HHG: You’ve done so much work, from Cypress, to your solo projects, to other artists albums. What keeps you going year by year on a creative basis?
Muggs: I’m still inspired man. To be honest, I still love music and I’m still inspired…but now, where I’m at, I don’t like making beats. So for me to be inspired now, I need to sit down and work with an artist on a project, like this record with Ill Bill, like the record with GZA. I get inspired to do projects, not really to do beats anymore…it’s kinda boring. But to do an album, to see a project from beginning to end, I’m still into it man. I like painting pictures, I’m an artist, you know what I mean? I don’t think I’ve even reached my peak yet to what my full potential is, you know what I mean? I still think I’m a work in progress.
HHG: In terms of working with Bill, is that an idea you guys had – to actually do a full album? Or did you guys do a track, like This Is Who I Am off Bill’s Hour Of Reprisal album, and you were like, we’ve got some chemistry, let’s keep this thing going.
Muggs: No, we definitely talked about doing a full album. Then, once we sat down and started working on it, we sat in the studio for like 10 days and it didn’t feel like 10 days. It didn’t even feel like we were working man. We came out of the studio after 10 days, with 12 songs, and just hung out and talked and had the basketball game on in the background…we smoked some weed and just chilled and the album was done man. That’s what it’s supposed to be man – an exchange of energy, an exchange of ideas, just sittin’ back and enjoying yourself man, you know? That’s exactly what the record was. When I gotta call the manager and book studio time and muthafuckaz don’t show up and it’s all this corporate shit…that ain’t what I got into this game for. I got in this shit to sit back and, you know, paint pictures I feel like painting.
HHG: I love hearing that passion and enthusiasm in your voice…
Muggs: Right…
HHG: You really, truly, are an artist. Some people, it seems, go through the motions after a while, whereas you…you get in the studio with GZA, Sick Jacken, Planet Asia, and now Bill, and the natural outcome is something great…
Muggs: Well, I think a lot of people get in the business because they wanna be famous. I never got into it to be famous, I love the music. Making money and getting notoriety is a bi-product of just my passion for my art. The industry can burn you out. I never wanted to be part of the industry. I always been kind of a rebel even within the industry. I always came into shit aggressively, I never done what they wanted me to do. All my records that were even on the radio, if you listen to my records that were big hits, they’re not traditional radio records. I didn’t go out of my way to make radio hits. They’re the records I felt like making that were underground, fuckin’ dusty ass music that I like to make…and they happened to connect.
HHG: The first Cypress record is deemed a classic and rightfully so, but for me personally, Cypress Hill III Temples Of Boom is incredible. That album has a mood and an atmosphere to it that is unmatched. How do you feel looking back on that particular album?
Muggs: Well, what that was…Cypress got so big on Black Sunday and then all these expectations from the label and everybody…I was like, I wanna make the darkest record I can make. We wasn’t happy either. You get all this money and shit man…that didn’t make me happy. So I was like, I’m not even gonna make a single for this record, I’m just gonna make the darkest record I can make and that’s what it was man. We was goin’ through a lot of personal problems, breaking up with girlfriends and family problems and stuff…and that’s what came out man.
HHG: I spoke with Everlast when his last solo album came out and we got to talking about the first Funkdoobiest album, which you had done a lot of work on. He didn’t understand why it didn’t really blow up the way it potentially could have. Do you have that same thought looking back on it?
Muggs: I think it was probably the first single…it was just timing. Like, the first single was The Funkiest but they didn’t do a video to that until later, and they didn’t put the push behind it. They put the push behind Bow Wow Wow. I think the timing was off, you know? More than anything, more than anything, just the timing…timing’s important man.
HHG: Next year is going to be the 20th anniversary of the first Cypress record. Are there plans to re-release it or take it out on tour and perform it from beginning to end?
