Published October 2000 

M.O.P.

STREET WARRIORZ

BY ISAIAH TRICKEY

Friendship, loyalty, beatdowns, death, dispair and a healthy distrust of the outside world has been the glue that kept M.O.P members Billy Danz and Fame together. In fact it has been a means to their survival. Check the concrete jungle that many of America's inner cities have become and you'll find the seeds that have created M.O.P. For this Brooklyn-based crew, hip hop is seen as one of the few legitimate ways out with a very high premium on being hardcore.

After nine years in the business, M.O.P.'s latest CD, Warriorz, has brought them back under the glare of the spotlight. Produced in part by top hip hop producer DJ Premier, the group believes the 19 track album is their best yet. WORD caught up with Fame on the telephone from NYC.

WORD: What is the history behind M.O.P. (Mash Out Posse's ) name?
FAME: We're all niggaz that grew up together, you know what I mean? As young uns we always supported each other. Always took care of each other from being broke to having a couple of dollars. It didn't matter, we stuck up for each other.

WORD: How did the name come about?
FAME: It come from all the members of MOP, some past away, some in jail, but we representin', we representin', you know not only as rap group, but its a family.

WORD: How do you feel about being described as an underground, hardcore, act in a world full of soft core mainstream hip-hop right now?
FAME: Ain't nothing wrong with the underground. Underground's that straight ghetto music, that's not the washed up shit, that straight street, straight raw music. The mainstream? That's like playing a game, playing the politics game. If an underground joint happened to go mainstream, then if y'all considered that mainstream, that's on y'all but I wouldn't consider that mainstream. It can't just be a joint made for the politics, like you go get a big name to be on your song, that's wack, man. I don't seperate this thing as mainstream or underground. I just call it dope music, street music. If the shit is a banger and happens to go mainstream, then so be it.

WORD: So where do you expect this album to go, who do you expect it to reach?
Fame: First of all, our followers, our people M.O.P people that love us. People that support us. We did this for for them basically, 'cause we know they're there. Whatever new followers we get, so be it, I'm with that. Salute to y'all, basically this is for the niggaz that followed us, that know M.O.P., that sport M.O.P., that support M.O.P... street soldiers.