Told y'all since my very first review on this site: I'm not gonna be the most prolific writer in the world.
Welcome back to my continuation of my grueling attempt at finishing the Soul Assassins run I have in mind. I'm currently aware that I haven't written about these dudes in a few years. So there's that elephant addressed.
1995 came and went. The Soul Assassins brand, established by Lorenzo Cavassi aka Larry Muggerud aka Grandmixer Muggs bka the legendary DJ Muggs of the iconic Cypress Hill, has been experiencing somewhat of a downturn. First, fellow Hillmate Sen Dog was experiencing severe burnout which was fucking the Hill's dynamic up big time. Then, Muggs was trying ad failing to establish a collective from Harlem, NY by the name of Call O' Da Wild, comprising of Barron Ricks and Chic Moleek. Yeah, unfortunately it wasn't happening, even though the music was flames. (More on that later) Top it off, Muggs caught feelings because fellow Soul Assassins lynchpins House of Pain wanted to make their 3rd (and final, unbeknownst to everyone) album on their own, ignoring the fact that said album wasn't really a House of Pain album in the truest sense because Danny Boy was damn near MIA. Muggs quickly slapped himself outta that funk and entered his usual proactive state: He was gonna further the Soul Assassins brand no matter what, even if he had to do it for dolo.
Which he did.
Alright, it was never gonna be that straightforward. Muggs caught on to what Erick Sermon was doing with his Insomnia compilation in 1996 and realized that that's how he was supposed to do it: Follow the Marley Marl blueprint. Only he needed to call in a few favors to make sure the album reception was ideal. So he basically opened up his phonebook (Gasp! Remember those?!) and called in a favor from a who's who of the popular rap acts of the day. Y'know, alongside fellow Hillmate B-Real cuz we can't have a DJ Muggs album without B-Real, can we?
Soul Assassins Chapter 1 was released in early 1997 and, while it did well, Columbia wasn't happy enough to issue another, forcing Muggs to turn elsewhere for the future entries.
But was it any good? Find out, boy/girl (pick one):
THE TIME HAS COME
Not gonna front, Muggs is solely responsible for my exposure to Ralph Bakshi, noted eccentric animation director, through his samples of the movie Wizards, from which many of Muggs' early signature soundbites were taken. That being said, this is still an instrumental intro. Skip.
PUPPET MASTER (DR. DRE & B-REAL)
You read correctly: Andre Rommell Young, fresh outta his widely-publicized Death Row exodus, was desperate at this time to find the next creative lane he was going to inhabit. Read: Them checks weren't hittin like that no more, so he links with Muggs and a very dialed-in B-Real. Muggs chefs up a live interpolation of one of the Bomb Squad's fine soul loops for B-Real and whoever wrote Dre's bars to get busy. And get busy they did: This shit is napalm! Dre's verse has a reference to how people looked at the late icon Michael Jackson in the 90s. Like it or not: In the 90s, the man wasn't as popular within the black community as he was in the 70s & 80s. B still made his presence felt in a manner that's undeniable:
We're pullin strings, killin kings
Countin all pinky rings, seizin control of the whole game
I took a pull from the blunt, inhaled and blew the smoke from my lungs into the world of hip-hop
Civilians turn into soldiers by the millions
Assassins, we multiply, by the masses
Masters of the game
Every move you make through manipulation is the move I choose for you to take!
You see, what I want you to see
And you turn into whatever I want you to be
Whether it be, enemy or ally
The Aftermath results in Soul Assassins, worldwide
From coast to coast, I got soldiers on post
Injecting you with the high funk overdose
Dre and the Hill, stayin' Real
All you non-believin' ass figures, get your cap peeled
Executive order make your time shorter
Get your recorder, play it back, puff your chronic sack
Your mind, body and soul have been captured
And taken captive by the motherfuckin' puppet masters!
DECISIONS, DECISIONS (GOODIE MOB)
Muggs heads to the Dungeon where Goodie Mob oblige his call to violate this grimy funky instrumental. This is the song where CeeLo Green established that he had bars if need be, as he lays claim to the coveted Source Hip Hop Quotable of April 1997. His fellow Mobsters sure did bring it, but CeeLo wasn't to be denied here. This song serves a special purpose for me personally, for it was my personal introduction to the Dungeon Family. It was through Goodie Mob that I was introduced to OutKast! This ain't the first time this happened, either, as Mobb Deep introduced me to Nas, Method Man introduced me to Redman, etc. I guess living in the motherland had to come with a price.
