O.P.P.

"O.P.P."
Single by Naughty by Nature
from the album Naughty By Nature
Released	September 24, 1991 (CD)
Format	CD, cassette, 12"
Recorded	1991
Genre	Hip Hop
Length	4:31
Label	Tommy Boy Records
Writer(s)	Vincent Brown/Anthony Criss/Keir Gist/Alphonzo Mizell/Deke Richards/Freddie Perren/Berry Gordy, Jr.
Producer	Naughty by Nature
Naughty by Nature singles chronology
"Scuffin' Those Knees" (1989) "O.P.P." (1991) "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" (1992)

“O.P.P.” is a 1991 song recorded by rap group Naughty by Nature. The song made it to the U.S. Top Ten (peaking at #6), propelling their self titled album Naughty by Nature to platinum status. The song’s declaration “Down Wit‘ OPP” was a popular catchphrase in the U.S. in the early-’90s. Its beat is sampled from Jackson 5’s “ABC” in which Alphonzo Mizell, Freddie Perren, Deke Richards, and Berry Gordy Jr. got a writing credit for the song. It was a hugely successful single, as Allmusic described “There was not a bigger, more contagious crossover radio smash in the autumn of 1991 than Naughty by Nature’s ‘O.P.P.’” ^[1]

The song was one of the first rap songs to become a pop hit when it reached number 6 in the U.S. and number 35 in the UK in 1991. MTV picked up on its video, and it got heavy airplay on Yo! MTV Raps that year, inspiring a remake of the song as “Down Wit’ MTV.”

The title is an acronym for “other people’s property”; when the song asks if the listener is “down with O.P.P.”, it's asking if he/she is willing to have sexual relations with a person who is known to already have a significant other. Lead rapper Treach coyly obscures the meaning of the second “P” (which is meant to refer to either “pussy” or “penis”) using euphemisms throughout the song saying – instead of pussy – that it is “another way to call a cat a kitten” or – instead of penis – a “five-letter word rhyming with cleanness or meanness.” In the lyrics following, the rap defines the second “P” as “property” to “do it sorta properly.”

Treach was inspired to write the lyrics by a drug dealer in his former neighborhood who used to move in on other dealers’ territories and say he was “Down With O.P.M. – Other People’s Money.” ^[2]

They gave the song a broader appeal by making the lyrics accessible to both male and female listeners, which is done by including male and female genitalia in the abbreviation “OPP”.

In 1998 the song was named one of the 100 best rap singles by The Source. ^[3]

In 2008, it was ranked 22 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop. It also appeared as #53 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the ’90s.

Track listing

1. O.P.P. (Vocal)
2. Wickedest Man Alive (Vocal)
3. O.P.P. (Sunny Days Remix)
4. Wickedest Man Alive (Instrumental)
5. O.P.P. (Instrumental)

Chart performance

References

1. ^ allmusic ((( Naughty by Nature > Overview )))
2. ^ O.P.P. by Naughty by Nature Songfacts
3. ^ rocklist.net