Author Topic: MOP: Bloody And Unbowed (Read 232 times)

Myrealname · « **on:** October 21, 2002, 12:07:04 AM »

"When Brownville, Brooklyn's MOP signed to The Roc suddenly a light appeared at the end of hip-hop’s blackening tunnel. After 10 years, MOP today is as raw as "How About Some Hardcore," their debut song. The group has wrapped up a their currently untitled album and, with songs like "F**k MOP" and "Ground Zero," the legacy plows forward. In compliance with the rules of the game, Allhiphop.com presents a raw, uncut (and long Q&A) interview with the Mash Out Posse, a group that may represent hardcore's last hope. Salute.

AllHipHop.com: So, talk about the album….

Billy Danze: What you mean talk about the album. You done recorded half the shit anyway, nigga. [laughs]

AHH: It wasn't recording [laughs]

Danze: You gonna bootleg my shit ain't you?

AHH: How I'ma bootleg this, a tape?

Danze: Where you live?

AHH: I live in Brooklyn.

Danze: Where at?

AHH: Flatbush.

Danze: OK.

[Album music starts playing]

Danze: Come in here man. Now what you wanna know, nigga?

AHH: We got some time, but just give me some insight on the album. What's it all about.

Danze: We aiming at what we always aimed at - our fans, the streets. Now we broadened it a lil' bit. So all the joints that you would expect from MOP, we already knocked those out. We ready to start working with Premiere. Get back on the street vibe. We still there but we just did a lil' bit of experimenting this time.

AHH: So Premier is going to be a big part of this?

Danze: Of course, of course. He is part of our everyday life.

AHH: I heard he wasn't too cool with Jay-Z too much.

Danze: You heard that?

AHH: That's what I heard. You never heard that?

Danze: I don't know. It might be. It may not be. I don't know. I never heard it. I think it he and Jay had a problem that Preem would say something to him. You know, Jay would feel some kind of way and say something to Preem. These are grown men. These niggas are making money in the game. They got families. They got a reason to not wanna be in jail or a reason to not get hurt. Everything gotta make sense. It don't make sense to go beefing with a nigga about some stupid shit. So. Niggas gotta make sense now. I was one of the quickest niggas - nigga I wanna fight. But it don't make sense. I wanna get home to my kids every night and not go through a bunch of bullshit. Be able to walk down the block and a nigga not scheme on you and throw something in you just because - for some bullshit. Stay humble, nigga, you'll live longer.

AHH: How long have you been working on this album?

Danze: We got gang of songs. We'll do 10 songs - 12 songs, chill for a month, two. Go back in, do 5- 6 more songs, chill for a week, two - a month. Whatever. We don't always say, "We're gonna do 12 songs - this is eight, four more - Game over." We don't do that. We just keep going. Everyday we just come up with shit. I'll be in the street and this nigga Laze'll call me 6-o'clock in the morning, "Yo son this shit is crazy. You gotta hear this beat." He got the whole idea so we gotta fall in here. Same shit with me. Same thing with Fame. Fame will call me. That nigga sleep all day, get up at 12-o'clock at night like its 12-o'clock in the afternoon, stay up all night just making beats. All night and come up with some shit. That how we do it. We just keep it rolling.

AHH: Both of you are doing beats now, right? How's that work?

Danze: So far, I think only did two, but we not cocky. Far as beats go, Fame has been making beats longer than me and Laze has been making beats longer than him and Preem’s been making beats longer than all of us. But if my beat fits better, we run with it. It makes sense. That cocky shit? That shit is played out.

AHH: Can you talk about appearances on the album?

Fame: WE ain't got no guest appearances right now. We had to make big Fox rhyme. As far as us, we ain't have no special guest appearances yet. We got some ideas we gonna talking about. People gotta return some favors. I ain't never turn down no favors. If a nigga in the studio vibin' - its never a phone call or nothing that we hollering at people to do a song. We been personally working right now. D&D, I loved it. It was like standing on the corner. Now its like we in our house now. Shits still gully, but we in our crib now. So its not like just anybody walking up in the building. That's how we used to get guest appearances, anybody would walk in. When we did "Four Alarm Blaze," Jay just happened to pop up that day. He was like, "Yo, I need to jump on that."

