EPMD - You Gots To Chill

What this video is

Released in 1988 from EPMD's debut album Strictly Business on Sleeping Bag/Fresh Records, 'You Gots To Chill' arrived at a pivotal moment when hip-hop was transitioning from regional underground culture to national mainstream visibility. The track's prominent use of Zapp's 'More Bounce to the Ounce' and Kool & the Gang's 'Jungle Boogie' was highly unusual for New York rap, which was dominated by James Brown…

Why it matters

A foundational artifact of Golden Age hip-hop visual culture, this video codifies the MC-centered performance video format that dominated rap from 1986–1992. Its funk-sample production aesthetic directly prefigured G-Funk, while the warehouse/industrial setting became a recurring visual motif in…

The director

Adam Bernstein (born May 7, 1960, Princeton, NJ) began his career as an animator and at age 26 produced the first original programming for Nickelodeon. He went on to direct over seventy music videos. He later pivoted to television, directing pilots for…