Erick Sermon has taken a trip down memory lane, remembering some of the artists he claims he had the opportunity to sign.
Speaking on a recent episode of the Joe and Jada podcast, the EPMD rapper and producer reflected briefly on having the chance to sign some of the biggest rappers in the world before they blew up.
"When Nas came to me for Illmatic, I gave him c-list beats because I didn’t understand Queenbridge," Sermon recalled. "My only regret is me not taking Nas seriously, because when he left me, he went to Pete’s Rock house."
Switching gears to another hip-hop great, Sermon said he dropped the ball on signing The Notorious B.I.G. "Somebody brought Biggie Smalls to the barbershop in Brooklyn," he recalled. "I didn’t listen to him."
According to the Def Squad leader, he kept getting access to the biggest artists in the world to work with them, but time and time again, he never signed them for one reason or another.
"I could have had Wu-Tang, too," Sermon claimed, also mentioning his chance to sign Raekwon. "In my mind, I was too young for that."
Sermon would go on to mention 50 Cent, Ludacris, The Game, Hitmaka and Rick Ross as other artists he could have been attached to.
Elsewhere, Erick Sermon gave his opinion about today’s rap music in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.
"They made records that was going to surpass and be able to live the test of time so they can still work forever," he said, discussing successful artists of previous years. "This era is not going to be able to do that, and the era before, because nobody’s going to come watch you say 'pussy, fuck, suck, bitch,' whatever, when they’re 40-something years old."
He continued: "They married, they go to church, got kids, got a life. It don’t match them no more."
