Erick Sermon is offering a real-time masterclass on why owning your publishing can change your life, even decades after a song drops.
During his recent appearance on the Joe and Jada Podcast, the EPMD legend revealed that he earned $250,000 every three months (for an unspecified period of time) from a song by The Weeknd, Metro Boomin, and 21 Savage, a payout from just 4% ownership of the trio's song "Creepin'."
Sermon said the conversation began after he casually mentioned his royalty checks on Drink Champs, intending to educate younger artists on the long-term value of publishing.
"I don't speak about money," he said. "I was trying to teach the kids about owning their publishing… what can happen if it comes back to you."
He explained that he was already earning solid royalties, around $100,000, from Mario Winans' 2004 smash "I Don't Wanna Know," which sampled the drums from EPMD's 1988 track "You're a Customer." The sample meant that Sermon and his EPMD groupmate Parrish Smith both became credited writers on Winans' song.
But things exploded when Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, and 21 remade Winans' hit for their chart-topping record "Creepin'." Because the new version relies on the original composition, all of its writers, including Sermon, got paid again for the new one, this time on a massive global scale.
"The Weeknd is one of the biggest streamers in the world, [and the song got around] 1.9 billion streams," Sermon explained. "So my check was two hundred and fifty grand every three months… I don't cap on nothing."
He stressed that even a small slice of ownership can become a generational asset when a song gets repurposed for new audiences. Metro and The Weeknd's blockbuster remake introduced "You're a Customer" to millions of younger listeners, while turning a catalog cut from 1988 into a streaming-era money machine.