When we did the OC joint, OC was there. When we did the joint with Ras Kass, that's how it was. Except for G Rap, that's the only nigga we shouted out to do a song. I looked up to G, naw'meen? And Ra (Rakim). Ra's my nigga. Ra rarely does collabs. I think we gonna be on his album. I'm still waiting on that. Anybody else, I don't give a fuck, but that's Ra.

Fox: I put my life on this album. I’m being real on that because I been here since day one. We always have known that we stepped up a notch. This album, the beats are incredible or stayed the same. "

Myrealname · « **Reply #1 on:** October 21, 2002, 12:08:07 AM »

"AHH: Can you talk about you guys as a family unit?

Danze: It’s crazy. It’s just like you when you get up in the morning. Back in the day shit. You get up in the morning, set up for the day. Same shit. It’s really like a family. It ain't "We a family because we make money together or because we hung out together." We hung out together before we hung out. Like we did free lunches. I met Fame when we were like in the second grade or some shit. We ain't no put together niggas. I don't have nobody around me that that I haven't known less than 15 years. This shit is serious to us. If this shit stopped today or tomorrow, we still the same.

AHH: Ya'll seem to just get better. I been down with ya'll musically since how about some hardcore.

Danz: You know what always worked for us? Frustration that we had. Somebody needed to hear about that frustration. That's why niggas in the hood be wilding the fuck out, because it's a bunch of frustration and niggas don't have no outlet to let that shit out. We do it from Brownsville, for Brownsville, for every other hood. So its not like - We holla Brownsville because that's where we are from so we do it. But you got ghettoes everywhere you go. In London, we got in some shit. A nigga came at us with a hammer. We had to wrestle him down and take his hammer. A nigga in London, dog! This nigga was g'd up. Fuggetaboout it, he was gangstered up. Nigga on your blocks, they can't get the word out all away around the world or half way around the world. We got the outlet that will go half way across the world. So that's how you do it. All hoods is the same, dog, its just different people. That's' it.

AHH: What's up with the situation with the Roc? Where do ya'll fit in on the Roc?

Danze: Where do we fit in on the Roc? You know what? That's for the fans to decide, not even the critic. Not a critic, because a mutha fuckin' critic always find something wrong.

AHH: Why you say that - critics?

Everybody, the writer mutha fucka, the reporter mutha fucka.

AHH: Why you say that?

Danz: Niggas gotta start that. They gotta start.

Lil Fame: We are going to crack your mutha fuckin' head. The album is the same at the last four. We were on a label - Parkbench Records - Yeah, Columbia, we up off of there. Shit's coming together right now.

AHH: What does being on the Roc represent for you, Fame?

Fame: I respect them, because its niggas doing it. When I say niggas, I mean, not just Black people, its niggas. Like young dudes, doing this shit, you know what I mean? The understand the musid, they understand the life. They understand where to place us. I don't expect to go platinum or nothing over there.

AHH: You don't think the Roc can help get you there?

Fame: I know, I aint the one to be shouting "it's the Roc, it's the Roc."

AHH: So it’s safe to say that this albums not going to have everybody on The Roc the album?

Fame: On no. Not like that. We NOT gonna go over there changing the game. He helped us fight to get up off the label we was on. First of all, we gotta be niggas first. So we not going to change if from our handful of thugs when we ain't have shit to now with somebody giving up something and change the game - nah. We gonna keep it the same because that's what they love us for.

AHH: Its seems like everybody gotta have a MOP joint.

Fame: That's love, that's love. That's just respect. I like niggas that keep shit they way. We don't did songs with people who laid their verse that night, everybody's happy and we hear the song again, they change their whole shit. Its from wearing they ass out and from them wanting to sound a little harder. We ain’t gonna try and out do you on your own song because at the end of the day, its our song.

AHH: It seems like you dominate every song you are one. The one joint that stuck out the most is that joint with Journalist - he was just there, you know what I'm sayin?

[Fame laughs]

Fame: But [hahahaha] Journalist is nice. [hahahahahaha] Journalist is nice. [hahahahaha] he did stick out like a sore thumb on that mutha. People reach out, people reach out outta respect. We don't give a fuck. We done did songs for nothing. We done did songs with nobody, niggas that didn't even have a deal. You can feel the love that hey got for you. And if we got the spare time, we love to rap. As long as you got some alcohol, some cigarettes - we gonna come over there and hang out with you. Long as the bottle is good. As long as you good people, you gotta be good people first. Before we even speak about doing a record, we gotta like you. "

Myrealname · « **Reply #2 on:** October 21, 2002, 12:08:37 AM »

"AHH: Talk about the chemistry you and Danze have.

