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Billy Danze - Who Is Billy Danze?
Interview by: Quinton Hatfield
 What’s been good with one half of the legendary firing squad M.O.P.’s Billy Danze? As you know already, especially for the hardcore M.O.P. fans out there you know that M.O.P. was signed to G-Unit. Time as passed now and while the hardcore legendary duo was signed to one of the industry’s top powerhouses they have yet to release an album. Soon it was out to the hip-hop community that word was M.O.P. left G-Unit, but Billy Danze gets with your boy Q The Question to let people know it was on good terms. Besides the G-Unit talk Billy Danze is back out and as he does best my homey is coming hard. Though he’s known for the classic records made with M.O.P. with him and Lil Fame he wants to let the world know who is Billy Danze. Now your about to find out too as the solo album is yes indeed in the works.
Billy Danze out of the all the artists, producers, models, I have ever interviewed is one of the realest, humble, and most down to earth dudes I’ve ever talked to along with Dame Grease he was cool as shit too [laughs]. I was talking to this dude like we knew each other for years and to all my questions that he answered he keep it 100. The great thing about this feature is that Billy got some words for you new rappers on the come up and will tell it like it really is, listen to me now it’s something ya’ll must read and knowing your business is MUST. As they say all the time “They only signing you to make money” that’s why it’s called the music business. The new solo record “God Bless & God Night” is a fuckin banger produced by the Alchemist and if you’re a die-hard M.O.P. fan you already know what it’s hitting for. Billy Danze thanks for the love and Supreme good look on your behalf too, readers go ahead and read the raw interview with Billy, and as Billy and Supreme say “Salute”!!!!! [laughs].
 Nobodysmiling.com : Let it be known what’s going on with M.O.P. and Billy Danze, you have the new record out “God Bless & Good Night” out so what’s going on?
Billy Danze : Well as far as M.O.P. goes we got tons of records we just waiting to set up proper for that, we got a ton of records dude. Billy Danze I got the solo album coming soon so we just doing it real big, it’s 08 and time to get it back in order.
Nobodysmiling.com : You said you doing it solo so what made you decide to go solo instead of M.O.P. right now?
Billy Danze : I don’t think people really know who Billy Danze is or who Lil Fame is. The name M.O.P. is actually bigger than me as a person or artist. I just want to make sure people get that before I fall out of the game, because I’ve put in enough work to where I think somebody would recognize me. It’s my view of everything you know what I mean.
Nobodysmiling.com : Since M.O.P. evolved what has been the growth or changes have ya’ll made since 1993’s “How About Some Hardcore’?
Billy Danze : As far as us being people nothing, we ain’t changing nothing dog because it’s our comfort zone. What we talk about on the record is what we know and our style of music doesn’t mean that we don’t deal with other kind of music, because as we know you need right so you can know what’s wrong. You need happy so you can know what’s sad so we just stay in our lane and that’s what we always do. As far as growth business wise yes to all of that, but as far as the music goes I can’t change that. If we change that then we lose everything we worked at for 15 years.
Nobodysmiling.com : Back to the music we haven’t had an official album since “Warriorz” back in 2000 and you know it’s a lot of hardcore M.O.P. fans. With you coming out with the solo project and all I want to know are you doing any production on there? I know Fame gets down. I would like to know if you got busy with the equipment.
Billy Danze : You know what I try brother, but I got to be honest. Just like the DJ’s in the world and I’m saying this with a smile on my face because it’s a joke [laughs]. I hate all these producers and all DJ’s dude, because I envy them, they can do stuff I can’t do [laughs]. I be trying to figure out how does Fame get in the studio make a beat with the piece of a beat, like how do you do that? I have not figured it out [laughs].
Nobodysmiling.com : Hey man, but it the same time everybody can’t MC and that’s a talent itself. It’s a lot of people that rap and they might have big hits right now, but as far as I’m concerned they not talking about nothing and you got that talent.
Billy Danze : I mean come on family let’s call a spade of spade man, rapping is just your opinion and how you move around on the beat but the beat gotta make you do that, you understand. They are actually starting from scratch even though they are using samples or whatever, but their actually starting from scratch. I commend all DJ’s and all producers, but I can’t stand them. I can’t stand them because they making me look bad [laughs], I tried to make a beat before but it didn’t work out.
Nobodysmiling.com : Hey man practice makes perfect with anything!
Billy Danze : Hey man it’s so many hot producers out now, right now I’m working with DR Period who produced the first M.O.P. album. Of course DJ Premier, Lil Fame is gonna do something for the solo project, Alchemist actually did that beat to “God Bless & Good Night”. I got some heat coming, I got some boys down in Texas sending some heat too and I’m really proud of it.
Nobodysmiling.com : Let’s talk about this “God Bless & Good Night”, the record comes strong, but what was the whole motivation for you to come back out?
