M.O.P.: Warriorz : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Lil' fame and Billy Danzenie, of the Brownsville, Brooklyn, duo MOP., have been drum majors of hip-hop ruggedness since they asked the pointed question, "How 'bout some hardcore?" on their inaugural single, in 1993. On Warriorz, they continue mixing assault-and-battery vocals with head-rattling beats like they were the love child of DMX and Limp Bizkit throwing a temper tantrum. The subject matter here doesn't stray far beyond warning you to stay out of their part of town, especially when they're rhyming over the vaudevillian horns and keys of "Home Sweet Home." At their mellowest, they team up with thug crooners Product G&B for "Everyday," where Fame spits, "We'll shit in the middle of your show like a horse at the circus." While nothing matches up to the mad-dog exuberance of the album's first single -- the call-to-robbery "Ante Up (Robbing-Hoodz Theory)" -- Warriorz is a message to any would-be Kings of New York: Stay out of Brownsville. (RS 853)

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