Muggs: Man, I haven’t toured with Cypress in about 4 years and I’m really not involved in it like that, so I really don’t know what’s going on. I’m not involved with the management, B-Real pretty much took over the reigns for the creative direction for the group…so I really couldn’t tell you what the plans are.
HHG: Is that why you’re not really featured on the latest Cypress record Rise Up?
Muggs: Right, he wanted a new sound and a new style and had his vision of the way he wanted to do the group. I was like, cool, you got my full support. Whatever you wanna do brother.
HHG: In closing, Kill Devil Hills hits stores on Tuesday, August 30. One track off the record that I’m really curious about is Trouble Shooters with Sean Price, OC and Sick Jacken. How ridiculous is that cut?
Muggs: The shit is hypnotizing man. It’s fucking ILL. It’s a knocker, one of my favorite beats. It bangs, just a real hypnotizing beat, real fuckin’ dirty hip hop. I come from this whole fuck the radio, fuck the video…you know…the people who inspired me were Public Enemy and N.W.A. Chuck D is one of the reasons I’m making music PERIOD. Yo! Bum Rush The Show and Nation Of Millions is like organized noise, you know what I mean?…organized chaos. Turn off that bullshit, turn off the radio, fuck MTV and I still make my shit like that man. That record really got that attitude, this whole record does.
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A Raptalk exclusive interview with Ill Bill & DJ Muggs! These two legendary musical figures have come together for a collaborative album, “Kill Devil Hills” being released on Tuesday, August 31st.
A very interesting and unique project, we get a lot of in-depth information from both Muggs & Bill who were both happy to join us for the interview.
We discuss the albums title, “Cult Assassin” first single, Fatbeats Records, interesting cover art and more.
With a track on the album titled “Illuminati 666”, do Muggs & Bill believe in the illuminati? We ask them!
And much more below…
Raptalk.net: We’re right here with Ill Bill & DJ Muggs. This is a Raptalk exclusive. The collaboration album between you two “Kill Devil Hills” drops August 24th. Explain that title to us, because that is very unique.
Ill Bill: That’s a real place in North Carolina called kill devil hills. It’s actually the birth place of aviation. The Wright brothers actually took flight and built the first airplane in kill devil hills North Carolina. It’s just a crazy name. There are a bunch of different reasons [for the album’s title]. I don’t really wanna’ break it down too much. I want y’all to get the album and see for yourself. But I see you like that name. It’s crazy right?
Raptalk.Net: It’s crazy. I can definitely see some deeper meaning to that.
Ill Bill: Yeah, there are a bunch of different reasons. We can talk about that for an hour.
Raptalk.Net: No doubt. On the first single, the first track off the album, “Cult Assassin.” Talk to us about that record.
Ill Bill: “Cult Assassin” is the theme song for the whole album. If this were a movie, that’s the song that would play during the opening credits. It just jumped out as the one. It’s the first song on the album so I felt that should be the first song y’all should hear. I and Muggs dropped that one for y’all.
Raptalk.Net: And without getting into too much of the politics of course, why Fatbeats Records as the label to release this project?
Ill Bill: I’ve been working with Fatbeats for a long time. I’ve established a good relationship with them. I and Muggs decided that we wanted to rock with Fatbeats for this record. It’s not too complicated; they’re people we’ve been working with for a minute. They presented something [an offer] cool and I and Muggs decided to rock with us.
Raptalk.net: Cool. Muggs, are you with us?
DJ Muggs: Right here man.
Raptalk.Net: We had Bill explain the title to us, so I want you now to explain the cover art, because it looks pretty cool too.
DJ Muggs: It’s an owl on the front. An owl can see things that we can’t see. You know owls can see things in the dark. It’s also a symbol for the illuminati. An owl represents a lot of different logical and spiritual meanings. We thought it best represent what this record is about, being that this record does have a lot of those same meanings.
Raptalk.net: We can tell a lot of deep thought went into it. Speaking of the illuminati, there is a track on the album titled “Illuminati 666” – go into that Muggs.
