The Hit Squad is a hip hop collective of East coast hip hop artists. Originally formed in the 1990s by Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith of the rap group EPMD, the group included rap artists such as K-Solo, Redman, Das EFX, and Knucklehedz. When EPMD broke up for the first time in 1993, the collective separated with Sermon forming Def Squad and Smith retaining the Hit Squad name.