In 1997, he released what could be termed a solo album: Soul Assassins I, reaching #86 on the Billboard 200 and earning critical praise. Produced by DJ Muggs, it featured a variety of rappers including Dr. Dre, B-Real, Mobb Deep, RZA, GZA, Goodie Mob, KRS One and Wyclef Jean. In 2000 he returned to the Soul Assassins with Soul Assassins II, which reached only #178 on the charts but garnered similarly positive reviews . He also put out the record Dust, an atmosphere-heavy trip-hop affair with Greg Dulli, Amy Trujillo and Everlast on vocals. After the 2004 album Til Death Do Us Part, which didn't reach gold but landed #23 on the Billboard 200, Cypress Hill went on a hiatus from recording, enabling its members to focus more on their side projects.
Further Solo Projects & Return of Cypress Hill (2005 - 2009)
In 2005, DJ Muggs teamed up with Wu-Tang Clan's GZA for the album Grandmasters, the first project released on his label Angeles Records. Patterned after a chess game, it received highly positive reviews; Muggs also announced a Soul Assassins III album, produced jointly by himself and Alchemist, reportedly to be preceded by a record called Cloak & Dagger, also featuring Alchemist. Instead, Muggs produced an album for Psycho Realm member Sick Jacken, Legend of the Mask and the Assassin two years later, in 2007. In 2008, Muggs announced that his album with California rapper Planet Asia would be the third Soul Assassins album, but the two released Pain Language later that year as a simple collaboration.
Before the release of his solo album Smoke N Mirrors in 2009, B-Real reported that Cypress Hill has been working on an album for roughly a year. Currently in the mixing phase, Muggs has produced half of the album's material so far, going to DJ Premier, Pete Rock and Mike Shinoda for the rest. DJ Muggs has also announced a third Soul Assassins project for release on June 23: Intermissions, featuring RZA, Prodigy, Evidence, The Alchemist and Bun B. Muggs has also entered the Gumball 3000 cross-country race. Recently, the first single for Intermissions has been released: "Gangsta Shit," by Bun B and M1 of Dead Prez.
Muggs never dabbled too much with hitmaking but remained a formidable and recognized rap producer because of his work with Cypress Hill and his series of collaborative solo albums. Fame came quickly for the California-by-way-of-New York producer, as he scored runaway hits right off the bat with House of Pain ("Jump Around") and Ice Cube ("Check Yo Self"), as well as with his group, Cypress Hill. As the mid-'90s transitioned to the late '90s, Muggs maintained a fairly low profile and didn't score any more big hits. Cypress Hill's initial impact faded a bit, and the producer felt compelled to try something new. The album spawned an MTV-aired single, "Puppet Master" (featuring Dr. Dre and B Real), and sold relatively well but did no chart-topping. After three more quiet years, Muggs returned with Chapter II, another guest-laden album featuring several big names, but again didn't meet the sales expectations of his record label, Columbia. He parted ways with the label and signed to Anti, an independent label distributed by Epitaph. His debut Anti release, Dust, bore little resemblance to his past work, which had been dark hip-hop, instead veering toward trip-hop à la Massive Attack and Tricky. He meanwhile continued to work with Cypress Hill, who had begun integrating rock into their music and experienced periodic success as a result. In terms of his own releases, Muggs decided to eliminate the problems he was running into with label owners by completely producing and releasing his own music. He started Angeles Record with Chace Infinite and DJ Khalil and issued Grandmasters, a collaborative project between himself and GZA in 2005
You can catch DJ Muggs show "the west wing" on monday nights 9pm est on sirius satellite radio Shade 45
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