M.O.P. will forever hold a special place in my heart for creating arguably the most energetic testosterone-driven thug anthem in hip-hop history with “Ante Up” in 2000. (You don’t agree? Throw the record on right now and tell me it doesn’t make you want to get gully in a mosh pit, or rob somebody, or at least stomp a nigga out). While I’ve always respected the mixture of energy and animosity (shoutout to Tony W) in Billy Danze and Lil Fame’s music, I don’t know if I qualify to call myself a fan of M.O.P.’s music. Allow me to explain.

As I mentioned during my review of M.O.P.’s sophomore album, Firing Squad, that review marked my first time listening to the album. Well, I have another confession to make, folks: Firing Squad was the first M.O.P. album that I’ve ever listened to in its entirety. Throughout the years I’ve heard some of their singles and a handful of cameos they’ve made on other rappers’ songs, but I’ve never gotten around to taking a deep dive into their catalog, which is partly why I started this blog (not specifically for M.O.P., but for artist in general that I’ve never made time to dig into). I’ve had copies of Firing Squad, First Family 4 Life, Mash Out Posse, and St. Marxmen in my collection for well over a decade now, so God willing, I’ll get to them someday. A few months ago, while browsing Amazon for my “most wanted list,” I came across a brand-new reissued CD copy of M.O.P.’s 1994 debut album, To The Death for less than twenty dollars. I had to cop, and since I’m playing chronological catch up at the moment, here we are today (I promise, I’ll be getting to 1997 soon).

To The Death would be the only album M.O.P. would release on Select Records, which was also once the label home to UTFO, Kid ‘N Play, Chubb Rock, and AMG. The Mash Out Posse would pretty much put the production keys into the hands of fellow Brooklynite, DR Period (who is also responsible for creating the heat that backed Danze and Fame’s hostility on “Ante Up”), as he’s credited with producing all but one of the album’s songs. To The Death would render three singles that made very little noise outside of the East Coast region and would peak at 68 on the Billboard US Top R&B/Hip-Hop charts.

It feels like it was just a few months ago that I was listening to and writing about Firing Squad. But it was actually just over a year since I posted my Firing Squad write-up (December 13, 2022, to be exact). Time is truly, illmatic.

Crimetime 1-718 – The album begins with a pensive instrumental that Billy and Fame use to shoutout their home borough of Brooklyn, that they also affectionately refer to as Crooklyn, for very specific reasons. And if you’re wondering, “718” is the area code where their criminal activity takes place.

Rugged Neva Smoove – DR Period follows up the intro with more mid-tempo heat, meshing synth chords with soulful choir notes, and a rough rockish bassline. Danze and Fame make their proper introductions as they dish out their first round of verbal beat downs and aggressively let the listener know their musical preference during the hook.

Ring Ding – Things get a lot grimier than the previous two tracks with this raw boom-bap backdrop that Billy and Fame continue to scream hostilities at. The instrumental sounds a little empty, but the gully bassline adds some much-needed meat to what otherwise skimpy backing music is.

Heistmasters – The Mash Out boys use this one to outline the deets of a few robberies right in front of our ears, and it’s all soundtracked by jazzy horns and poppin’ swing drums. Heisting has never sounded so pleasant.

Blue Steel – Bluing is the process of coating steel with black oxide to protect it from rusting, which also gives the steel a black/blue shine. Danze and Fame prefer their guns blued. They wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it? Here it goes…

Who Is M.O.P.?? – Fame and Danze use this short interlude to list all the extended members in the M.O.P. family.

To The Death – If the instrumental for “Ring Ding” was grimy, this one is bottom of the gutter gully. Danze and Fame sound at home rhyming over the dark and dirty canvas as they pledge allegiance to each other and the M.O.P name. This is definitely one of my favorite joints on the album.

Big Mal – M.O.P. pays respect to one of their fallen bredrin on this side one ending seven second interlude.

Top Of The Line – M.O.P. brings the same aggressive energy they’ve had during the rest of the album, but something about the weary bassline and the synthetic horns brought in between the verses turned me all the way off. Despite the song title, this is definitely at the bottom of the line as far as tracks on the album go.

This Is Your Brain – M.O.P. reinterprets an old eighties drug prevention PSA for this interlude. There’s no need to listen to this one more than once.

Drama Lord – Decent.

F.A.G. (Fake Ass Gangsta) – This instrumental is the audio equivalent of fire falling from heaven during the apocalypse, consuming Earth and all the fake ass gangstas who roam on it. Kudos to M.O.P. for successfully disguising a derogatory term in an acronym to dis their adversaries. But there is nothing derogatory about DR Period’s fire backdrop.

How About Some Hardcore – This was the album’s lead single and the only song I was familiar with going into this write-up. DR Period’s blaring horns and cool bassline sound just as enduring today as they did thirty years ago, while Danze and Fame’s aggressive thuggery still entertains (Fame’s “Mother made ‘em, mother had ‘em, so muthafuck ‘em” might be the best line on the entire album).

Positive Influences – One last interlude before the final song of the evening.

Guns N Roses – Billy and Fame use the final song of the night to discuss the intriguing dichotomy of shooting their rivals and bringing flowers to mourn the homies they lost to gun violence. M.O.P.’s content doesn’t sound nearly as serious as described in the previous sentence, and Silver D’s dull instrumental makes it easy to mentally check out of this record. Shoutout to Axl Rose and Slash.

In my previous write-up, I praised Spice 1 for standing firm on his square and never wavering in his gangsterism. Similarly, M.O.P. is a group whose messaging stayed consistent throughout the nineties as they were unapologetic and direct with their objective: to let all fake ass gangstas know that they were better than them, and if you opposed them or disagreed, prepare to get beat up, robbed or shot. On To The Death, the Mash Out Posse stays true to their mission statement, mixing Brooklyn bravado with bully bars backed by a hefty dosage of boom-bap beats.

I will always champion rappers who go against the grain and refuse to make formulaic records, but one of the challenges that comes with staying in a specific lane for an entire album is keeping things fresh and interesting. On To The Death (as well as Firing Squad), the bully lane traveled by Billy and Fame gets redundant quickly, as their “rah rah” begins to lose its potency by the midway point, and I found myself zoning in and out during several of the album’s songs. Thankfully, DR Period’s solid production keeps things afloat even when M.O.P.’s rhymes get a little stagnant.

Despite its lyrical redundancy, To The Death is still a decent debut from the Brownsville duo. But if Billy and Fame put guns to my head and made me choose between To The Death and Firing Squad, I would think Firing Squad, but of course, I’d tell them that both albums were flawless masterpieces. What? I ain’t trying to get shot.

-Deedub

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