THIRD WORLD (GZA & RZA)
DJ Muggs reconnects with the Wu for the second single of this producer compilation and I must say: These two camps mesh well! Muggs recreates the ethereal feeling RZA invoked when he produced Killa Hill N****s off Temples Of Boom with the classical music intro into this battle-themed track, but you'll find that Muggs produced a superior bloddpumping beat once it kicks in and you hear someone's muffled speak in the background. That's when, boy/girl, GZA swoops in with a contender for the best verse he's ever written outside of Wu-Tang Forever. No, seriously:
Via satellite from the Wu-mansion
Still branchin' off the tree that sparked any MC
And the fruit that fell far was the ripest
It was Cypress, let the media hype this
Promotion figures snipe this
Push it like tray bags of 72
Kept figures in suede rags
Microphone psycho, who flips the mic so well
Held without bail, in jams packed like jail-cells
There's no escapin' once my blade starts scrapin'
Figures flakin', wannabe MC's is shakin'
My sword indeed make more figures bleed
So swift, naked eye couldn't record the speed
I lost ya with that offer, figure that'll cost ya
Feel the strings of torture
Must've been the half-gal
That's the shit he drinkin' that got him thinkin'
That he could trash the ship and get me sinkin'
I told him, "Come back when you're sober"
Drunk-ass punk, on the motherfuckin' Hunt for Red October
Don't even catch me when I'm blunted
Rhymes start runnin' like loops on a SP-1200
Instruments of terror on warship, its corporate
Visual figures paint portraits
RZA injects himself into the proceedings with a verse that's passable and makes do with the right delivery and flow which also serves as a message for an unknown recipient ally. Muggs is not playing around here as this is clearly intended as a medley with the next track!
BATTLE OF 2001 (B-REAL)
B-Real involves himself in the intro to this track as the officer who receives RZA's message from the previous song and then describes in rhyme form the attack on the base he's commanding for a brief few bars when his transmission is cut indicating their defeat. Then, Muggs includes a short outro where you hear an announcement of martial law where "all constitutional rights have now been revoked". Eerie conclusion.
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (LA THE DARKMAN)
Back to regularly scheduled hip hop, we find our old pal La The Darkman, who debuted a year earlier with the I Want It All promo single on Big Beat which went nowhere, receive his first real exposure to the masses with this timeless masterpiece of a song. As I've already stated here, La makes his shot with a haunting Muggs instrumental count with his greatest solo performance yet:
I'm from a long breed of stick up kids, coke and hustlers
Gods, foreign cars, strong arm tec' tusslers
The streets got me in a hole chin-deep
Quantum leap, a bum told me life is cheap
My lyrics dancing lamping eating fish in a Wu mansion
A park place I'm advancing and only my wiz I'm romancing
Posted, all you chicken figures get roasted
I read manuscripts in 97 whips, Ls is toasted
I said something, I meant it
Your Benz'll get dented
My guns get more open than a envelope with money in it
Where I live it's only crack, fiends and dirty jeans
Shorties on the block with the platinum drug dreams
Everything an hour seems, I got bagged at 14
On a highway running guns outta New Orleans
It's La, what you think them figures trembling pink
Stumbling, you a cat that turn tough when he drink
Keeping you lifted, reminisce on what Chris did
Pull out the mac and shot five cats and a civilian
Right in front of the building with kids playing, shells is spraying
On the second floor Shelly moms praying
Got caught by a stray in a window in broad day
And she died, fucked up it had to be that way
It was a drunk figure who done it
Simply arresting!
HEAVY WEIGHTS (MC EIHT)
Compton's Most Wanted frontman MC Eiht continues his fruitful collaborations with Muggs and this song further proves that this man is simply more comfortable on East Coast sounding beats, which Muggs is more than happy to provide! He blazes through Muggs' string-based beat with ease. Props for Eiht interpolating the late Craig Mack's hook from his MC EZ & Troup b-side Get Retarded in the background a year before LL & Dre would do so on Zoom. Dope song! This wouldn't be the last time Eiht & Muggs connected as their fruitful collaborations keep dropping in the 90s. Moving ahead.
