Redman: Living 4 Years w/ Erick Sermon in Small Apartment Working on 1st...

Once EMPD's Erick Sermon decided to open up his home to Redman toward the end of their album, Unfinished Business, he says the two lived in his one bedroom apartment and began to focus strictly on music for three years after getting kicked out of his parents' home. Before dropping his album, Red talks about finding income performing at clubs in New York that often got him in trouble. While New York rap promoted positivity, according to Red, he says Jersey rappers were all about punchlines, which got him kicked out of a Long Island venue. "I went in that b****, rocking and they was like, 'uh-uh, get this motherf***** out of here. Who he think he is, coming in with that s***? Nah, n**** we ain't paying y'all.'" He told DJ Vlad, "In other words, they was thinking I was too advanced and s***. We was playin' them out."

In this interview, the Jersey rapper goes in-depth about the start of his career and talks about being a part of the Revolutionary Posse of Terrorists, or R.P.T. along with Diezzle Don, before Wu-Tang existed. "We was like the first Wu-Tang; before Hit Squad, before Wu-Tang, before all of that." He said, "We was Revolutionary Posse of Terrorists and we was out of Newark and the crew consisted of eight motherf******."

He said while hanging with Diezzle; he had the opportunity to go to Def Jam and play his music for an executive in his car. Though the rep loved his music, they were looking for an artist to piggyback off of 3rd Bass' sound. After some time, when Red was getting his album ready with EMPD, he recalls meeting the same executive a year later. "I went back to that same office, to the same goddamn dude that I seen with my boy before I met EPMD, and he said, 'Yo, you the kid that was up here like a year ago.'" Redman continued, "I was like 'Yea, that was me.' That was the same dude, and I had kind of the same rhymes too, but just on EPMD's beat."

Red says after that second meeting, they loved the music, signed him, and released Whut? Thee Album, which eventually went gold.