DJ Muggs Cypress Hill’s legend DJ Muggs comes back to WHO?MAG with a follow up interview after his VH-1 Hip Hop Honor award to talk about his new album with Planet Asia. Check out this interview was DJ Muggs talks about his scoring on “Street Kings”, his DJing, and much more!
By William Hernandez
WHO?MAG: Talk about the new album with Planet Asia “Pain Language”? DJ Muggs: [Planet] Asia and I got together about a year ago to work on it. We took about 45 days to do it. We got busy pretty much this year so we couldn’t just bang it out quick. I go on tour and he goes on tour. We both have the same musical sensibilities. We just wanted to make a hardcore record; f*ck radio, f*ck video, and we put our talents together to have a good time.
WHO?MAG: How did you develop a relationship with Planet Asia and how was your approach to working with him? DJ Muggs: I kind of knew Asia, but I met him through a friend. We recorded a couple of songs and it went smoothly. I was like let’s record some more songs. That’s how this record came about. We pretty much did all the beats and I didn’t send him any tracks or nothing. We pretty much sat down and figured out what we were going to do. I made the beat right there from scratch and he wrote his rhymes. We were in same room pretty much making the record.
WHO?MAG: What’s behind the name of the album? DJ Muggs: It’s a punch in the face music, man. You talk that sh*t and you get punched in the face.
WHO?MAG: How do you feel about being an honoree at this year’s VH1 Hip Hop honors? DJ Muggs: That’s cool! We’ve been working hard for a lot of years. To be chosen for that by our peers, it lets you know that your hard work has been acknowledged for this artist movement.
WHO?MAG: Last time we spoke you told me you were doing the score for the movie “Street Kings”. How do you feel about the movie and how was your approach to scoring versus producing songs? DJ Muggs: We had a good time. We worked with this guy Graham Ravel from New Zealand. We did out in about 14 scenes of the movie. It was a good experience and it did extremely well. A matter of fact, the DVD just came out. I had to follow the story line of whatever was happening. They pretty much let me know if they didn’t like it and would have it moved and be like this. The tempos and arrangements change from second to second. They vary the speed of the picture and everything. There’s a lot of movement in the music when you’re scoring movies as opposed to when you’re making records.
WHO?MAG: How would describe a DJ Muggs set at a club? DJ Muggs: It really depends on the club where I’m going. If I’m going to a set club where they play a certain kind of music and they’re bringing me, I pretty much follow their format. But if I’m bring a more DJ/show exhibition type thing, I pretty much do what I want to do. It can vary from old school to new school to reggae, hip-hop, mash ups, and everything in between.
WHO?MAG: Any other projects you’re working on? DJ Muggs: Yeah we’re working on www.soulassassins.com daily. We got a Soul Assassins EP coming out in February to gear up for the album late next year.
WHO?MAG: Do you want to give any name of who’ll be on the SAIII? DJ Muggs: Nah, it’s too early.