Billy Danze : It was the title of the record “God Bless & Good Night”, I actually got it from my sister. She’s a real Christian women and actually said it to me God bless and good night and it stuck. Of course I played around with Russell Simmons a little bit and I thought about the way the game was going today just knowing we haven’t had a record out since 2000. Everybody came at that time, a lot of people came and went, a lot of people clogged up the game and I’m happy for them, but God bless and good night it’s over now. Now it has to come back where it really belongs and when I say that I don’t mean New York City hip-hop I mean it needs to come back to me. Because I own it and it’s mine, so I need to go ahead and get it in coming back like it’s mine. It’s over, God bless and good night man.
Nobodysmiling.com : Getting into the record how did you reach out to the Alchemist to get it done?
Billy Danze : You know Alchemist is my man, he’s been with Mobb Deep. We came in the game with Mobb Deep as kids, the first Mobb Deep album we was around, the first M.O.P. album they was around. We always mingled around with Mobb Deep so with Alchemist being a part of Mobb Deep’s camp and being with Premo it was really easy. It’s like Alchemist can call my crib and be on the phone with my kids and everything [laughs], it’s like a family thing man. I will accept a beat from an outsider now as long as it’s smoking.
Nobodysmiling.com : What has enabled Billy to survive the Brooklyn streets and make it in this rap game?
Billy Danze : You know what it’s a good thing, but it’s actually a sad thing. I make music for the part of society that people try to forget about and that part of society has always been there which is the street. My father hung out in the street, as far as I know his father hung out in the street, my older brothers hung out in the street so it’s like the streets will never go anywhere. Where ever we at or anywhere we go the streets is there, the hood is there so music can change.
It’s like when Biggie and God bless Biggie who was a friend of mine started telling you about Versace shirts everybody around went and got a Versace shirt, then they realized it cost 600 hundred dollars and couldn’t afford it [laughs]. The Versace’s were gone, but the streets have always been here and they will never leave. That’s my inspiration the good times and bad times of the street, like I said it’s a good thing, but it’s also a bad thing man.
Nobodysmiling.com : A lot of good stuff comes from the lack of stuff that you have, sometimes your best times come from when you had to come up with something out of nothing.
Billy Danze : Exactly, it be pain man it’s a lot of pain. Good times to us were we come from to some other people that’s a bad time, but were overjoyed. Nobody getting hit at, nobody went to prison, nobody on the news that’s good for us man, that’s a good thing.
Nobodysmiling.com : It’s like all the good music and stuff that people are making tons of money off of comes out of situations like that. As far as hip-hop is concerned what do you feel about the regional stuff? Like the hyphy music out in the west, the screwed music Texas, which is good music, but it’s not getting the love everywhere else like Atlanta or Florida is getting right now? Even the good music coming out of New York.
Billy Danze : Everything is a process man, like the dudes in Atlanta their music wasn’t always accepted so it’s a process. They fought for that for years, I don’t care what you do if you do it to death you gonna get it done, some things just take a little longer than others. If you put your all into it man it’s gonna happen for you. Look at Nelly when the chicks be outside singing doing cheers and all that. I know Nelly personally, I know he’s creative and that was him being creative. I know he’s dope, that was him being creative and easy for the people’s ear. I would’ve never said “I’m going down, down, baby” I would’ve never did that, but listen to me he said over 10 million records. That’s not the first record he made, I got homey’s from the Bronx that used to be down there that knows the dude when they used to hang out in the barbershop and all that. Dude always made music so he kept trying, kept trying, and kept trying.
That’s what you gotta do in the game and anything that you do you gotta keep going. If a 100 people standing in front of you telling you that you trash if you look at it that’s a lot of people, but do you know how many people is in America man? A 100 people is not even a fraction so it’s like ya’ll can be pissed off at what I’m doing, but I got half a million people over here that say I’m rocking. A lot of the other music that were are hearing it’s not hip-hop, but it’s music. Music is music man and we can’t take nothing from it, this is what we supposed to do. We supposed to let it grow and turn into something else, because if we stuck on one thing then we just stuck right there. If we keep fighting over the music and the regions with that “This region is better than that one” you see they tryna band us already. If they band all of this we would have nothing. Imagine the world without music, how about that [laughs]? We don’t want that.
Nobodysmiling.com : So Billy it’s simply said “Music makes the world go round!
Billy Danze: How about that!
Nobodysmiling.com : Moving on into some headlines I read that M.O.P. left G-Unit, can you give us the situation on that?
Billy Danze : Let me say this first I don’t want nobody to get it twisted or nothing, because of whatever the media made 50 Cent out to be. To us 50 is a good dude man, he’s a good dude that understands if it’s not gonna work here then maybe you should get something popping somewhere else. I’m doing the “Heavy Metal” project right now, the “Bill Gates” project, I got countless artist under me, and that the thing with G-Unit is that 50 is an artist. He gotta run and do his own thing, he got other artists they gotta do they thing. It’s not an issue with M.O.P. and G-Unit, it’s just that its time to move on and moving forward into bigger and better things.
