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EPMD’s Erick Sermon Credits Clipse With Highlighting Hip-Hop’s Age Bias

By: Brxton LeeCategory: News

The veteran MC’s next album, “Dynamic Duos,” will arrive in September.

Erick Sermon is applauding Clipse for reigniting the conversation around age and artistry in Hip-Hop, crediting the Virginia duo’s return as a cultural shift that challenges the genre’s long-standing ageism.

“Y’all have to thank the Clipse,” Sermon said in a recent video. “The Clipse came at the right time for Raekwon to come, for Ghostface to come we needed the Clipse to do what they did at 52 and 48 years old it doesn’t matter the age if you make great material…”

The Clipse reunion album, Let God Sort Em Out, released in July, marked their first full-length project in 16 years. Produced entirely by Pharrell Williams, the album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and topped the Independent Albums chart. Critics praised the duo—Pusha T and Malice—for their “lyrical versatility” and “inspired” production, noting how they blended their signature grit with a more seasoned perspective.

Sermon said their return helped open doors for other veteran MCs like Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Nas all of whom have released recent albums through Mass Appeal.

He also criticized the genre’s tendency to label older artists as “old school,” a term rarely used in other genres. “We’re the only genre to talk about age, they don’t say old school Madonna, old school Paul McCartney, old school Barbra Streisand or old school Cher,” he said.

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Public Enemy also addressed ageism on their latest project, Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025, released earlier this year. Chuck and Flavor Flav used the album to challenge the notion that Hip-Hop has an expiration date, asserting that experience should be celebrated, not dismissed.

Sermon also announced his next album, Dynamic Duos, will arrive in September.