Dana Dane Breaks Down The Importance Of Naughty By Nature’s Self-Titled Album

To Dana Dane, one of the most important albums in hip-hop history comes from a group of his contemporaries: Naughty By Nature’s self-title album, Naughty By Nature.

In a recent episode of “Best Albums,” host Soren Baker asks the rap legend if he was surprised that Queen Latifah, who was known for her good image, co-signed the group made up of Treach, DJ Kay Gee, Vin Rock because of their sexual and violent content.

“I just thought about the New Jersey connection, really for the most part,” Dana Dane says. “I guess a little bit of, ‘Who’s these hardcore dudes coming out of Jersey with Queen Latifah?'”

Reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the album, Dana Dane says the project served as a bridge between generations of hip-hop.

“When I heard the cats, the first thing I heard was ‘O.P.P.’ of course,” he says, “and the flow kinda reminded me, and I don’t know why, maybe it’s just me, but the flow to me reminded me of ‘Lick the Balls.’ Slick Rick ‘Lick the Balls,’ so to me, it was like he kinda channelled Slick Rick’s’ Lick The Balls’ type of flow, but did his own thing and later to me, set up Kriss Kross’s flow.”

Expanding on the importance of “O.P.P.,” Dana Dane says that what he likes most about the track is not the Jackson Five sample, but the story of the song and how it opened the gates for rap to talk about sexual escapades.

“The whole title was ingenious because O.P.P. could mean anything and everything,” he says. “Then, of course, I’m more partial to story lines, that’s just my thing. And it was a story line inside of that as well to me, because he’s talking about the girl and ‘You shouldn’t have come over if you didn’t want to get it in. You know what this is about.’ It’s like telling the world, ‘Listen, you know what’s going down. You got yours, I got mine’s but we doing this right now. And keep it shhhh.’… I thought that was ingenious that whole idea of that because people had been running around and cheating forever, but now it was a record that spoke to it and it’s a new creep song.”

He says that Naughty By Nature started more than just the trend of putting one-night-stands in rap songs.

“They started an even bigger movement that we weren’t even aware of as they started building out their next songs because they soon became known for being the party anthem cats,” he says.

Having come onto the scene before Naughty By Nature, Dana Dane says he could appreciate their rise. He knew their image was gritty and tough, especially because of songs like “Guard Your Grill” and their accessories that included chains made out of big links that looked like bike locks. But Dana Dane says that when he met the group, he was able to see more than what the image projected.

“They always showed love to the people who came before them,” he says.

Another evidence of the layers that the group portrayed was songs like “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.” The single contrasts the reality of the Jersey streets with a hopeful anthem in the chorus. Dana Dane says this complexity is what makes rap so special.

“When I would write my songs, I always was projecting what I wanted with my life or my career or the outcome to be,” he says. “I think even though he told the story of coming up hard, ‘It’s crazy, don’t come around here,’ he’s like, ‘But you know, guess what? Everything gonna be alright at the end of the day. We gonna make it because we stronger than whatever else is going on around us. I think that’s the foundation of hip-hop. Even though it can be the worse thing ever, we’re always trying to figure out how we can motivate and uplift somebody through our music, even when we’re saying the worst shit ever. That’s what I love about hip-hop, man. You can always get some inspiration from it.”