I can’t say that we was done wrong or anything at G-Unit, because if I said that I would be lying. 50 got the same thing in his head that I got in mine, I’ve been putting out music for 15 years man. At some point I gotta benefit from it and if I’m not in the position to put any other music out on G-Unit or any other label then I gotta find myself another route to go. I got kids and their big now and sneakers don’t even cost 40 bucks no more [laughs], their like a 150 bucks. They got to be set up later on in life and it’s my job as a man to make sure they in pocket. The situation with G-Unit is still good and everything, it’s not an issue or problem at all, but like I said it’s time for us to move on. The days keep going and time don’t wait for nobody, it’s time for us to move on and make sure the babies is alright.
Nobodysmiling.com : Well at least you letting it be known you got bills to pay and kids to feed.
Billy Danze: How about that? That’s the most important thing in the world brother.
Nobodysmiling.com : Speaking on the situation with G-Unit and you coming out with a solo project where is your next move as far as a label?
Billy Danze : We have our own label and I have a separate label with partners, and another label with my partners with my homey’s down in Texas. I got places to go, I got a few offers I wouldn’t say a lot but I got a few from some of the heavy guys out there who got paper that want to put something behind me who believes in what I’m doing. The name of the album is called “Behind Gates” and once I got everything lined up then I’ll definitely give ya’ll a release date. As of right now I’m a just keep marching them joints at you and hopefully I get some spins and some love.
Nobodysmiling.com : Well as long as you keep me updated I got your back!
Billy Danze : Aw man thank you brother I appreciate it!
Nobodysmiling.com : Billy you’re a vet in the game, but how you feel about the change of hip-hop as far as the sales, the downloading, from the time you started in the game to this point now?
Billy Danze : [Laughs], you know what that’s a funny question because I’m a be honest with you Q. Check this out if you want me to say it for the people that’s cool, but I know you know better than this so pay attention. If we don’t go in that studio and make no music no money gets made. I don’t care if it’s downloads, CD, cassette tape, or whatever. If I don’t make the music it won’t get sold. Now we got to restructure the deal, it’s going digital. The CD sales went down, but the digital went up so now we selling it digital. The money is still the same.
Nobodysmiling.com : Hey it’s like they say when something falls down something else is picking up!
Billy Danze : How about that? Just jump on the train! The money moves between 7-11 man, that’s how we look at it man and that’s the new motto. If you ain’t up at 6:30 you gonna lose homey so just do what you gotta do homey. As long as we stay in the studio and structure our deals properly everybody will be fine man. It’s just that a lot of people in the game just don’t know the game. That’s always happened when somebody is first coming in the game and they just don’t know the game. I think that’s one of the reasons why people always go and get younger kids that ain’t so sharp about the business so they can try to run over them and so to speak. When it’s your first time out you ain’t worrying about the money. You just happy for the glamour, you see the lights, the girls, your not thinking about anything else.
This is not everybody, but a lot of times the people that put you out is only after the money which is cool because they understand it’s a business. Now if you got to wait for the wheel to turn your head and say “Wait a minute what I’m doing this is business, let me get this money”, because a lot of the platinum artists don’t have what I have. We just got to step our game up as artists and make sure the people we have around us is good people and got our best interest at hand not just for them. If it’s for us then we cool if you can take everything you need and I can take every thing I need. Nobody is going to make as much money off of Billy Danze than Billy Danze. It doesn’t make sense to me, it never did, and it never will. To all the younger dudes out there coming up get your business right. It’s a lot of money out here, it’s been here a long time so you know it’s got to be something in it.
Nobodysmiling.com : It’s funny you said that, because I was reading an interview with Fat Joe on DJBooth.net. He was telling how when he first got into the game how the A&R’s, label execs would offer him all types of money, but as soon as he started flopping or the situation wasn’t good these people that he thought was his friends were actually running from him. They wouldn’t answer his calls or nothing.
Billy Danze : Oh yeah, game over baby. If your predicted to sell a certain amount of CD’s at this period in time and you don’t do that they automatically gonna turn they back on you. It’s really no love that’s what’s going on so now it’s all going crazy for them. They get a little side-tracked and they always waiting for the next big thing. They only gonna deal with you, because they think your “The Big Thing”.
If they see that your not then you gotta go and somebody else gotta take that slot. It’s horrible to me because I’m not the kind of dude that will try to put somebody in a position and try to benefit all for myself. You got dudes out there that’s like that man, so like I said ya’ll kids got to be careful man. It’s a lot of fun, but when you realize it’s a lot of work you want to be compensated for it. Keep your eyes and ears open man that’s it.
Nobodysmiling.com : Billy Danze we appreciate you for showing some love on Nobodysmiling.com, go a throw a final message for the fans and how they can reach you?
Billy Danze : Check this out as I’ve been doing this lately, I like my people to go ahead and get a hold of me directly. No third party, no middle man, or none of that. Hit me on the email marxsmman1@yahoo.com that’s me right there and I’ll hit you right back. It’s nobody on the computer answering for me, it’s me. Anybody that got anything to say, wanting to show love or not it’s whatever.
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