MOVE AHEAD (KRS-ONE)
Well damn, KRS! Don't you want the review to shed light on your song? No? OK.
Seriously, you can feel Muggs excitement at working with the hip hop icon as he cooks a bloodpumping instrumental which KRS, still in his prime, absolutely shreds to ribbons. I always respected the fact that KRS, when not referencing some asinine quasi-spiritual bullshit, had the ability to interweave lyricism with subject effortlessly and this song may be his best example yet as he tackles the hot topics of the time: Region bias, selling out, dumbing down, etc. You will love this track. KRS & Muggs go on to connect a further two times and it's all thanks to this song.
IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU (MOBB DEEP)
Way before current production darling The Alchemist ever established the fruitful relationship with Mobb Deep that shot him to superstardom, the seminal NY duo connected with Muggs to complete this gem here. And best believe you're getting the prime Mobb Deep experience as Hav & the late great P utterly violate Muggs' apt tribute to their sound. That's another thing that doesn't get mentioned enough about what Muggs is doing on this album: You'll find that each song so far has established Muggs' identity as a production powerhorse while simultaneously staying true to the identity of each featured artist.
LIFE IS TRAGIC (INFAMOUS MOBB)
After another obscure sample from a classic 1930s movie, Muggs turns to the Mobb's fam Infamous Mobb, comprising Twin Gambino, Godfather pt. 3 & Ty Nitty, where he commissions yet another faithful Mobb-esque instrumental. And the trio respond by pretty much shitting all over the opportunity: Ty sounds straight up unintelligible. No surprise there as he has always been the worst member. Twin disappoints with a subpar verse that, while housing genuine emotion, fails to meet his standard that he set on songs like All Pro & Animal Instinct. Godfather pt. 3 or Trip has always been the anchor of this crew, and while he brings a competent flow to close proceedings, it's not enough to save this from being a designated smoke break on the album. Next.
NEW YORK UNDERCOVER (BARRON RICKS)
And here, boy/girl (pick one), I finally get the chance to talk about one of my favorite underground shelved rap acts ever: Harlem's own Call O' Da Wild, comprised of Barron Ricks and Chic Moleek. These two, well... mostly Barron, had a short tenure of 3 years under DJ Muggs where they made some timeless music, but we'll get to that later. On this track, Muggs lays down a sparse, sinister piano loop that allows Barron to unload. And the moment you hear him, you realize he sounds almost exactly like Prodigy and yet still retains his Harlem cadence. They somehow make it work. This only serves as a painful reminder of the potential that was wasted when their debut LP got shelved.
JOHN 3:16 (WYCLEF JEAN)
The album closer for the US edition features none other than the Refugee Camp all-star himself. Now, Clef being ambitious ain't new, but damn can it backfire in the worst way possible. Muggs flips a classic pop rock sample in a manner that was supposed to aid Clef in giving a sermon on street morality. It also showcases how much Muggs was influenced by Havoc's production. Clef was clearly aiming for a dramatic & theatrical feel, singing and rapping about biblical retribution and the struggles of the "field". Problem is, Clef is way too scatterbrained with his writing to establish any form of cohesion. Production value by Muggs is undeniable but it pains me to say: Skip this barf.
RUNNIN WILD (BARRON RICKS)
The first of two tracks exclusively released outside of the US, Muggs would later reuse this beat for the lead single of the aforementioned Grandmasters project with GZA, although this piece stands perfectly on its own two. Barron Ricks absolutely devours this soundscape, abandoning his Prodigy impression completely and proving once again how much he was the unsung predator of the Soul Assassins camp at this time. Any Muggs fan owes it to themselves to hear this.
