Billy Danze (M.O.P.) Interview

This is an interview with Billy Danze from the Mash Out Posse or simply known as M.O.P.  He is a very business savvy guy but he is also a handful on the mic.  Billy Danze and Fame are the duo that make up M.O.P. and are two of hip hop’s hardest spitting rappers, period.  Billy can spaz out on the mic but when you speak to him he is a very well polished gentleman and business man who you can tell cares a lot about his family.  Check out this interview but there is definitely more to come, I hear that Billy is currently working on a solo album. MusicalFury – What’s going on? Billy Danze – I just sent you some of the new singles from my artist. MusicalFury – Since your latest M.O.P. album Sparta with Fame, what have you been working on? Billy Danze – Just really been moving my own artists and also working on the M.O.P. album, M.O.P. and Permier. Premier is doing a lot of work right now and it is great because he is dope, one of the greatest producers of all time. MusicalFury – To go back before you guys formed M.O.P. how did you get your start? Billy Danze – haha, you know what dude, that is the funniest question I have ever had to answer. Me and Fame go back so far that we don’t even know where we met. We really don’t remember, that is how far back that we have been together as friends and then it kinda of just formed M.O.P. M.O.P. wasn’t a rap group, it was part of our crew but two of us happened to rap so we stuck with the name. MusicalFury – How long have you been working together as a group? Billy Danze – As a hip hop group I think it has been 21 years or so. Since 93 or so. MusicalFury – What is your favorite aspect of the music business? I bet it is pretty awesome to be able to have your music heard by fans across the world and hear yourself on the radio? Billy Danze – Yes it is, that is really cool. I like that part of it but I like actually being on the stage in different parts of the world, places I can’t even pronounce. People of other races and cultures and other backgrounds, to see them like what I do is amazing. Being able to land in South Africa, New Zealand, Japan, France, Germany, UK etc… MusicalFury – I know you are working on your own company now that is focused on releasing new artists and one in particular that you mentioned was Tona. Can you tell us a bit about the new company and who you are working with? Billy Danze – I am basically working hand and hand with the artist myself like Tona from Canada, Loucci Loner from Philly and VDubb from Queens. We also have Ronve, Eyeznpowa is from Florida and we have Cactuz he is from North Carolina, he will be the next artist that comes out too. We have a group from California named Reign Major. As you can see where they are based out of this is not a company that is local, we have artists in every state who are set to put their records out shortly. The reason for doing this is I wanted to build a company, didn’t want to have a label. The difference is a company will always last and a label is not built to last really if you think about it. We build a company with artists from different states and with these artists they all bring different sounds. MusicalFury – What do these guys bring to the game? Billy Danze – For instance we have Reign Major who you can play their records in any Young Money set. If there is a whole set of Young Money you can play them and won’t miss a beat. With Loucci Loner you can play any of his records with Maybach and won’t miss a beat. With Ronve, he is like that cross between J.Cole and new age Talib Kweli with no disrespect to Talib Kweli at all. He is just making good music that you can dance to and you can feel in the pit of your stomach. With Tona you can see that he is already amazing, his wordplay is amazing and we are getting great responses from the music we are putting out there. Cactus is from NC, when you hear, NC you think of trap music but it doesn’t sound like that at all. His new single is geared more towards a rock sort of fan base called “Super Bad”. In the video he is standing in front of a motorcycle gang who can be the most racist group in the world but he is standing there and rocking out. Eisenpower is grounded with the traditional hip hop. 7 individuals that are amazing, VDub also works well for traditional hip hop. We have artists that are covering every style of this hip hop music that we do. MusicalFury – Having experience in the industry and learning about the benefits and the pitfalls what is the most important thing that you learned? Billy Danze – The most important thing that I learned is that I the music travels a long way, it makes a lot of money and the music actually belongs to us as the artists. I take my hat off to all the major record companies that help the artists prosper in their career but the artists are the ones putting in most of the work. I learned how to maneuver around major labels and you have guys like sean combs, jay-z etc… it is guys like that who show us it is our work that is put in and our passion that is making the money so you should get the biggest portion of the pile. If not the biggest portion at least get half of the pot. Everything that I learned in the business is important but I think that is the most important, you have to work hard man. Most cats think you just put a record out and that is it, you actually have to put that work in. What every artist should do now is every time you get on that state and every time you make a new record you make it feel like it is your last time. You got to go in there and give it your all every time because if people don’t know you the goal is you make it so that they don’t forget you. MusicalFury – Where are you living these days are you still in the US? Billy Danze – Yes, I am still in NY, I live way up in the mountains, I look up in my back yard and there could be a bear walking in my back yard and I love it. MusicalFury – What is the name of your company? Billy Danze – WeBuildHits, just one word and we are backed by Sony Music. What we do is recruit very talented artists and then help them all build their own companies. I give them company deals in stead of record deal. As soon as you come in and you have a company you can automatically demand what you want as opposed to ok let me take what I can get until I get into a better position. MusicalFury – What do you feel about the new Brooklyn artists like Maino, Papoose, Uncle Murda, Joey BadAss etc…? Billy Danze – Those are all my dudes, I knew Maino way before music. Uncle Murda is a grounded dude that is dope. As far as the music goes I love it, they are bringing fresh sounds to Brooklyn. It is good to let new blood into the business because if we don’t let them in then the music business won’t grow and I won’t be able to do the WeBuildHits. I take my hats off to all of those cats, I love it. Hats off to Papoose, his album just came out not to long ago. Maino now has the Mafia, his crew the Mafia, Mouse and Lucky Don, I done records with him already, he from Brownsville. They all dope dudes and I am paying attention to Maino and they fighting hard to get into that position, Maino is really my boy. Hats off to those dudes. MusicalFury – I like what you are doing because now with the 360 deals they are getting more and more and the artist is getting so much less. Billy Danze – Exactly, the 360 deals they get more but the artist is the one who puts in all the work. I felt like I needed to do something to help other artists. I want them to say there is billy dance the dude that helped a guy from our neighborhood and let him do his thing. Even Mariah Carey don’t get the type of deal we do. To put a record together they give her $10M and she sells 10M records and she gets $10M and they get way more. They are sitting back and getting all the money. MusicalFury – Thanks for your time! Billy Danze – No problem and check out the new Tona album “Silverspring Crescent” out now on iTunes.

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