EPMD - Symphony 2000 ft. Redman, Method Man, Lady Luck

JUL 01 1999 · 12:00

EPMD - Symphony 2000 ft. Redman, Method Man, Lady Luck (1999) Director: Steve Carr Era: Late Golden Age Hip-Hop / Y2K Transition (1999) - Final chapter of EPMD's Def Jam era; hardcore East Coast rap at the cusp of the millennium, blending horrorcore aesthetics with posse-cut tradition High curatorial value as a convergence artifact: it is simultaneously a valedictory statement from one of hip-hop's foundational duos, a showcase for the peak Def Jam/Def Squad collective, a director's last major hip-hop video before a Hollywood career, and a technically accomplished example of genre-parody visual storytelling within the rap video format. Its horror-film staging, warm-but-dark cinematography, and hyper-rapid editing make it a rich primary source for both cultural and technical analysis of the 1999 hip-hop video landscape. Context: Released in 1999 as the lead single from EPMD's sixth and final Def Jam album Out of Business, 'Symphony 2000' represents a summation of the label's late-golden-age collective ethos. Def Jam leveraged its in-house roster, Erick Sermon protégé Redman, Wu-Tang's Method Man (a frequent Redman collaborator), and emerging teenager Lady Luck, to maximize the track's commercial and critical reach. The video's horror-film concept, directed by Steve Carr just before his Hollywood breakthrough, situates EPMD within the horrorcore and cinematic hip-hop visual tradition while serving as a document of Def Jam's late-90s creative peak. The sample of Ennio Morricone's score from Pasolini's Uccellacci e Uccellini underscores the track's cinephilic ambition. The single was EPMD's last to chart on both the R&B and rap charts. Director notes: Carr directed 'Symphony 2000' in 1999, immediately before his feature film debut with Next Friday (2000). The video employs a horror-movie thematic framework: all artists are staged in a warehouse setting and additionally appear in vignettes portraying iconic horror film characters. Documented horror film references include The Shining, Carrie, Halloween, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Dr. Giggles, per IMDB connections data. The concept positions each MC as a horror villain delivering 'virulent lines to their victims,' consistent with Carr's documented ability to blend cinematic genre vocabulary with raw hip-hop performance energy. This video sits at the peak of Carr's music video career, just as he was transitioning to feature films, and represents a high-production Def Jam commission for EPMD's final single on the label.