SOUL ASSASSINS (DJ MUGGS) (July 2009) | Interview By: Jose Ho-Guanipa

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Interview was conducted in June 2009
 

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Soul Assassins (DJ Muggs) // Exclusive Video Interview // Dubcnn

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Dubcnn: What’s up y’all it’s Jose with DubCNN. Right here I’m with a man that needs no introduction, it’s DJ Muggs. We’re just gonna sit down and chop it up with him about the new Soul Assassins coming out. You know Soul Assassins, you’ve always had a diverse group of artists on the record. Who’s on deck for this album that’s gonna be on it?

Muggs: This album we stickin’ close to the family. We got Chace Infinite, Self Scientific, The RZA, B -Real, La Coka Nostra, Bun B, M1 from Dead Prez, Jack from the Psycho Real, Cynic, Necro and Jack, there’s a few more joints on there too. Planet Asia’s on there too, a bunch of motherfuckers.


Dubcnn: When you were making this album what did you do as far as production? What angle did you take to keep things fresh?

Muggs: What we wanted to do is we involve pretty much everybody in the production side of the Soul Assassins. Alchemist did a few tacks, DJ Solo did a track, a new youngsta comin’ up called G Rocka did a few tracks on the album. And some of the tracks they did I added in some instrumentation and some of the tracks I did they added in some instrumentation. We pretty much just had a good time with it and just made it a good vibe for everybody involved.


Dubcnn: So tell us about the title of the record, it’s called “Intermission”. Where did that come from?

Muggs: The title of the album came from, we workin’ on Soul Assassins 3 right now with the documentary about the crew so it isn’t really the third installment of the Soul Assassins series. It’s kind of like a break between the third one, take a quick intermission leading up to the third coming up from the second, so that’s what we got.


Dubcnn: What about those VS. albums you do? You have one with Planet Asia, you did one with GZA. Do you have one of those lined up, do you have another MC?

Muggs: Yeah we doin’ one now with Ill Bill, we got a few songs recorded, probably about 8 or 9. I gave him a bunch of beats so it’s comin’ along good.


Dubcnn: We all know you guys; Cypress, and, you guys individually, your contract with the major label Sony ran out after the last one so you’re free to do your own thing. How are you gonna distribute this album and how is the process different as far as positives and negatives in terms of doing an independent versus a major label release?

Muggs: Well we fulfilled our contract, we turned in the last of our albums. Obviously we all know the business has changed and what it’s become. There’s no need for Cypress to do no major label deal in the essence that the brand has been built and it’s well established. Now it’s just time to move on it. We workin’ on finishin’ the album, it’s pretty much done. There’s a bunch of things on the table, a bunch of options. We’re just talking about having meetings and deciding what’s the right thing to do at this time. A lot of them have great sides to them and a lot of them have just as great things about them as they are as shitty. We gonna see how we wanna move here in a minute.


Dubcnn: Soul Assassins and Cypress Hill and just your affiliates, it’s obviously a lot more than music, it’s obviously a lifestyle and a brand. You’re doing everything from visual arts, you know the tattoos, the comics and everything, you got all sorts of stuff. How do you guys organize and manage that movement and keep it focused and cohesive?

Muggs: First of all you take care of yourself. Work hard, stay focused and then we help each other along with our personal goals and whatever kind of goals we wanna achieve on the business side as well as artistically. Everybody kind of lend in a hand whenever somebody has something going on and they can involve one of the homies, we involve each other. Everybody pull each other up, share in the economy, help each along other out here.


Dubcnn: So you talked a little while ago about how you’re trying to reach out to a new generation of hip-hop listeners and kind of turn their ear to Cypress Hill and your music with Soul Assassins. How are you trying to do that with this Soul Assassins record?

Muggs: We just keep makin’ music. We ain’t sittin’ around for four or five years trying to make this kind of records. I think right now it’s just a matter of putting a lot of music out, a lot of good music out, just keep doin’ what you do. We do this strictly for the art. We enjoy this, it’s an art to us, we do it how we wanna do it, when we wanna do it. It’s always been like that for us. We never went out of our way to some shit to you know, “maybe it’ll blow up for us.” Continue to do what we wanna do and let motherfuckers know, “Look you do what you wanna do, create how you wanna create something, when you wanna create, how you feel like it should be and put that out in the world, and inspire.” And that’s what we’re here to do.


Dubcnn: As far as your stuff what’s inspired you lately to create new music and new art?

Muggs: Man everything, from movies, I go to a lot of art shows, I have a lot of intelligent friends I talk to about different things. I listen to a lot of classic rock lately, a lot of really late 70s, early 80s hip-hop. Just different things as far as music, I listen to different things, get into different sounds, and go through different trips at different times and shit.


