Erick Sermon has revealed he makes almost $750,000 per year from Metro Boomin, 21 Savage and The Weeknd’s smash hit “Creepin.'”
Metro’s song famously samples Mario’s 2004 hit “I Don’t Wanna Know” which itself prominently samples EPMD‘s “You’re a Customer,” meaning Sermon receives significant royalties.
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Sermon, who owns his own publishing, explained in an interview with Bootleg Kev how he rakes in publishing money from the two tracks.
“The Weeknd is one of the most streamed artists in the world. So him and Metro Boomin did ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’ which is ‘You’re a Customer,'” he said. “I only own 4 percent of that record [Creepin’]. Every four months, guess how much it brings in… $240,000” — which amounts to $720,000 per year.
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Sermon is credited as a writer on both “Creepin'” and “I Don’t Wanna Know” because of the drum sample taken from “You’re a Customer.”
The rap legend then spoke about the importance of artists holding on to the rights to their publishing, saying: “People sell publishing when they need money but luckily I was able to survive without doing that.”
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He added: “If you are independently streaming, there’s a chance that you can make more money than [being on a major label] — even with [each stream being worth] less than one penny. If you not in the game, you wouldn’t know that.
“Publishing is your life. If you’re able to have some of it, please grab as much as you can. [The mailbox money] never stops. And then all of a sudden you might catch a placement.”
Erick Sermon recently revealed that he wanted to sign 50 Cent before he was shot nine times in 2000.
“Well, Cory [Rooney, then Senior Vice President of Sony, the parent company of 50’s former label Columbia] lived next door to me, alright?” he said on Math Hoffa’s My Expert Opinion podcast. And Cory was with Sony and [production duo] Trackmasters [who worked with 50 Cent early in his career].
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“So he brung 50 to the crib. And you know, this is early 50. 50 used to come to the house all the time, and we’d do records. So, he was Def Squad… Cory just felt that it was best for him to be over here.”
Sermon also remembered producing 50’s track “Da Heatwave.”
“That was the first single that I did after ‘How to Rob,’” he said, mentioning that Fif shouts both him and Def Squad out in the record’s outro. “That was his first single before he got shot up [in May 2000].”
Erick Sermon is currently gearing up to release a new album called Dynamic Duo which will feature a number of big-name guests including Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, The Game, Mobb Deep and the late Nate Dogg.
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Earlier today (February 9), he released a new single “Back 2 the Party” featuring legendary female duo Salt-N-Pepa — listen to it here.
