O.P.P. (song)

"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 at Unique Recording Studios NYC
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 Melvin Bliss' "Synthetic Substitution", with instrumentation samples from Jackson 5's "ABC" in which Alphonzo Mizell, Freddie Perren, Deke Richards, Liam Kantwill, 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 initialism for "other people's pussy" and "other people's penis"; when the song asks if the listener is "down with O.P.P.", it is asking if he/she is willing to have sexual intercourse 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 cleanest or meanest." In the lyrics following, the rap defines the third "P" as "property" to "do it sorta properly."

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

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

The song was featured in the 2003 film Malibu's Most Wanted, where it played at an O.P.P.-themed Bar Mitzvah.

The song was also used in the 2005 war film Jarhead. It is played in the background while the Marines party in a tent on Christmas Eve.

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.

Television series Parenthood included this song on the tenth episode of its second season, "Happy Thanksgiving", in its closing scene sequence, and U.S. series The Office included it in the second season episode, "The Dundies",^[4] when Michael rapped over the original words of the song with his own lyrics in a parodical manner.^[5]

The song was featured in the 2009 film Up in the Air during the hotel club scene.

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)

Official versions

• O.P.P. (Album Version)
• O.P.P. (Vocal)
• O.P.P. (Instrumental)
• O.P.P. (Sunny Days Remix)

Chart performance

Peak positions Chart Peak position U.S. Billboard Hot 100 6 U.S. Hot Rap Singles 1 U.S. Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles & Tracks 5 U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play 7 U.S. Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 1 UK Singles Chart 35

End of year charts End of year chart (1991) Position U.S. Billboard Hot 100[6] 94

References

1. ^ allmusic ((( Naughty by Nature > Overview )))
2. ^ O.P.P. by Naughty by Nature Songfacts
3. ^ rocklist.net
4. ^ "The Office: US Version" The Dundies (2005) - Soundtracks
5. ^ The Office: The Dundies Episode Summary - TV.com
6. ^ "Billboard Top 100 - 1991". http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php?year=1991. Retrieved 2009-09-15.