In hip-
hop, the rap
MUCKS
pers dominate the
spotlight, but it is often
the producers who pull the
strings that move us to the
music. Muggs of Cypress Hill, one
of hip-hop's most successful pup
peteers, talks about his career
and his new solo album, Muggs
Presents... The Soul Assassins.
at the same time as 7A3? Before
We met 7A3 from Cypress, and
they needed a dj, so it was kinda
our introduction to the music busi
ness. We was throwing parties and
jams on the East Side, and they hid
a little record out, so they came
over to do a party with us, and then
What's it like being a white guy they was like, "We're gonna go into
in hip-hop who's not really the studio, we need a d, you wanna
thought of as a white guy in come in?" I was like. "Yeah, so we
hip-hop! I don't know, man. I'm went in and did a song for Colors
just me doing what I do, really. Your called "Mad, Mad World." and
new album's got an apocalyptic brought some samples down and
vision. It doesn't seem like too sampled it up, and Cypress was
positive an outlook for the down and was like, boom. It was
future. What that is is a story, you'll our way to get to know the music
see it in the videos. It's the year business, They asked me if I wanted
2012. Cypress Hill gets so powerful, to be in they group, and I was like.
we've got the Cypress Mountain "Sure, I told B-Real. "We'll do this
Range, Wu-Tang Clan gets so pow- so we can figure out what's going
erful, they have the Wu-Tang on in this rap game. Do you miss
Islands, and the government was that era of doing jams at par.
like, "That's enough, they're too ties? Shit is so business now, once
powerful, they're countries within you sign that record contract.
countries," and they just came and you're in the music business. You
wiped us out. It seems like mix- just ain't making music, now you're
tapes, soundtracks and The in the business, so you've gotta take
Chronic-like, multi-artist albums care of your business. Does that
are dominating the hip-hop make it harder for you to be
market right now. Do you think creative? Yeah, at times a does, but
that's the format that hip-hop is then I try to separate them, like t
moving towards? Nah, ain't trying to go into the studio until
Soundtracks are all right. You know I finish all the work for this record.
what the difference is between this This record is done, but now I've 2
album and soundtracks or a mixed got all the press to do, so once I fin
tape? There's one producer doing ish that. I'll go in and do the new
the whole album, so you ain't get album. I don't like to mix and mesh
ting crazy different styles of music things. I try to keep them as far
and different sounds like an R&B away as possible. Do you even
song or a West Coast sounding song fuck with scratching, djing any.
or an East Coast sounding song, more! Once in a while, not like all
you're getting one style of produc- the time Before, that's all we did.
tion with different MCs, people you Even before I made music. I was just
wouldn't expect to hear on what djing everyday. Now it's like, "All
you're hearing them on. So, it's just right, cool, I've got osher
shit
to
a little twist. I don't rap or nothing. I take care of now. Do you feel like
don't even wanna rap, but I do you can do it again, change what
music, so I hit a bunch of people up, hip-hop's about like how
people I work with, some of them is Cypress' first album did? I don't
homeboys of mine, some of them know if this record's gonna do it.
we just admire each other's work, but yeah, it could happen again, def
and we talked about working initely. I'm gonna be working with a
together Some of them are lot of new people Like every time
unknown like La the Darkman. I do a record. I try to bring some
thim with RZA, he's down with thing new to the game, I don't try to
the Wu-Tang Clan. He's one of the just suck from the game or what the
youngsters coming up. He's on the game's already doing, you know
new Wu-Tang album. I did a song what I mean? A lot of brothers just
with La for his album, and I heard pacify the game, or they see what's
him rhyme, and I was like, "Oh La going on, and they try to do what's
is dope. I want a couple of new already going on, I've never been
acts on this record that nobody's like that. Any final thing you want
heard of." What's your favorite to say about the record! Yeah.
time in your career? When the this record's bangin', yo. That's all
first Cypress album came out. could say, man. Everybody gave it
'cause before I got in the group they all all the MCs. This record"
7A3, Cypress was doing they thing all about the MCs. They all came
We was doing house parties
and everything from like
85, so six years later for
us to finally have
record out was like
"Bam, all right
damn"You were
doing Cypress
through and brought all the
music to life just being
Instrumental out
TOMMY
GUERRERO
Dedication and persever-
ance are key factors in the
making of a successful musi-
cian, and Tommy Guerrero is a
prime example of just that. From
self-taught guitar and bass
lessons to jamming with Jerry's
Kids, Revenge, Free Beer, and 3-0, he
has since branched out and released his
beats of san francisco, black sheep blues ep
and the full-length Tommy Guerrero,
Loose Grooves and Bastard Blues with the
production, arrangement, and varied
instrumentation being all his own. So,
read on for inspiration.
What should people expect from your new
record? Just real diversity. There's one cut
that's just all bass tracks and a bunch of acous
tic stuff, then there's some more straightforward
groove stuff. Is it released by New Breed
also? No, this is something I put out with
Thomas Campbell. He has a little label in
Santa Cruz called Galaxia. Tell us about the
group you've been seen playing with late-
ly. Well, it started from living on Turk Street.