DJ Muggs: There is just a theme that runs through the whole record and that song is apart of it. It’s a piece of the puzzle. For me, it’s not about breaking down each individual song. I really want to wait for everyone to hear the album. Everyone that is reading this, I want you to hear the album and not focus on individual songs. For me, I like those days and want to bring back those days. I don’t know if we can, but me and Ill Bill can try too. We’re trying to bring it back for everybody.
I love the days where you can get an album and not break down individual songs. ITunes breaks down singles and all that shit. That’s why the first single is the first song on the album. I wanted you to peep this as an entire album. We can sit here and talk about individual songs all day, but the whole album is what it’s about.
Raptalk.net: I like that. I have two questions out of that right there. To both of you, about that track, do you two believe in the illuminati?
Ill Bill: If you read a bunch of shit about the illuminati, there is no one version of what it is. So no, I don’t personally believe any of it. I just think that the information is false. That’s a tough question because what is the illuminati? Who are we talking about?
Raptalk.Net: The most popular explanation would have to be the secret society rumor.
Ill Bill: It ain’t that secret if we’re talking about it though. I think that there are things we don’t know. I think certain decisions are made behind the scenes that we don’t know about.
DJ Muggs: That exists on all levels.
Ill Bill: Yeah, I do believe the people that make a lot of the big decisions, we don’t even know there names.
Raptalk.Net: Muggs, you mentioned not liking how the rap game right allows you to break down track by track. You provided an example of being able to purchase singles on ITunes instead of whole albums. Of course there are features on this album, but it is one MC [Ill Bill] and one producer [DJ Muggs]. Do you think that gives the album an old school feel? Or was that even something you were trying to achieve?
DJ Muggs: Cohesion to an album isn’t even an old school thing – it’s how records should be made as far as I’m concerned. Let’s talk about pop records. Pop formulated music is when you go out and get the hottest producers at the moment with the hottest vocalists, put it together, put it in a nice package and send it out there.
Real music that I’m inspired by, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Eagles, Pink Floyd – records like this; it’s a band sitting in a room with one producer. That is great, fucking classic music. It’s an exchange of energy and ideas. Everybody is on the same mental wave spreading that energy across the room, which is fucking magnetic. It’s untouchable and that’s what this record is.
Raptalk.net: Cool. The album features some legends such as Raekwon, B-Real, Sean Price, Chace Infinite and more. Do any of those features stand out? And I don’t want you to feel like your disrespecting who you don’t mention, so I’m asking in terms of maybe a specific story that sticks out when recording a track with one of these features.
Ill Bill: It’s easy for me. The one that sticks out to me, it’s sentimental because my uncle is on there [Narco Corridos]. At the same time, Muggs flipped it. I gave Muggs a bunch of different samples from Uncle Howie and Muggs flipped it. He took it and used it the way he did on the joint. I love the way he used it. I don’t know if I would have chosen what he choose, but when I did hear what he choose, it dropped my jaw. It worked out perfectly. He did that shit. My uncle passed this year so if I had to single out anything, it’s that one.
But this album was really made off the feel. Even the people that are on the record.
DJ Muggs: What Bill means is we didn’t go outside of the people we knew. The homies are the ones featured on the album. We didn’t go through no managers or any bullshit. It’s same with why Fatbeats is putting out the record. We didn’t want to go through people we didn’t know. There was no label bullshit. Motherfucker’s bullshit you, so we stuck with our comfort zone with brothers we know. We stuck with motherfuckers that know what’s up.
Raptalk.Net: Bill, what’s your favorite thing about working with Muggs?
Ill Bill: The way we work. First of all, I’m a fan of Muggs. Aside from being a fan, working with him on this record the way we did, I’ve never felt about an album this way. Not a whole album. I’ve never worked like this. I’ve worked with my brother this way, and that’s always come out as my best music. It has to be that kind of atmosphere, where you actually create an album from scratch with a producer. That’s how I feel I make my best material with my brother; now that I’ve done that with Muggs, we did a whole album together and I feel it’s my best album.
