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(AllHipHop News) The full lineup for Murs’ Paid Dues Independent Hip Hop Festival 2011 was announced today (January 31st) with the addition of rappers Bun B. E-40, Nipsey Hu$$le, Sage Francis, dead prez and others.

The new artists join a Hip-Hop heavy roster of artists that includes Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Immortal Technique, Asher Roth and Nottz as Rawth, Krizz Kaliko, Tabi Bonney, DJ Muggs, Sick Jacken, DJ Exile vs. Blu, Bambu and Planet Asia and others. (more…)

For well over 20 years, Cypress Hills’ DJ Muggs has helped to craft a style all his own while making the West Coast trio legends in Hip-Hop. Not only instrumental in their success, but he’s also been influential in the careers of artists such as Ice Cube, GZA, and KRS-One just to name a few.

But right now, the pioneer shifts his focus in another direction, which stares right towards Brooklyn-born MC, Ill Bill— as they come together for their Kill Devil Hills collaborative effort.

As the formula of using one producer for an entire project is beginning to return back to the forefront, the lyricist of Non Phixion and La Coka Nostra fame found himself satisfying his hunger over production that assisted in selling over 18 million albums worldwide. Now it’s time for the world to catch onto to this.

StreetLogik.com: You and [Ill] Bill just released your joint project, Kill Devil Hills… So what brought you guys together for the record?

DJ Muggs: I’ve been kicking it with [Ill] Bill back and forth for that last couple of years, man… He started coming at to Cali a lot, and we got to talk and stuff… We clicked because he’s a good kid, so we talked about working on a record, and he was in the studio with me for a few weeks… So from there, we sat around the lab, and pretty much came up with everything…

StreetLogik.com: So what can people expect to hear from Kill Devil Hills?

Ill Bill: You can expect not necessarily the unexpected, because me and [DJ] Muggs do what we do… We’re on our A-game, and I love what I did with this one right here… This is going to be an album that the people will love, and that much I can guarantee…

StreetLogik.com: When you two were putting the record together, did it pretty much have that an organic feeling, as opposed to sending beats and rhymes over the Internet?

DJ Muggs: We did the big bulk of the work in the studio, and I think the only thing that got done over the Internet was [Ill] Bill relaying a verse or a vocal… But everything was pretty much in the studio, and I made all the beats in front of [Ill] Bill… We were just bouncing energy off each other, which is really important, man… You need to have that exchange of energy, and I think that gets lost a lot in the digital world…

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Veteran underground hero, William “Ill Bill” Braunstein, first rose to prominence as a member of the, now defunct, Hip-Hop quartet, Non Phixion. The Brooklyn, New York, emcee eventually dropped his heralded solo debut What’s Wrong With Bill? in ’04, followed by his stellar follow-up LP, The Hour Of Reprisal, four-plus years later, on September 16th 2008.

For his third and latest instalment, Kill Devil Hills [Uncle Howie Records], the 38 year old wordsmith, and older brother of rapper Necro, teamed up with legendary Cypress Hill producer, Lawrence “DJ Muggs” Muggerud…we sat down to get the latest.

Dubcnn: First things first, my condolences on the March passing of your Uncle Howie. How are you doing? Hope all’s well with you and yours.

I’m good. My Uncle passing was a tough time for my family, but he’d want us to keep doing him proud so we’re staying true to that in every way.

Dubcnn: That’s great to hear! Now on a much lighter note, conceptually how did this DJ Muggs collaborative effort even come to fruition?

We worked on my solo album in 2008. Muggs did two joints, and that opened the door to us getting in to work on an entire record.

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