Fame: Me and this nigga's the same man. Ain't no more and nomore/less. I known this nigga from a baby. We not a group that's put together. I told Busta that. Busta was like, "How long you known this nigga." I was like, "All my life." We grew up together from kids like my own son. That age. That's our chemistry. He aint gotta be there for me to pick a beat or come up with a hook because I know what he'll say. I already know what he'll say. There aint no favoritism between him and me. People always say, "Yo, ya man Billy hot." I don't give a fuck nigga. That's my shit. Its Billy and Slap. Its still our shit. That's how it is - as long as you like the shit. It all comes from the same house.

AHH: [To Fox, the group’s official & unofficial tour manager] I saw ya with KRS-One and I saw you slam-dancing [to Fox] with the white boys – straight wildin’.

Fox crazy. You a mother now. You gotta behave.

Fox: That shit felt good, yo. I get recognition for that. Not everybody can do it. Some nigga from Loud tried to do it and they bussed his head open.

Fame: Evil Dee jumped in the crowd and the crowd moved. Shit parted like the Red Sea - straight to the floor.

Fox: You can't just jump in that shit.

Fame: you gotta lean in it.

Fox: Nigga dove in like he was going in the pool or some shit. He do that shit all the time though. He went crazy. He jumped up and into the crowd.

Fame: You know how big that nigga is. He ain't got no business.

AHH: It seems like ya'll tap into the white and black side.

Fame: They show us love men. I don't know. We used to be mad as shit at that. We don't fuckin' yell - we not Onyx. Our shit is not a gimmick. We make you believe what the fuck we talking about. Some people double they vocals to …

AHH: It’s been 10 years…of MOP.

We been doing it. That's how you can tell your peoples. Nigga said, "Ante Up - wild out"…"Ante up?" That's all you know? Say "Rugged Never Smooth"-something

AHH: I got the "Hill is real"…

[laughs]

AHH: I hate that [song]. I was right off the corner.

Fox: You got a deal off that shit.

[everybody starts talking at once.]

AHH: What about "Ground Zero?" That has nothing to do with 9-11?

"I don't know anybody that lost anybody in there. It would be hard for me to…we been working hard. All them rescue servants. All them 911…[workers] that's been down there grinding? We been in the grind like that. Laze jus started callin' that shit "ground zero." Its just fate for us. Its like all the people were coming out with the videos and all that….The song ain't got nothing to do with the shit. We been at ground zero.

Fox: We are ground zero.

Fame: We been down there. We from New York. But, we not trying to ride off that. It would be too late for us to try and get recognition off that anyway.

AHH: Fox, What’s your role with MOP?

Fox: Everything, yo. I’m like next to Laze (MOP's unofficial & official manager). I started with Laze when Bill wasn’t home yet. It was me Fame and Laze, Bill came in then Tef (rapper Teflon). I’m the tour manager. That’s basically what everybody knows me for. I went from hype girl, I’m on the album. On the last four albums, I got little pieces. We don’t really want to have a title. Like Laze doesn’t really want to be called the manager, because whatever Laze doesn’t get done, I get done. Like Laze handles the music and the big business part. Like I handle shows, any publicity, advertising, promotion – anybody that wanna get at MOP, they gotta get at me first. They cant even get at Laze. Laze don’t even talk to the niggaz at the record company. I’m like their big sister. I’m the girl. Everybody knows Fox. I can’t really give myself a title. I’m just MOP."

(ahh)

Jome · « **Reply #3 on:** October 21, 2002, 01:26:55 PM »

Quote from: LiL Fame on October 21, 2002, 12:08:37 AM

Fame: They show us love man. I don't know. We used to be mad as shit at that. We don't fuckin' yell - we not Onyx. Our shit is not a gimmick. We make you believe what the fuck we talking about. Some people double they vocals to …

You hear Teecee?? LoL

Nice read, G lookin..
They keepin it real as always.

Yo SGV, you hear that?
Ain't no bling-bling or Bleek-cameos at First Fams and them.
And they still got Premo