘Music, Please.’ It’s crazy. And it features one of our new [people].”

Sermon and Smith noted that it’s the perfect time for them to come out, seeing as there’s such a resurgence of legendary acts touring in urban music.

“Right now, the culture is ready,” the Green Eyes Bandit said. “Before, it wasn’t ready. [They] wasn’t gonna accept it back then. Right now, hip-hop is making a statement. Hip-hop is the number one genre in the country. It’s not even something that we worrying about. People keep talking about the ‘culture’ or the ‘state’ [of hip-hop, but] we still our age. Let them do what they do, and we do what we do. You don’t have to hate on that culture of the young rappers. We still got age groups, 30 [years old] and up, 40 [years old] that still wanna hear music, and we here. They never say ‘old school’ Rolling Stones, ‘old school’ fucking Sting, ‘old school’ Madonna, ‘old school’ Paul McCartney. It’s only on us and they’re out making…million dollars a show.”