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O.P.P. (song)

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"O.P.P."
Single by Naughty by Nature
from the album Naughty by Nature
B-side"The Wickedest Man Alive"
ReleasedAugust 24, 1991
Recorded1991
StudioUnique Recording Studios
(New York, New York, US)
GenreGolden age hip hop
Length
  • 4:31 (album version)
  • 6:41 (Ultimix remix)
LabelTommy Boy
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Naughty by Nature
Naughty by Nature singles chronology
"Scuffin' Those Knees"
(1989) 		"O.P.P."
(1991) 		"Everything's Gonna Be Alright"
(1992)
Music video
"O.P.P." on YouTube

"O.P.P." is a song by American hip hop group Naughty by Nature, released in August 1991 by Tommy Boy as the lead single from the group's self-titled second album, Naughty by Nature (1991). It was one of the first rap songs to become a pop hit when it reached No. 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 35 on the UK Singles Chart. Rodd Houston and Marcus Raboy directed the music video for the song. Its declaration, "Down wit' O.P.P." was a popular catchphrase in the US in the early 1990s.

The song was a hugely successful single; Spin magazine named it one of the greatest singles of the 1990s, offering a brief verdict with the rhetorical question, "Ever wonder where Puffy came from?"[1] It also made some media outlets' lists of one of the best rap songs of all time: including The Source,[2][better source needed] VH1 (No. 22),[3] and Rolling Stone (No. 80).[4] The song was also ranked No. 20 in VH1's "40 Greatest Hip Hop Songs of the '90s" in 2012[5] and No. 96 in Billboard magazine's "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time" in 2023.[6]

Content

[edit]

The song samples Melvin Bliss' "Synthetic Substitution" and The Jackson 5's "ABC". Its lyrics concern sexual infidelity, with "O.P.P." standing for "other people's pussy" and "other people's penis". Treach told in an interview with New York Times, "'O.P.P.' is about crazy messing with other people's girls. Everybody knows about that, girls messing, guys messing, you know the bit. It goes on, so everybody could relate, the fellas and the girls, and it's got a hook for the party and everybody can crazy groove to it."[7]

Critical reception

[edit]

Upon the single release, Larry Flick from Billboard remarked that here, the act drops samples of the Jackson Five's "ABC" onto "a rousing hip-hop beat-base. Anthemic rhymes are icing on the cake. Have a taste."[8] James Bernard from Entertainment Weekly described it as "a sly, body-rocking tune with a melodic pop hook and plenty of cute double entendres".[9] Dennis Hunt from Los Angeles Times viewed it as a "lively, lewd hit single", "which is cleverly constructed on the framework of the Jackson 5’s bubble-gum soul classic".[10] David Bennun from Melody Maker called it "a genitally-fixated rap on the joys of infidelity".[11] A reviewer from Music & Media felt "It's further proof of the new direction in rap heading more towards a normal pop song. The combination of the piano hook and the female backup makes this funky rhyme memorable."[12]

Peter Watrous from New York Times wrote, "There are a couple of signs that "O.P.P.", an old-fashioned cheating song by Naughty by Nature [...] is shaping up as one of the summer's hits on local streets. The first indication is the sound of "O.P.P" coming from the back of Jeeps; the second is that bootleg T-shirts advertising the band—Trech (Trech Criss), Vin Rock (Vinnie Brown) and Kay Gee (Keir Gist) -- are being sold all over lower Manhattan."[7] Johnny Lee from Smash Hits declared the song as "everso jumpy".[13] Scott Poulson-Bryant from Spin said, "I'm definitely down with "O.P.P."—you will be too."[14]

Retrospective response

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German rock and pop culture magazine Spex included "O.P.P." in their "The Best Singles of the Century" list in 1999.[15] In a 2021 retrospective review, Jesse Ducker from Albumism said about the song, "It's one of the most light-hearted songs about infidelity this side of Clarence Carter's "Back Door Santa", as Treach gleefully lists the virtues of engaging in sexual congress with someone else's girl."[16] Stanton Swihart of AllMusic felt it's "a song that somehow managed the trick of being both audaciously catchy and subversively coy at the same time." He added, "Its irrepressible appeal was so widespread, in fact, that it played just as well to the hardcore heads in the hood as it did to the hip-hop dabblers in the suburbs."[17] Jean Rosenbluth from Los Angeles Times stated, "The fabulously wicked chant "O.P.P." masterfully captured hip-hop's silly side even better than that genre's prime exponent, Digital Underground."[18] In October 2023, Billboard magazine ranked it number 96 in their "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time",[6] saying, "Three decades later, all it takes is the opening piano plinks to remind even the most conservative ‘90s kid that deep down, damn skippy, they’re still a card-carrying member." Same year, Time Out ranked "O.P.P." number 60 in their "The 100 Best Party Songs Ever Made".[19]

Music video

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A music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Rodd Houston and Marcus Raboy.[20] It begins with a man removing his wedding ring and dropping it. The group raps at a club behind a fence and people dance behind them. The video was later made available on Naughty by Nature's official YouTube channel in 2010, and had generated more than 19 million views as of January 2023.

