Today in Hip-Hop — September 3: Naughty by Nature’s Self-Titled at 35, the East Orange Crew Who Made ‘O.P.P.’ Everybody’s Business

Thirty-five years ago today — September 3, 1991 — Naughty by Nature dropped their self-titled sophomore album through Tommy Boy Records and handed the whole country a question it couldn’t stop asking. You already know: “You down with O.P.P.?” By summer’s end it was everywhere — #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on Hot Rap Singles, double Platinum on the single alone. But here’s what the mainstream recap always skips: “O.P.P.” was built on two perfectly stacked samples — Melvin Bliss’s “Synthetic Substitution” (arguably the most sampled drum break in hip-hop history) layered over The Jackson 5’s “ABC” melody. Kay Gee heard that combination and turned it into a cultural event.

East Orange, NJ. Not Brooklyn. Not Harlem.

Treach (Anthony Criss), Vin Rock (Vincent Brown), and Kay Gee (Keir Gist) grew up in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey — and they never let you forget it. They’d been rapping together since high school as The New Style. Queen Latifah spotted them early and championed them to Tommy Boy before she had a full deal of her own. The label bet on both. Treach brought a rapid-fire, vowel-heavy lyrical style that felt unmistakably Jersey — sharper and more urgent than a lot of what was charting in 1991. Vin Rock held the energy. Kay Gee ran the boards.

The album was recorded at Unique Recording Studios in New York from late 1990 to mid-1991 — Kay Gee produced almost every track, with one exception handled by Louie Vega. Thirteen tracks, sixty minutes. Beyond “O.P.P.” the album had depth: “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” charted at #53, “Uptown Anthem” moved. The full LP hit #16 on the Billboard 200 and #10 on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. AllMusic gave it 4.5 stars; Entertainment Weekly dropped an A. A real record, not a one-hit wonder built around a lucky sample.

That “Synthetic Substitution” break deserves a second look. Melvin Bliss recorded it in 1973 on Mankind Records — a funk track that went unnoticed outside producers’ crates until hip-hop started chopping it in the mid-80s. That drum pattern has since appeared in hundreds of records across the genre: it’s in the bones of boom bap itself. When Kay Gee stacked it under the “ABC” melody, he wasn’t just sampling — he was building something out of the genre’s own foundational material. The pop crossover that followed wasn’t a compromise. It was a flex.

Also Today in Hip-Hop

• September 3, 1991 — Queen Latifah, “Nature of a Sista’”: Same Tommy Boy. Same day. Latifah’s second album dropped on the exact same date — a 35th anniversary that barely registers anywhere today. Charted at #32 on R&B/Hip-Hop. She was already mixing hip-hop with reggae and R&B on this one, carving a lane that pointed toward everything that followed.
• September 3, 2021 — Drake, “Certified Lover Boy” (5 years): CLB debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with features from Jay-Z, Future, Lil Wayne, Travis Scott. Twelve pregnant emojis as the cover art. Record streaming numbers on day one. Still one of the more divisive drops in the OVO catalog.
• Tommy Boy Records, September 1991: The label’s roster at this moment — De La Soul, Digital Underground, Queen Latifah, Naughty by Nature — is one of the most culturally dense hip-hop rosters ever assembled under one roof. That era of A&R doesn’t have a modern equivalent.

Stay creative — The Custom Creative Team