I know I’m supposed to say that because it’s the new shit, but I really feel like that. It’s because we’re both serious. It’s bang bang bang. We recorded the album, we mixed the album and now we’re putting out the fucking album.
DJ Muggs: It didn’t feel like work. It felt like we were sitting in a room talking for a few weeks and then the album is done. I’ve worked on records where it’s fucking work. A couple of us in the studio, shit’s not coming together, where is this guy? And we still have to work on this, this shit don’t fit and so on. This record here was us just hanging out, smoking some weed, talking and ten days later we’re looking at ten songs.
Raptalk.Net: Would that be your answer right there Muggs about what you like about working with Ill Bill?
DJ Muggs: Yeah. Bill gets it man. We came to a place where our likes are pretty similar. He gets me and what I do. We do what we have to do. I like what Bill does and he likes what I do. We have that creative freedom together. We get in a room and let it flow. If the shit doesn’t flow, I can’t make an album with you. I really can’t. This really flowed and that’s why we made an album. If Bill would have come through and we were working on a record, and it wasn’t flowing, it would have never got finished. If it wasn’t organic, it wouldn’t have happened.
Raptalk.Net: Cool. Bill, what’s your next project? After this one of course.
Ill Bill: After this record, I’m doing a whole album with Vinnie Paz. It’s called “Heavy Metal Kids.” That’s gotta’ be the one that comes out next. It’ll come out next year. It’ll be done as soon as we get into the studio with Muggs. We already have 23 songs right now. We could stop right now and we have enough for an album. We have an album’s worth of material that I love. It’s just a matter of now deciding what’s gonna’ go on the album and that’s it. It’s coming out early 2011.
Raptalk.net: Awesome. And what’s up next for you Muggs? Is it the Bill-Paz record?
DJ Muggs: No, I’m probably only doing one song on the Bill-Paz record. They are pretty much done with the album. I’m working on a few projects. I’m working on an electronic reggae album. That’s what I’m into right now.
Raptalk.net: Oh wow. That sounds different.
DJ Muggs: Yeah. It’s very experimental. I like to do some way out shit and test my boundaries. And when the time is right, I’ll come back and make the next hip-hop record.
Raptalk.net: Because Raptalk is mainly a west coast hip-hop website, we need to ask you, how come you didn’t produce as much on the last Cypress Hill record as fans would have expected?
DJ Muggs: I pretty much ran the show for a lot of years on Cypress Hill. B-Real wanted to take the group in a different direction and wanted a new sound. He wanted to pretty much re-image the whole group and I was cool with that. I’m down, I got his back. It’s whatever he wants to do. I fell back and pretty much let him take over the project 100%. I wanted to let him do the way he wanted to do it, with his vision. He had my full support.
Raptalk.net: Cool. I really appreciate your time both Bill & Muggs. The album comes out August 24th. I’m sure everyone who is reading will go cop it and they will not regret it. Do you have any last words before I let you go?
Ill Bill: We appreciate the coverage homie. We hope everyone definitely goes out and cops and supports our album, “Kill Devil Hills.”
DJ Muggs: I appreciate it. I made this record to let kids know that you could be artistic and creative. Do what the fuck you want to do with your middle finger up to the radio, and with your middle finger up to corporate America. You can make records while putting your middle finger up to any major label and still be successful artistically and economically. Do what the fuck you want to do as an artist. Don’t ever feel like you have to bend, twist or change up to try and find your place in this game, because you don’t man. Keep that rebel attitude and keep doing what the fuck you want to do. Find your way and you can make money doing it too. That’s what I’m here to do; to inspire at this point in my career. I want to inspire kids the way I was inspired, and hopefully one of these kids can change the game the way we changed the game.
В особенности - самый четкий вариант DJ Muggs vs. Sean Price, ух это был бы пииииздец!!!
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