Track listing

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  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

[edit]
  • "O.P.P." (album version)
  • "O.P.P." (vocal)
  • "O.P.P." (instrumental)
  • "O.P.P." (Sunny Days remix)

Charts

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Certifications

[edit]
Certifications for "O.P.P."
Region Certification Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[37] 2× Platinum 2,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

[edit]

The song has been used as a soundtrack to various films as well as television series, including the TV sitcoms The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and The Office, and the films La Haine, Jarhead, and Up in the Air. In the film Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit, the song was parodied as 'Down With G.O.D'. In the video game Minecraft, the phrase "Down with O.P.P.!" was used as a splash text which appeared on the game's menu screen. The splash was added on February 7, 2010 in Java Edition version Indev 20100207-1 but was later removed in version 1.16 Release Candidate 1 on June 18, 2020.[38][39]

References

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  1. ^ Weingarten, Christopher R. (December 7, 2011). "Naughty By Nature Look Back on 20 Years of 'O.P.P.'". Spin. Archived from the original on June 12, 2017. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  2. ^ "Rocklist.net...The Source 100 Best Rap Albums & Singles".
  3. ^ Singh, Amrit (September 29, 2008). "VH1's 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs". Stereogum. Archived from the original on August 15, 2018. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  4. ^ "100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. June 2, 2017. Archived from the original on August 15, 2018. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  5. ^ Runtagh, Jordan (December 19, 2012). "40 Greatest Hip Hop Songs of the '90s (COMPLETE LIST)". VH1. Archived from the original on August 15, 2018. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  6. ^ a b "The 500 Best Pop Songs: Staff List". Billboard. October 19, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  7. ^ a b Watrous, Peter (August 14, 1991). "The Pop Life". New York Times.
  8. ^ Flick, Larry (July 13, 1991). "Single Reviews" (PDF). Billboard. p. 77. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  9. ^ Bernard, James (October 4, 1991). "Naughty by Nature". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
  10. ^ Hunt, Dennis (September 29, 1991). "In Brief". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  11. ^ Bennun, David (November 9, 1991). "Albums". Melody Maker. p. 33. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
  12. ^ "New Releases Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. October 5, 1991. p. 10. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  13. ^ Dee, Johnny (January 20, 1993). "New Singles". Smash Hits. p. 49. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  14. ^ Poulson-Bryant, Scott (October 1991). "Heavy Rotation". Spin. p. 28. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
  15. ^ "Die besten Singles aller Zeiten at home.rhein-zeitung.de". Archived from the original on July 6, 2012. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  16. ^ Ducker, Jesse (August 31, 2021). "Naughty By Nature's Eponymous Second Album 'Naughty By Nature' Turns 30 — Anniversary Retrospective". Albumism. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
  17. ^ Swihart, Stanton. "Naughty by Nature – Naughty by Nature". AllMusic. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
  18. ^ Rosenbluth, Jean (1993). "Naughty By Nature – 19 Naughty III". Los Angeles Times. – via St. Louis Post-Dispatch. (April 9, 1993).
  19. ^ Doyle, Ella; Lawrence, India; Taylor, Henrietta; Manning, James; Kryza, Andy; Lukowski, Andrzej; Levine, Nick; Waywell, Chris (July 28, 2023). "The 100 Best Party Songs Ever Made". Time Out. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
  20. ^ "Naughty by Nature: O.P.P." IMDb. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
  21. ^ "Naughty By Nature – O.P.P.". ARIA Top 50 Singles.
  22. ^ "Canadian Top Singles peak". Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  23. ^ "Canadian Dance peak". Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  24. ^ "Naughty By Nature – O.P.P." (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
  25. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Naughty By Nature" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
  26. ^ "Naughty By Nature – O.P.P." (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  27. ^ "Naughty By Nature – O.P.P.". Top 40 Singles.
  28. ^ "Naughty By Nature – O.P.P.". Swiss Singles Chart.
  29. ^ "Top 60 Dance Singles" (PDF). Music Week. June 20, 1992. p. 20. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  30. ^ "Naughty by Nature Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
  31. ^ "Naughty by Nature Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard.
  32. ^ "Naughty by Nature Chart History (Dance Singles Sales)". Billboard. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  33. ^ "Naughty by Nature Chart History (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs)". Billboard.
  34. ^ "Naughty by Nature Chart History (Hot Rap Songs)". Billboard.
  35. ^ Nielsen Business Media, Inc (December 21, 1991). "1991 The Year in Music & Video: Top Pop Singles". Billboard. Vol. 103, no. 51. p. YE-14. {{cite magazine}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  36. ^ "End of Year Charts 1992". Recorded Music NZ. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  37. ^ "American single certifications – Naughty By Nature – O.P.P." Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
  38. ^ "Minecraft 1.16 Release Candidate". Minecraft.net. 2020-06-18. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
  39. ^ "And software sound is now gone". The Word of Notch. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
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