It has taken the Los Angeles collective Cypress Hill five years to get their nod at the Vh1 Hip-Hop Honors. If you are on point with your Hip Hop 101 and albums including Black Sunday, Juxtapose and Soul Assassins Chapter 1, you should recognize the irony there.

DJ Muggs’ Rock infused, gritty production has been interpreted by the likes of Alchemist, requested by bands such as the Beastie Boys and U2 and has been used for movies including The Last Emperor and Training Day.

Muggs has stood the test of time; the industry hasn’t been able to outwit him nor his brethren. For 20 years his forward thinking and ability to emulate the same formula effectively has equated to longevity. His self prescribed dosage of business acumen has undoubtedly helped too.

On the verge of releasing Pain Language with Planet Asia, Muggs spoke to HipHopDX's Producer's Corner. Critical of the funk-faking tattoos, cocked brims and "Pop rappers," Muggs says that it's nothing for Cypress Hill to make a million dollars a month touring, and why his dark, gritty gangster music is forever respected.

HipHopDX: You produced House of Pain’s "Jump Around;" what did that track do for your career?
DJ Muggs: That was one of the biggest records of its generation, and it did a lot of things for me and took me to a lot of places. It didn’t do things like change my career or anything, but to have that record on your discography, it was a boost.

DX: From that, you went on and did some serious remixes during that time too for bands like U2, was this all off the strength of that track or had people been talking to you before then?
DJ Muggs: Everything came after the first Cypress [Hill] [self-titled] record really.

DX: Do you feel with Cypress Hill’s Rock-infused sound gets overlooked as a ground breaking Hip Hop sound and group?
DJ Muggs: Yes I think a lot of really good stuff gets overlooked and I don’t know what it is, as people only focus on the moment and what is hot right now. I never got into the business to be hot for the minute or just have a couple of hot records. I am an original; I am in it for the long haul. Cypress Hill has been here 20 years, successful as ever right now. We might not be all over TV these days, but as far as our careers, as far as records sales and as far as the money we make, we are better than ever and do what we do.

DX: How do you balance the business versus the creativity?
DJ Muggs: I learned as there was a learning process as I was strictly creative and then I go so into my career where I knew if I really wanted to be successful I had to learn the business too. So I had sat in enough meetings with enough lawyers and had read enough contracts so that it was like on the job training for me. I just went along and paid attention and asked a lot of questions, read books and now I am on top of my game.

DX: Back then when you guys came onto the scene there was a lot of people getting jerked, was this what encouraged you to take care of your own stuff?
DJ Muggs: Well I was in a band before Cypress, and I learned from that and I watched enough and heard enough stories of bands losing everything from the '50s and '60s. It happened to a few of my friends too, and I refused to be a statistic. I just went out of my way to educate myself. At that time there was no Internet, there was no Making of the Band on MTV, it was a lot harder to get an education and understanding of how this business worked and the inner dealings of it.

DX: Touching on the internet, how has its importance over the last decade been for you?
DJ Muggs: You know at one point it just wasn’t important to me at all, but I think it threw a wrench and it hampered a lot of things for a lot of people and it cut into a lot of people’s record sales; but now it is at the point where it is a positive tool and because I have put a lot of time and effort in to traveling the world and carrying that flag, building myself an international fan base where now I can touch them. I can go to my computer now and log in to SoulSessions.com and I get 10,000 kids coming through there every day and I can reach them. It is good for me as I don’t need to go through a label or a distributor; I can go directly to my fans all around the world. I don’t have to go through a middle-man or through magazines, my fans know what I am doing every day and they get my music like that. Using it is something positive and a tool and it will be a great thing for the whole movement.

DX: Soul Assassins albums were a great meeting point in Hip Hop, you have always shown diversity, do you think Hip-Hop will ever get to those sorts of projects again?
DJ Muggs: I come from a time, where I think if I was a kid growing up today I don’t think I would be listening to Hip Hop, I would be listening to something else. When I came up it was something brand new and it was about being different. You couldn’t look like nobody, sound like them or act like them. You had to be good. You were either good or wack and if you sucked you had to get the fuck off the stage. It was about being unique and different and I still believe that as a musician. I try to show kids, "Look you don’t have to follow the Hip Hop formula to get on the radio." I have always had the N.W.A. mentality: "Fuck video, fuck radio, don’t play my shit and still be successful." It is rebel music and I show kids how they can do things on their terms, paint your art the way you want to paint your art and still be successful, some years you might not sell millions, you might sell thousands and so you hit the road a little more that year. Some years I am in the studio, some I am on the road more. I just scored a movie Street Kings, so there is always something to do and it is not always the same thing. Continued on page 2 »