“How many groups have been around for 15 years, had 6 deals, and are still around?” I couldn’t have asked a better question myself? Lil Fame knows what every MOP fan knows, good music last longer than trends.
MOP has been inciting riots and stirring up listeners for since 1993 and show no signs of slowing down. Never following a commercial pattern for making a hit song, Billy Danze and Lil Fame pride themselves on making dope albums and building a following.
Back with a new album, “Foundation” dropping June 7th and their Busta Rhymes assisted single “Blow the Horn” rounding out mixtape play lists up and down the East Coast, MOP is back to show that good music beats a good gimmick any day.
MOP built with wordonthestreetsmag.com about their numerous record deals, their place in hip-hop history and how the internet kept the Mash Out Posse alive!
Wordonthestreetsmag.com: What is your label situation right now? Are you still with G-Unit? Are you independent?
Lil Fame: (laughs) We got a good relationship with Fif and he allowed us to put out an album over here.
Wordonthestreetsmag.com: So the G-Unit deal is still intact?
Lil Fame: We cool as a fan! You know the situation with the music business. At the end of the day you want to get your music out there. And, Koch/E1 is making it possible for us to put our album out. We gotta feed out fans.
Wordonthestreetsmag.com Do you feel like MOP operates better when its on a indie? Then by sign with G-Units or the Rock-a-Fella’s?
Billy Danze: Yeah. It is easier. You know on an independent, you know you have to get down and really get the work done. Not saying that they don’t help. The people at Koch do what they can do, but as an artists you should want to get out there and sell yourself.
Wordonthestreetsmag.com Talk about the new album “Foundation”
Billy Danze: You’re going to get your traditional MOP album, with straight fire all the way through.
Wordonthestreetsmag.com: Who do you have featured on it?
Billy Danze: Billy Danze and Lil Fame on the album (laughs) I don’t think anyone else matters (laughs) That’s not what we do. We’re concerned with making a good record. What we bring to the table is more than enough.
Lil Fame: We don’t really have feature heavy albums, we’re not one of them groups. You’ll get a remix from us, but I don’t think that its that important to have everyone on your album. Our album is a body of work. Unless it’s a natural thing, but we don’t go a look for someone to put on a song just because they’re hot.
Billy Danze: But we do have Redman, Beanie Siegel, Busta Rhymes on the album.
Busta Rhymes is on everybody’s single right now. How did you get Busta to grace the single “Blow the Horns?”
Lil Fame: Busta is a real good friend of ours. And Busta is all over the damn place right now. I don’t know what record he’s not on.
Billy Danze: The record started with Fame and him coming up with the beat with that traditional MOP feel. The real fans took to the song like we expected them too. Being a MOP fan, he loved the record his self so he jumped on it.
How important has the internet been to the longevity of MOP?
Fame: We started that! We were the first ones on that! MOP never really got a lot radio or video exposure. We were one of the first viral groups out there that could compete with mainstream artists. Everyone else targets the internet, but we just put our music up to the fans and they respond
Wordonthestreetsmag.com: How do you feel about the industry right now?
Billy Danze: I don’t understand what stage its in right now. We’re in MOP universe. We don’t see nothing else, nothing else matters. We move forward in what we’re doing and that’s what’s important to us. Other artists, I’m glad they’re there. You need that friendly competition. You need different types of music and artists so you can know what you like and don’t like.
Wordonthestreetsmag.com: Do you consider yourself one of the greatest groups in hip-hop history?
Billy Danze: We are the greatest group ever!
Lil Fame: Except for Run-Dmc! We can’t take that away from them. Other than that, we are the best group ever! We continue to have a progressive fan base and we never, ever had to compromise our style. For a label or anybody and survive? That’s beautiful. And everybody that is involved are from one street in Brooklyn.
Wordonthestreetsmag.com: Looking back on your career, do you see anything that you did in the past that you wouldn’t do now? Sign to a certain label, work with a certain artists?
Lil Fame: I wouldn’t change anything. I would do it all the same. We never had any problems with any labels. We look at every deal as a new opportunity to put out music out and have our fans enjoy what we do and what we put out.
Billy Danze: We some Brownsville niggas and we hanging out in Italy and Norway. We can shoot over to France to get some French Toast and come back to the hood That’s ridiculous coming from where we come from. Anything that a critic can say or try to say about MOP, we can say, “we already have” we already succeeded, and we good! And we two of the baddest motherfuckers who ever got on a stage, gripped a mic or stepped in a booth.”
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