Soul Assassins: Muggs Presents The Soul Assassins II

Because few beatsmiths have the personality to make their albums sound like more than a collection of songs with similar beats, hip-hop producer compilations tend to be iffy. Last year, Prince Paul helped create two notable exceptions with A Prince Among Thieves and, in collaboration with Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, Handsome Boy Modeling School's So…How's Your Girl, but they more often end up like DJ Muggs' grindingly arbitrary Soul Assassins II. As the sonic architect behind Cypress Hill's stoner-gothic sound and the producer of classics such as "How I Could Just Kill A Man" and "Insane In The Brain," Muggs' gritty soundscapes have influenced everyone from The RZA to Tricky, who recruited him to help produce his instantly forgotten Juxtapose album. Muggs produced almost all of Assassins II, with assists from The Alchemist and DJ Kahlil, and while he does right by Cypress Hill and longtime collaborator Everlast (on the hard-hitting "Don't Trip" and "Razor To Your Throat," respectively), his hand seems shakier elsewhere. The veteran producer's style hasn't progressed much over the years, and much of Soul Assassins II sounds gloomy, monotonous, and familiar, as Muggs continues to abuse similarly grimy, endlessly repeated loops, blaxploitation strings and wails, and murky textures. Isolated performances stand out, with Ras Kass and King Tee both turning in memorable verses, but the album's water-treading production and uninspired guest performances make Assassins II one for Cypress Hill completists only. The production duo The Creators is from England, but its sound—jazzy, fussy, and gloriously full—hearkens back to the obsessive, jazz-based crate-digging of New York-based early-'90s acts like Main Source and A Tribe Called Quest. Evidence of the ubiquitous Dilated Peoples pops up on both Soul Assassins II and The Weight, but the two albums couldn't be farther apart. While Soul Assassins II caters to gangsta-rap fans, The Weight features collaborations between The Creators and American underground heavyweights Evidence, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli, as well as lesser-known performers such as A Tribe Called Quest hanger-on Consequence and second-string Likwit Crew affiliate Phil Da Agony. The subject matter addressed on The Weight deviates little from the boasting template so popular in underground rap, but the duo coaxes stellar performances from almost everyone involved, particularly El Da Sensei, Craig G and Will Pack, and Phil Da Agony. But the album's MVPs are Mos Def and Talib Kweli, who flaunt their vaunted chemistry on the wonderfully relaxed "(Another) Another World" and "Hard Margin," in which they make good on Kweli's promise to "move the crowd like cattle from here to Piccadilly Circus." Only an abundance of irritating answering-machine messages mar a modest but appealing addition to hip-hop's growing internationalism.