Me and my friend Jason, who lives with me
now, and our friend Arthur, all lived together.
and Arthur's a bassist, Jason's a guitarist and
sings some, and I play guitar and bass, so we
would jam together all the time. Then our friend
Gannon, who's a drummer, started playing
with us. We call it TKO, which stands for Turk
Street Orchestra, and we still play every once in
a while, but everyone's so busy, and Art and
Gannon have their own band. I was in 3-0, but
the drummer moved to LA, so that's why we
broke up, and that's completely different from
what I do on my own. It's a lot more aggressive.
a lot more progressive. It's so different playing
with a band, the energy is unreal. It's like two
different worlds, but it's cool, because I like to
express all my different sides of music. Do you
feel that break beats is an accurate
description of your music? Well, not exact
ly. Half of the EP was at least three years old.
and it was stuff that I was doing with a friend
who was rapping, and I would make beats for
him, but that never came together, so I just
released the stuff as instrumentals. There was
some cool stuff, but it was a lot of sampled stuff,
or stuff I played live and then sampled. But the
other side was more live instruments and I
played to like a drum loop, and this newer stuff
that I've done is more on nylon string acoustic
guitar like a classical guitar played in sort of a
blues style way. The closest thing that I could
call it, even though this isn't really a proper
description, is somewhat like Beck meets
Money Mark, but not at all, and it's also sort of
like, as they say, acid jazz, but not at all. I don't
know, it's just kind of different. It does have a
groove to it, though, definitely, on the simple
stuff, and it's almost folky sounding just because
sometimes I play the nylon string. There's a
couple cuts where I'm just playing like three
acoustic tracks and maybe singing the songs, so
it's real eclectic. Tell me why Bill Withers is
the shit. The song "BW Blues" stands for Bill
Withers, and it was basically dedicated to him,
because he really inspired me in a lot of ways
He has so much soul and so much heart that it
just comes across so amazing on the record. It's
the blues, and that's why I call it Bastard Blues,
because a lot of the stuff that I do I feel is the
blues, but I don't think anybody else will get t
or feel it. Some of the things he did were very
simple, but straight from the heart. He just
sounded like a tortured soul, he just sounded
like he had extreme blues, he was very power-
ful. What kind of music do you listen to at
home? I listen to a lot of jazz, especially when
I'm working on like a project or something I lis-
ten to a lot of Coltrane, Mingus, the early Jazz
Crusaders stuff.
Tjader. Freddie Hubbard, but then I'll throw on
the Bad Brains, I'll always listen to them, they're
my favorite. If I could fuse the Bad Brains with
Coltrane. Hendrix, and Santana, that would
just be it. In which order should artist,
skateboarder, and musician go to describe
you? Well, it's hard to say because I've always
been a skater, and that's just who I am, really,
but the problem with that is everybody wants to
pigeon-hole you and give you some sort of stig-
ma as being just one-dimensional, and people
are so multi-dimensional, especially skaters,
they're all multi-talented. When I think of
myself, it's just self-expression, that's all it
comes down to, basically, whether it be through
something visual or something audible. Skating
for me is a big release. It's a way to focus, and
it's a way for me to get away from everything.
away from my mind. Music is another form of
release, but it's different, especially when you're
in a band, it's a type of collaboration, it's
another form of self-expression. And then the
stuff that I make, the art or whatever, that
stemmed from something else. It stemmed from
a lot of frustration, internal questions, things
about myself. I've done a lot of introspection
and tried to figure things out, work it out in a
positive way. But I can never label myself
because I'm always changing, always growing. I
want to be skating until I'm 50, but I don't know
if my body's going to allow me to do that. So, I
want to be able to play music forever, and I
want to skate for as long as I can. I just always
want to try to be doing something creative.
Besides music and skateboarding, what
other things do you consider important in
your life and makes you happy? Well, the
things that are really important to me in life are
friends and family and relationships. Those
things are what matter in life. Nothing else
really matters. The tangibles, all that shit, it
doesn't matter. Being honest with yourself and
with others, and just being straight with peo-
ple. Just basically live and let live, as they say. I
will always be straightforward and honest with
people, and I just hope that they will be that
way with me. The things that make me happy
are seeing positive things happen to me and my
friends and getting inspiration from just seeing
something on the street. What's the ultimate
goal you have for yourself in relation to
your music? To have someplace I can go 24/7
and record and write music and play, whether it
be writing music for someone else or for
myself or just
playing music in
a band. To be able
to wake up at 3 in
the morning, have
an idea in my
head, and go into
the studio and
record it. That is
my dream and
maybe someday
it'll happen.
-Jasmine K Huynt
For copies of TG's music, contact:
Galaxia at PO Box 380, Santa Cruz, CA
95061 or Deluxe Distribution at 1775
Egbert, SF, CA 94124 (415) 468-7045
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