Portions originally written for Free-Times by Preach Jacobs
New York hip-hop music from the early to mid ’90s displayed some of the rawest music the culture has ever seen, capturing the essence of life on the Big Apple’s mean streets. During days when the dirtier the beat, the better, artists like Wu-Tang Clan, Black Moon and Gang Starr made their careers by relating to the people in the streets.
These days such street-savvy artists are few and far between; most are looking at their careers in the rear-view mirror. M.O.P didn’t get the memo. Never known for having traditional radio singles, the duo from the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn has always stood true with its high-adrenaline gun talk and high-energy tales of street life.
Arguably one of the all-time best street-rap acts, M.O.P. still dipped its toe into the mainstream; the duo inked deals with, but never released full-length records for, Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella and 50 Cent’s G-Unit labels. Despite never catching a big commercial break, the group is still going strong, and has been since its debut album, 1994’s To The Death.
Billy Danze, one half of the group (the other, Lil’ Fame), remembers how M.O.P.’s debut single, “How About Some Hardcore?”, got the attention of Gang Starr’s legendary producer DJ Premier.
“We were always fans of Gang Starr,” Danze says, “but it was totally different walking into a room and having him say that he was a fan of M.O.P. We only had one record out [the “How About Some Hardcore” 12-inch], and he saw the artwork for the 12-inch cover, which was a knife stuck in the wall. People think it was planned, but it just happened. When [Premier] saw that, he just went nuts. And we been family ever since.”
Premier is one of the group’s most frequent collaborators, beginning with 1996’s Firing Squad, and he helped shape the group’s energetic style. This past year, Gang Starr’s Guru passed away; seven years prior, he cut ties with Premier, leaving hip-hop fans confused.
“We all went through a tragedy losing Guru,” Danze says when asked about the last time he spoke with Guru. “And I know people also felt like it was a tragedy because there weren’t any Gang Starr records during that time. I just loved Guru; he was our brother. He was the first person to put us on tour and take us out of the country and always looked out. I remember last time speaking to him, we were in a studio and I bumped into him.
And he had that cool voice and said ‘What up Billy?’ and I wanted to talk to him. We went to the bathroom to talk. Not even about music but just personal stuff. I don’t remember the year, but I will say it was a long time ago.”
M.O.P is an enigma. In a genre where so many great groups have disbanded from A Tribe Called Quest to Little Brother, it’s amazing at how the group has maintained since 1992 as well as continuously putting out high caliber material.
“You can ask Lil’ Fame and he would probably say the same thing that I’m about to say, but the group has been together since ’92 but I have no idea when we met. We were together since free lunch and shit. We aren’t a group. We’re brothers. We never thought about getting together as a group, we were just brothers that ended up being nice with the music. So many groups may fall apart because that brotherhood isn’t there. They were probably put together from a label or management or something. It wasn’t like that. We’re family. I could remember coming home late at night and my mom would tell me I couldn’t sleep in my bed ‘cause Fame came over and was sleeping over. It was like that.”
That bond is apparent in the music having some of the industry’s top people salivating at a chance to work with them. Being signed to Roc-A-Fella and then finally the defunct G-Unit project proved that people are listening but wondering what is keeping them from having the commercial success fans believe they deserve. Billy Danze reflects on the G-Unit signing.
“We never came out because it was just a difference of opinions. I have to give 50 Cent credit, he’s a good dude. They had a vision that fit for 50 Cent and G-Unit and it just didn’t work with M.O.P. But they loved every record we turned over to them. It just didn’t work out. I just saw how hard it was on 50. He’s one of the biggest stars in the world and trying to be on top of eight different artists and groups on the label not to mention his own career which he was going in hard. Most artists have diffucilty running their careers and a label happily. Ain’t seen nobody yet. You could say Jay-Z but Dash did that. You can say Baby [Cash Money Millionaire Records] but he’s a face or CEO of the company. Maybe 50 thought he could do it. He also signed Mobb Deep a different act. A very street act but it wasn’t G-Unit. M.O.P wasn’t G-Unit. Hats off to them for all the success they’ve had. But we’re still here.”
Throughout the years the group has been very blessed to be able to work with some of the top producers in hip-hop history. Being one of the few artists to rock over a Premier, Pete Rock and Dilla beat, they are now trying to give back to young artists trying to get heard with their passion project WeBuildHits.com.
“On the site we have Grammy winning producers supplying tracks. We have people like 9th Wonder, Pete Rock, Easy Mo Bee, DJ Scratch and more. We build the records. So, people that contribute, they can’t do a whole song. You can submit a verse or a hook and then we will link it with someone else in maybe a Germany and a Canada and by the time it’s over you have a completed song on a producer’s beat that you may not have another opportunity to get on. We know how hard it is. I remember we needed $25k to get a beat from Pete Rock and having to chase him for it. So, this is our way of giving back giving these talented artists an opportunity. Want to know what’s next for M.O.P? We wanna save the world.” -MBS
Click attend on FB event clicking 
okay, this came out a few months back and was on the 
