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…
StreetLogik.com: So you really think ideas get lost when you’re basically just working over the Internet?
DJ Muggs: Definitely… It’s like having a phone conversation instead of talking face-to-face… You don’t get those emotions and exchange of energy, but when you’re sitting in the room; it’s different… I didn’t have to guess on what beats [Ill] Bill was going to like, because we spent hours working on these beats…
Sitting in a room, going through samples, and getting it live is pretty much how I prefer to work… I’ve worked like that my whole career, and there’s nothing like sitting in a room with somebody smoking some weed, making music, and talking sh*t… That’s what its all about…
Ill Bill: It was a really different experience for me, because I’m used to beat CD’s… If anything, it reminded me of working with my brother… Because my brother has made beats in front of me… That’s a whole new experience, and that’s the best sh*t…
StreetLogik.com: Right now the original Hip-Hop format seems to be coming back: One MC and one producer, and I remember you Muggs doing this a few years back with the Grandmasters record with GZA… So do you think there’s any particular reason this format is making a comeback?
DJ Muggs: I don’t know what’s motivating everybody else to do it, but for me; you can’t harness that energy and vibe with a bunch of producers…You can get a bunch of hot beats from different producers, but it won’t have the same texture… I got inspired from those groups that only had one producer…
From Ultramagnetic, to Public Enemy, to EPMD, to Wu-Tang, to Gang Starr… Those are all timeless records, and that says something about them… Right now people are bringing that essence back to the music…
StreetLogik.com: Speaking of inspiration [DJ] Muggs, your track record speaks for itself… But what keeps you hungry, fresh, and motivated after all these years?
DJ Muggs: When I sit down with a brother like [Ill] Bill who’s excited like he’s making his first album ever, and just comes in the studio with that excitement and creative outlet… I feed off of that, because I really can’t sit in the room and make beats all day; that’s boring to me… So being able to be in a room and vibe— that keeps me going…
StreetLogik.com: Is the Hip-Hop world going to hear more joint projects from you two in the future?
DJ Muggs: I’m definitely going to work with [Ill] Bill in the future… [Ill] Bill is like a brother… I’m going to be working with [Ill] Bill forever, but we don’t know what’s next, but you can definitely expect more work from us in the future…
StreetLogik.com: So [Ill] Bill, how would you rank your performance on Kill Devil Hills when looking back into your catalog with Non Phixion and La Coka Nostra? How do you think you’ve grown as writer since then?
Ill Bill: I feel like right now, I’m in my prime… Everything I did with Non Phixion was a set up for what I’m doing right now… That’s how I look at it, and this is my time right now… If you liked or loved the Non Phixion sh*t, then you’re going to love this sh*t… We have an army of goons that were waiting for this record… They let me know for the past year that they wanted to hear this record…