Dubcnn: What’s on the other front? What’s the status of the Cypress Hill album as far as it coming out? I know everyone’s waiting on it.

Muggs: I don’t know when Cypress is gonna come out right now. You know it’s pretty much done the record. Like I said it’s just a matter of talking to a few people to see what the best way is to present it to the world. We’re not just gonna slap it on the fuckin’ internet. Let that be, so we’re just getting the right things in order, lining it all up so we can present it to the people.


Dubcnn: I was actually talking to B-Real a little bit ago, he recently dropped his solo album and he forayed into production. He told me you were the one who helped him along that. How did you help him develop as a producer and just get his own style?

Muggs: What I probably did for B was, he was around me a lot watching me make a lot of records and he saw how I did it and how I followed through and my work ethic. B-Real has a hell of a tenacious drive and I don’t see too many people I’ve met in my lifetime with a drive like that. He has the will and want to learn so I think he got to the point where he started hearing beats in his head and was like, “I can do that I wanna do that.” And he just picked it up, it wasn’t nothing for him to pick it up, he’s natural at it, he’s got the music in him. As soon as he applied himself to doing it, bam, he got it crackin’.


Dubcnn: Definitely and his album was really sick so it definitely showed up in the work. You did some movie stuff, you scored some stuff for Street Kings and you did another one before that. How’s that aspect of your career? Are you looking to do more work in that area?

Muggs: We doin’ it all. We DJing, doing 150 DJ shows a year, we makin’ albums, we doin’ soundtracks, we do our radio show. We do it all and it all helps each other. If you’re doing one thing all the time it gets boring it gets redundant. So being able to score a movie, being able to make a record, being able to shoot to Europe 3 or 4 weeks and go out there and do some shows and come back home do our radio show and jump back in and do an album, it keeps the process alive. It feeds off itself and it keeps you creative to be able to do all these different things as opposed to just doing one thing all the time when it gets really boring. Especially when you’re a creative motherfucker, you get bored quickly. Once you done seen it all and did it all 150 times your attention span and your interest for it can dwindle a little bit so you gotta create these different ways that keep you pumped up to keep wanting to do things and to keep want to stay on top.


Dubcnn: Speaking on that, is there anything else you’ve started getting into as far as creatively that’s kind of done that?

Muggs: You know we do the music, with the clothes, the garment industry is like we’re really really heavy into that right now. Our philosophy is that records really aren’t selling; shirts sell for us. And the profits are 700 times better than a record would be for us, and you can’t download a t-shirt. We pushin’ fashion really hard, across the globe, though, not just here locally. Across the globe we go hard. We built a network over the last 17 years of travelling that’s unmatched by any around this globe so we tap into that and we just keep it movin’ as just a big company. Every album, every music, radio, clothes, it’s all just a different branch of what we’re trying to do here.


Dubcnn: So tell us about the Soul Assassins clothing line and you also have retail locations right?

Muggs: Yeah we got some stores and our affiliates got stores too, and it’s all good for us and we just keep pushin’ it. It’s a lifestyle and a lot of motherfuckers around the world are drawn to it and we bring it straight to ‘em.


Dubcnn: I heard you did the Gumball Rally going to Miami. How was that? Who were you riding with when you did it?

Muggs: Me and the OG homie Estevan Oriol. We had a Range Rover, we mashed out from LA to Vegas, to New Mexico, to Arizona, to Dallas, to New Orleans, to Orlando to Miami. And in between we stopped at the Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam, different things like that. It was great man. All the people was great, really interesting mixes of people, Russian billionaires, sheikhs, pro snowboarders, BMXers, skaters, DJs, photographers, eccentric billionaire fools from around the world. It was a good time, I’m definitely looking forward to the next one. It’s like “Cannonball Run” live.


Dubcnn: Yeah I heard that Xzibit did one and he got pulled over by the cops for going 120 and they took his license away. Were there any crazy stories like that for you guys, any adventures or stuff?

Muggs: Motherfuckers was going 170 getting they cars taken going to jail. We only got one ticket so we did aight.


Dubcnn: So tell us some closing remarks about when the Soul Assassins album is going to drop and what to look out for.

Muggs: June 23rd new Soul Assassins album called the Intermission. Production from DJ Khalil, The Alchemist, DJ Solo, my man Cynic, G Rocka, DJ Muggs, a bunch of the homies on the mic. Be on the lookout for it, it’s June 23rd. I think y’all enjoy it for all the Soul Assassins fans. Appreciate everybody man.