Steve 'Flash' JuonI can’t lie — I find “Bass for Your Face” to be a very strange album. There’s no doubt that Lawrence Muggerud is a rap legend and has been since the self-titled first album from Cypress Hill dropped. People like to make those “if you were stranded on a deserted island” lists and I put that album on it every time the subject comes up. I can’t deny the man is a musical genius. He knows how to sample and WHAT to sample. He knows how to take disparate elements and weave them together. He knows how to layer tracks, the right amount of percussion, and as the title of this album suggests Mr. Muggerud knows BASS quite well. A good DJ Muggs track thumps in your ride or your ear buds. He’s the motherfucking man, aight? He just is.
If I told you “Trap Assassin” features DJ Muggs collaborating with Freddie Gibbs and NOTHING ELSE you’d assume it’s a slam dunk. Here’s what you need to know though — this isn’t the collaboration you’re expecting. Muggs’ own stated intention with this album was a “palate cleanser” because he was bored with his own production and needed to do something else. Respect. What I didn’t expect was that “something else” was UK DUBSTEP. I don’t hate it. I’m not mad at it. It’s just absolutely not what I expected to hear Gibbs rap on or Muggs produce, and it’s taken me several listens to let what both men did fully sink in. The follow up track is “Soundclash Business” though and it proves without a doubt that Muggs MEANT business about this change in tone.
If you’ve never listened to dubstep, drum and bass, or even grime music before it’s going to be a complete culture shock for you as a DJ Muggs fan. If on the other hand you were familiar with those genres you’ll be impressed at how fully Muggerud embraced the sound. The bass is definitely in your face but so are the super electronic and often HARSH tones. It’s abrasive for a purpose. It’s taking the tropes of technology like eight bit chiptunes and synthesizers and chopping them up like a butcher at the block. If you’re open to it the results can be quite beautiful — see “Shotta (Itchy Robot Mix)” for an example. It’s a futuristic fusion of reggae and techno that sounds like an afterparty in Las Vegas with too much liquor and too many drugs.
Or maybe it sounds like a trendy nightclub on the West End that I could never afford to get into. “Come On London” featuring Killa P takes the sound of the UK’s Caribbean emcees and turns it up to 11. The song makes lights flash in my head and neurons fire in synaptic patterns that shouldn’t exist but do. I could easily picture this song playing during an episode of Severance as Mark S. is being chased by Lumon executives on motorbikes. It’s tense, it’s loud, it’s harrowing, and it’s kind of addictive.
It had also only been viewed/listened to 300 times when I started writing this review. I suspect that like me you didn’t know “Bass for Your Face” existed until today — I’m speaking to you from the past but like Severance my innie and my outtie have had a chat about sharing their timelines and trying to sus out what’s really going on. If you’re here now my past me thanks future you for reading this review and stopping to consider why this Muggs album went under the radar. I’m tempted to say the answer is easy for a damn yankee — dubstep, techno, drum and bass, and electronica just aren’t that big here. There’s a scene. It’s just not like the European scene. Not even close. The only song here that seems to have gotten any traction is “Snap Ya Neck Back” featuring Bambu and Dizzee Rascal. It’s FIYAH.
So look I’m not going to tell you that “Bass for Your Face” is for you, or that it’s what I expect from DJ Muggs (then or now) or that it even has an audience in North America. Back where most of the emcees heard on this album are from though this release would slap at any soundclash from the most trendy expensive dancehall to the most grimy “power from the streetlights made the place dark” park gathering. You can feel that UK essence bleeding through Muggs production and I’m impressed he took his style and adapted it to something entirely alien to his roots with such style and finesse.