DJ Muggs Interview Part 1

[D-Nice]

http://www.illuminati2g.com/untouchable/2013/04/01/dj-muggs-interview-part-1/

I2G chilled with DJ Muggs for a 2 part interview. In part one we discuss his new album, Bass In Ya Face, his work on the upcoming Cypress Hill album and if he will have a increased role in the project, his thoughts on a Soul Assassins crew album and much more so check it out.

We are here with the one and only DJ Muggs, how’s it going man?

Life is good dog, life is good, just right here doing it.

You just recently dropped your new album, Bass In Your Face. Tell me a little bit about the album and how it came together for you.

The album comes from me doing a bunch of electronica music around the world and usually before I go out on tour I do a bunch of remixes. I was sitting back one day and said I am going to create an album that I can play while I am on tour playing these different festivals.

When I started creating the album I didn’t want to go too dance with this record, too electronic or too eccentric. I wanted to keep it more with a hip hop bass and a hip hop spirit, so that is why I reached out to Danny Brown, Roc Maricano, Dizzie Rascal.

So it would be more for someone like me back when I was 17 and close minded and all about hip hop, so I made the record with that mindstate in mind. At the same time though expanding that sound and mindstate in a very subtle way, without them knowing or thinking that I took it too far.

Do you have anymore videos set to drop from the album?

Yeah we got the video with Chuck D still, the one with Danny Brown, and another one that is shot and just waiting for releases.

So what is next after this album? Are you working on a VS series or is there another Soul Assassins album getting ready to drop?

Yeah I actually have a VS record with Mayhem Lauren and Action Bronson. Basically it is me and Mayhem with Action as a featured guest. I just submitted to B-Real a bunch of tracks for the new Cypress Hill album. I got a new group called Cross My Heart and that drops Tuesday April 2nd and it is a 5 track EP.

It is like Radiohead meets Massive Attack and it features a female vocalist. I am back on the road until May 10th and then I think I am going to get in the studio until the end of May or June/July and finish up the VS record and work on another Electronica record for the summer. I have a bunch of tracks already done, I just have to finish the tracks and polish them up.

That leads perfectly into my next question. The last Cypress album, Rise Up, and I have been a long time Cypress Hill fan, was the first album that only had 2 or 3 beats from you. Granted you had Pete Rock, Mike Shinoda and Jake One amongst others with the beats but B-Real really took the helm on that album. How did that feel in working on Rise Up and are you taking more of a hands on role on this new Cypress album?

Well I was always hands on with every project and when it came to the music, I always drove the ship. The guys got to a point where they wanted to do things a certain way and I wanted to do things a certain way, so I was like it’s all good, do the album the way you want to do it.

They made Rise Up as what they thought was the best representation of Cypress to put out there, it’s done and now B-Real reached out and told me that he wants me to do the whole next record and I said cool, let me know.

I did about 20 tracks and I gave him 4 to start with. Once he writes to these 4 then I will put my touch to it and develop the tracks. Cypress is a heritage group, when you think Cypress, you want to hear and think of the first 3 albums. Just like when I hear Led Zeppelin, I want to hear vintage not contemporary Led Zeppelin.

We as people want a sound that inspires us, same with Wu-Tang Clan. That sound that sparks that feeling and excitement in you that made you fall in love with the group and the music in the first place. With that being said, all the tracks that I have done at this point are all psychedelic, dirty ass hip hop coming out of the SP-12 and I did grab alot of samples from the 90′s.

I went through discs and discs for days looking for the right sounds and samples. Once I get in the studio and start working on it, I think it is going to be a great project. It ain’t like the old days though, there is tours, managers, lawyers, families, fucking mortgages, it ain’t like when it was 3 kids in a room drinking 40′s and smoking weed by themselves.

One thing I always wondered with the Soul Assassins project, have you ever thought about doing just a crew album? The core members House Of Pain, Cypress Hill, Funkdoobiest?

You know what I should have done that and the first one should have been that. Looking back in time that is how I should have done the first one, but now I would never do that anymore because it would not do anything. No one wants to hear Funkdoobiest or House Of Pain like that and if we did it, it would sell like 4 records and the interest in the record would die in a week.

It is about progressing with the times, and I probably will not do anymore Soul Assassin records, that was a great time and space and what happened with the Soul Assassins records when I first did them, the mixtape game was not hot.

People were not doing DJ records at the time, I think Funkmaster Flex had his out.

Yeah.

Those were kind of like my solo records. Back then it was more liberal with samples, now it is almost impossible to do that record. People are more prone to do a mixtape with you for free and with the compilation you have people that want to come in and get paid. The one problem I had with the records is I could not tour the records.

When I started to do the third one that was when I decided to start doing the VS series. That was when me and GZA got in and then the third Soul Assassins record turned into the GZA VS album. I was able to tour the records and it gave the album more life and able to take it around the world.

I was also about to stop doing the VS records, but Mayhem came in and I like the new, young and fresh energy moving forward. He inspired me and he has been a fan of my work and after that I probably will not do any VS records, I will go into a new chapter and do new things. I will always experiment and do weird avant garde shit like I did with rock, or Bass In Ya Face, but I will always stay one foot in the dirty, dusty ass, psychedelic shit that I love.

That actually led into another question. I know you have done alot of work in the past with Ice Cube. Is there any possibility that you guys will do anymore music together? I would love to see a VS album from you guys if possible.

Check out part 2 of our interview with DJ Muggs as he answers the question about working with Ice Cube again, Dr. Dre and Detox, Call Of The Wild, Soul Assassins the brand and much more. Part 2 online Wednesday April 3rd right here on I2G.

[CHUCK KNOXXX]

great interview homie, cant wait to read pt2. the overall feeling you get from the interview is basically, "the good old days are long gone, time to progress and move on'. +1

[doggfather]

good work.

[Okka]

Good interview. Seems like B-Real and Sen Dog wanted to try somethin' new with "Rise Up" and Muggs really didn't feel like that. Well, it didn't work. "Rise Up" is the only album that i don't like from Cypress Hill and it's a shame. "Get It Anyway" is the only song i like on "Rise Up". Shit, even the album cover didn't look like it's a Cypress Hill record for real. I've been listenin' to Cypress Hill since i was a kid, "Black Sunday" was my first CD. I'm fuckin happy that Muggs is doin' the beats now. I wouldn't mind hearin' a beat from Fredwreck or The Alchemist, but DJ Muggs has to do at least 90% of the album or you can't even call it a Cypress Hill record.

[doggfather]

There won't be any vs record in the future?? 

Only the last one with Mayhem.

That's a shame, that vs series was really cool.

[UCC]

Cypress is a heritage group, when you think Cypress, you want to hear and think of the first 3 albums. Just like when I hear Led Zeppelin, I want to hear vintage not contemporary Led Zeppelin.
We as people want a sound that inspires us, same with Wu-Tang Clan. That sound that sparks that feeling and excitement in you that made you fall in love with the group and the music in the first place. With that being said, all the tracks that I have done at this point are all psychedelic, dirty ass hip hop coming out of the SP-12 and I did grab alot of samples from the 90′s.
I went through discs and discs for days looking for the right sounds and samples. Once I get in the studio and start working on it, I think it is going to be a great project.

Holy shit, that is SUUUUUCH good news!

Glad to hear he gets that there are people who still want that original Cypress Hill sound,
and that he is going to do it with samples and with the SP-12 (so you know everything will sound nice and grimy!)

I liked some of the later Cypress tracks when he went with keyboards, but I always felt the
"true" Cypress sound was the original colorful, raw sampled sound.

I hope he samples some funky stuff as well, to make it bouncy again.