Sunday Music: "Ante Up" By M.O.P.

Yes, it’s a song about robbing people. But it’s also a song about getting your respect, and how sometimes, you just have to take it.

In 2000, it was the rare rap mosh pit song. Somehow, without being anywhere near rap-metal shenanigans, here was M.O.P., flipping a Sam and Dave track,* and bringing that Public Enemy level of aggression from a pair of turntables. Punk AF. The video tells you everything you need to know. And if this is your first encounter, please know that I wish I could pop-up video highlight some of the names of the faces here too. It was a big deal on TV in 2000:

Start to finish, if a DJ put it on, basically you could bet on all the guys going wild and something somewhere being broken.

Which meant, when the song started to blow up, it needed a remix, and the remix needed some even bigger energy. It was an extra added bonus to see a female lead in the mix, especially as it was Terror Squad’s own, Remy Ma.** Plus, the local punk club vibe in this video too? I remember thinking, “I’ve been in that room, why couldn’t I have been in THAT room?!”

They all kill it, mixing and extending the metaphor of what it means to give it up, but Remy has a few lines that are forever etched into my brain:

Again, she’s obviously leaning extra into the robbery theme, but that’s not the really interesting part.

Note the use of “slow money,” the audacity and impatience of the feeling you get by her, throwing that line it, with the sheer acknowledgment of money’s slowness as a thing. That is hardcore. That is the reality of putting somebody onto a career path built on not waiting around. It’s real, and it’s double painful when she repeats, “Wish I could bring Pun back” in reference to the rapper who discovered and elevated her several times in a row in the next line. Because life too, comes at you fast.

It’s savage. In all the ways. There’s an ache behind it, and every time I hear her verse, I feel it. The hunger and the risks to get fed, to be respected.

And to take it all the way back, Remy Ma was also looking for HER respect. She was always in Pun’s shadow. She, beyond the outright robbery themes, understood how deep the metaphor ran in her verse, at even more levels.

Earn your respect, but don’t be scared to take it.  

Last word goes to Billy Danze (of the group), who explained the song to Passion of the Weiss like this:

If you ever need to get fired up, all the versions of “Ante Up” are here for you now too.

Bonus stuff!

*Sam and Dave really were the best. The sample is from the intro, but damn, what a song:

**the Remy Ma verse came up in an intro for a Remi Tetot interview I recorded recently for an upcoming Intentional Investor. No spoilers, but those words got remixed (along with some Ratatouille references).

AND who could forget Skratch Bastid rocking this routine in the early 2000s?! OK I get it, you probably missed it, but I forgive you and want you to enjoy it now. I went looking for either him or Mr. Dibbs doing “Ante Up” and was delighted to find this incredible routine + “how I did that” style breakdown. So cool. Enjoy:

Still here? Did you know Sam and Dave used to CRUSH this live? Plus, there’s an up-tempo “That Lucky Old Sun” in this performance, and, you know, I’m all choked up after finding this version.

You’re STILL HERE?!

OK, fine. Make’em laugh to this… Brownsville to Sesame Street connections, h/t David Ma: