​If you don't like M.O.P., you probably don't really like rap music—or so the cliché goes. But there's something in the sentiment: For nearly two decades now, Billy Danze and Lil Fame have been putting out passionate, uncompromising rap music that's rooted in a resolutely east cost aesthetic. Fame was even moved to mandate, "When I die, make sure you bury me with a cassette of [Eric B & Rakim's] Paid In Full."

The duo, originally based in Brownsville, has worked with a who's who of New York hip-hop heavy hitters; they even endured stints signed to Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records and 50 Cent's G-Unit movement. Now they've hooked up with European production unit The Snowgoons for the full-length project Sparta. To tie-in with its release, we asked Billy and Fame to reminisce over their favorite collaborations from the vault.

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Jay Reatard, gone but not forgotten.

​It is depressing but accurate to note how inexorably the internet bends toward death, and how much of the work of professional critics these days is announcing it, verifying it, and making sense of it (often in that order, unfortunately). Michael Jackson, as in so many other things, proved prophetic in this regard; as we wrote last year, "the TMZ-led, wall-to-wall coverage of Jackson's last hours proved to be an augur of what, by August, was being dubbed the 'Summer of Death'--a phenomenon abetted if not entirely created by the ascendance of Twitter, where user avatars tinted green in solidarity with Iran's dissenters solemnly announced the passing of everyone from David Carradine to DJ AM to Gidget the Chihuahua." That's as true as it ever was. But it also bears remembering at the end of the year--work aside--how many of our best that we've lost. Sometimes it's easy to forget, but let's not. A brief roll call:

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Guru and Premier, in happier times

​When erstwhile Gang Starr MC Guru passed away on April 19, the rap world mourned. Not just for the loss of one of the best to ever to do it, but also for the shadowy circumstances under which he died--alone, in a hospital bed, with his family forbidden to visit him. For months, if not years, the rapper's only link to the outside world had been a much loathed figure, John "Superproducer Solar" Mosher, who moved in on Guru in the waning days of Gang Starr, when tensions rose between the rapper and his longtime producer, DJ Premier. In the months following Guru's untimely death (he was 48), rumors began to spread about just how badly he'd been served by putting his trust in Solar. Then an anonymous hacker managed to find his way into Solar's email account and Twitter, using one to post damaging revelations from the other. So what exactly happened? This month's XXL has a story by Thomas Golianopoulos [print only, though excerpted here] recounting what exactly happened in Guru's last agonized days, according to people as diverse as Premier, Guru's sister, longtime Gang Starr affiliate Freddie Foxxx, and Solar himself. It's not a pretty picture. The ten most damaging revelations?

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​Excellent piece in this week's Phoenix summarizing the RIP Guru/Fuck Solar situation to date, tracing Guru's troubled ascent from rebellious Boston teenager to NYC-rap icon, and Solar's path from... whatever he was doing before to these halcyon days of hacked email accounts and fucksolar.com. Lots of ugly stuff, topped by several former Jazzmatazz collaborators' firsthand recollections of physical abuse. Yeah, and the "true evil" thing. Both Solar and Guru's family are keeping quiet lately, in advance of imminent tribute/memorial events; this is still likely to get much worse.

The above appears to be Solar momentarily wresting back control of his hacked Twitter account and attempting some damage control, though at this point, you'd have to think it's too late. (As it turns out, it wasn't Solar--just his tormentor, having some more fun at the producer's expense.) But the proof of the legitimacy of the leaked emails posted on that account (full original story here) over the last several days is only growing. For one, not only did we confirm that at least some of the emails posted on the hacked Twitter account are in fact real, but AllHipHop did us one better, and got a statement straight from the source. As Solar's own PR company told them, "Yo! Promotions, www.yo-pr.com, has learned from 7 Grand Records that Solar's official AOL e-mail account was hacked and that various e-mail communications between Solar and Yo! Promotions are currently circulating the internet." Which is to say, they heard that the emails were real from Solar's own record company, 7 Grand. Seems like pretty total confirmation to us. For another thing, the embarrassing revelations keep coming. The worst of them? That Solar masqueraded as Guru while the MC was in a coma in order to collect Guru's royalty checks:

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​In the wake of one-time Gang Starr rapper Guru's death at the young age of 47, his latter day producer and partner Solar emerged as hip-hop's most loathed villain, accused of everything from denying Guru's family access to their dying kin to fabricating a deathbed statement from the rapper to starting a bogus charity in Guru's name. This weekend, someone hacked into Solar's AOL email account and posted a selection of messages via his also-hacked Twitter account. The anonymous hacker made public emails sent between Solar and various parties, including documents that seem to indicate that Solar is more evil than anyone could have even guessed. The emails appear to show that Solar forced Guru to tour instead of seeking medical help; that he controlled Guru's access to his own email account and various other web presences; that Solar owed money to multiple parties; and, perhaps most chillingly, that Solar attempted to pimp out unreleased music from Guru after the rapper's death.

SOTC contacted some of the parties named in the messages, and the emails appear to be authentic. Jake Paine, editor-in-chief of the website www.hiphopdx.com, confirmed that an email addressed to him from Solar's PR agency, YO! Promotions, was legitimate. A contact at a Japanese company Solar suggested might be interested in some previously unreleased music also confirmed that the email involving him was accurate. Additionally, the email accredited to Guru in the leaked correspondence (guruler7@aol.com) checks out as the same email he was using back in 2008 to warn journalists ahead of interviews that "all interviews have to involve both myself and Solar as we are a label, a company and a new force in hip-hop." Whoever is behind the hacked email account has promised that more messages will be leaked over the coming days. Until then, here are the ten most appalling revelations from what's turning into 2010's biggest hip-hop soap opera.

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​And now this exists. Opening statement: "Welcome to FuckSolar.com, the site that Solar is going to hate. We will follow Solar till his ass gets in jail, because that's where he belongs. So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn and enjoy the ride (No Solar)." For now it seems to be compiling stuff from other sources (Vibe's Premier interview, etc.) and making "get ready to pick up the soap" jokes. (Also: Follow them on Twitter!) Suffice it to say this is all going to get worse before it gets better.

​An extensive chat here, discussing Gang Starr's booze-swilling wild years ("It was like college"), how they went a little nuts after Moment of Truth went gold ("I remember we spent almost $10,000 on buying plaques for everybody that we knew deserved one"), the Guru-is-gay rumors ("he had too many women"), and of course, the infamous Solar/farewell letter ("I would love to see that letter. I would love to see the handwriting. Because I know Guru's handwriting like the back of my hand with all the bills we had to pay together. I know it's not him."). Solar's clowning continues apace. Premier is not as furious as you'd suspect he might be, or he's just good at not showing it. If you ask me this interview is both "dope" and "WTF."

​Not surprising, but demoralizing nonetheless. When Guru, the erstwhile Gang Starr MC, passed last week, the news was accompanied by a very suspicious sounding letter. The missive, which began "I, Guru, am writing this letter to my fans, friends and loved ones around the world," purported to be written by the rapper on his deathbed, and directed mourners to a charity, Each One Counts, "dedicated to carrying on my charitable work on behalf of abused and disadvantaged children from around the world and also to educate and research a cure for this terrible disease that took my life."

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​Though Mister Cee stepped up right away, it was always going to be Premier--who, after all, made all this music with Guru in the first place--who got the last word. You will not be surprised to hear how hurt and angry Premier is: from the opening loop of "Betrayal" to his harrowing account of what it was like to visit Guru in the hospital while the MC was in the coma from which he'd never recover, this isn't exactly for the faint of heart. "The fucked up thing is he died alone," Preem says. Listen to the mix below, or at the DJ Premier blog.

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