THE LAST ASSASSIN (B-REAL)
Second outside-US track, although this one was strictly a Japan exclusive. I swear Japanese hip hop fans had it good. This is quintessential Cypress Hill chemistry: Muggs provides a haunted cathedralic soundscape for B to eschew existential poetics about life in a gangbanging environment, from initiation in verse 1, the come up in verse 2, and loneliness in verse 3. This track, like many Cypress tracks before it, flies in the face of any naysayer who can't seem to get past the superficial stoner image & nasal tones they exhibit. Fantastic way to close the album out.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Looking back, Soul Assassins Chapter 1 is more than just a compilation; it's a manifesto. In 1997, while Comby was busy whoring himself out with the cheapest 80s pop loops and violating the LOX by forcing them to acquiesce to his shitty whims, Muggs chose the Marley Marl route by piling a list of his favorite rap acts and making magic with each one, creating a sonic underworld that was cohesive enough to house Dr. Dre, Goodie Mob, KRS-One & Mobb Deep under the same roof without any of them sounding out of place. This album marks is an indelible entry in DJ Muggs' "Cathedral Era" and remains one of the best producer-led projects in hip-hop history. It’s consistent, it’s moody, and aside from missteps with the Infamous Mobb & Wyclef, it’s wall-to-wall timelessness.
WORTH IT?
You bet your doughy and warty posterior, boy/girl (pick one). This is mandatory listening for anyone who claims to love hip hop. If you don't have this in your collection, you probably listen to NLE Choppa. Have fun explaining why him & NBA YoungBoy matter to people who won't believe you
TRACKS TO TRACK DOWN: Since we touched on Call O' Da Wild, you'd be a fool not to dig for the scraps of their shelved legacy.
INTELLECTUAL DONS
Even though this was the b-side to the Ruffturrain promo single, I heard this first. Judging by the eerie violin loop that still manages to preserve a soundscape festive enough for a rap song, DJ Muggs seemed to have an affinity for the church aesthetic when producing music for street acts back then. And Chic Moleek takes full advantage of that opportunity by coming completely unglued on this entire song: He bookends a lone verse from Barron Ricks (who's obviously playing catch up) with two verses chock full of unorthodox flows that you can't help but rewind the songs multiple times. I still fail at repeating either of Chic's virtuosic displays
Even though this was the b-side to the Ruffturrain promo single, I heard this first. Judging by the eerie violin loop that still manages to preserve a soundscape festive enough for a rap song, DJ Muggs seemed to have an affinity for the church aesthetic when producing music for street acts back then. And Chic Moleek takes full advantage of that opportunity by coming completely unglued on this entire song: He bookends a lone verse from Barron Ricks (who's obviously playing catch up) with two verses chock full of unorthodox flows that you can't help but rewind the songs multiple times. I still fail at repeating either of Chic's virtuosic displays
RUFFTURRAIN
This was supposed to be the single that put Call O' Da Wild on the map. Alas. DJ Muggs loops a brilliant psychedelic raga rock classic and somehow manages to make it sound impressively adjacent to the trance-induced Sanskrit vibe that prevailed on Temples of Boom. Barron Ricks was clearly intended to be the star of the duo as he's the one who remained upholding the flag, and he's the one who bookends Chic's lone verse on this gem.
ANDREWS AVE
When a producer loops something without programming the drums due to the percussion on the loop being more than enough? That's OK. It's that complete absence of percussion that pisses me off. Thankfully this unheralded short storytelling monolith is the former. Ricks & Leek tag team this jawn one verse apiece something proper with a short horrific tale of vengeance. This is somber in retrospect as it perfectly illustrates what Muggs could've done with these two had the deal materialized right.
URBAN WILDERNESS
Another loop with the percussion integrated within, this one sounding like Muggs' own hip hop tribute to Ralph Bakshi's cinematic visions. Ricks & Leek turn on the imagery switch to 100, with Leek naturally exhibiting his unique flow that still mystifies me. Flow changes like a chameleon, word to Masta Killa!
NINTH SYMPHONY (FEATURING B-REAL)
This should've been the triumphant victory lap for everyone involved. A menacing, bloodthirsty Muggs beat & three very hungry MCs. The mixing ruins any chance for anyone to decipher the verses spit here. A real shame because it sounds like B & the Call were really going in. I still somehow get a helluva kick outta bumping this.
And after damn near four years, we're done! For more on the Soul Assassins, click their name, BITCH!
This should've been the triumphant victory lap for everyone involved. A menacing, bloodthirsty Muggs beat & three very hungry MCs. The mixing ruins any chance for anyone to decipher the verses spit here. A real shame because it sounds like B & the Call were really going in. I still somehow get a helluva kick outta bumping this.
And after damn near four years, we're done! For more on the Soul Assassins, click their name, BITCH!
