TGRIOnline’s HARD JAMS presents…M.O.P. – Ante Up (2000)

If you’ve been a fan of TGRIOnline.com as of late, you’ve noticed our preoccupation with having a particular dislike of the beta male, emotionally expressive movement in popular music. It’s not that we so much hate with passion the Kid Cudis and Pitchfork favored alternative indy bands of the world, we just would prefer to not see popular music taken over and inundated with their sound. As we’ve stated in “Alpha Male Music Week” and our “HARD 10!” countdown, we’re just attempting to represent a balance in music. WIth that being said, we’ll periodically feature some “harder edged” material to shake you out of your doldrums and give you a no crying wanted, swift kick in your musical ass. Do enjoy!

Hardcore rhyme slayers M.O.P. are arguably the most influential tough bar spitting duo in hip hop history. With nearly 20 years in the game, they have worked with literally every legendary emcee and producer in rap, but due to label politics, have very little in the way of gold and platinum records to show for their groundbreaking status. However, the purveyors of “hard” in hip hop do have something to show for their diligence and dedication to craft and style in one of the hardest jams of all time, their biggest seller, from 2000’s Warriorz  album, “Ante Up.”

http://www.youtube.com/v/3MUGAxpI0Bc&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01

Take minks off! Take things off!
Take chains off! Take rings off!
Bracelets is yapped, Fame came off!
(Ante Up!) Everything off!
Fool what you want? We stiflin them fools
Fool what you want? Your life or your jewels?
The rules, (back em down) next thing, (clap em down)
Respect mine we Brooklyn bound, (bound! now, (now!)

These lyrics are some of the most obvious calls for criminally minded, ignorant and raucous behavior in a nightclub. By the above listed words ALONE, with no other words, it’s obvious why “Ante Up” is one of the hardest jams in music history.

Producer DR Period creates the perfect track once again for M.O.P.’s tales of criminal behavior. He was the mastermind behind their first minor hit, “How About Some Hardcore?,” and on “Ante Up,” with the aid of a boom bap kickdrum and one of the most insistent horn loops in the history of the genre, Billy Danze and Lil’ Fame paint one of the most motivating odes to crime committed to record. The track makes you want to jack someone. In fact, gold chains, diamonds, rings, money, “old gold and marijuana” are all robbed in lyrics, and there’s enough talk of gunplay and kidnapping if you don’t just hand over the goods that even the unharmed listener is likely shook by the descriptions of the activities described.

It’s one of the great shames in the history of rap music that Billy Danze and Lil’ Fame did not ascend to being hip hop megastars. M.O.P. is short for the street gang “Mash Out Posse” that they founded as Brownsville, Brooklyn youths. In being street hustlers and not drug dealers who were able to eventually cash out of the game like Superfly, there’s a deeper authenticity to their lyrics of grime and struggle, as well, it always appears that they could STILL hit the streets and be successful stick-up men. Can we say that for 50 Cent of Jay-Z? Clearly not.

I’m a street regulator, true playa hater
Get back dunn make yo’ ass a mack spraya hater
Things that we need, money, clothes, weed indeed
Hats, food, booze, essentials, credentials
Code of the streets, owners who creep
Slow when you sleep, holdin the heat
Put holes in your jeep, respect mine we streets

That’s hard.

HARD FACTS: “Ante Up”‘s remix featuring Busta Rhymes, Teflon and Remy Ma may indeed be the version of this track more mainstreamed fans are aware of. To prove just how all encompassing and ridiculously hard M.O.P. are, Teflon still remains unsigned, Remy Ma is in jail for shooting someone, and Busta Rhymes had five separate assault charges since the year 2000. Incredible.