My Gut Reaction: DJ Muggs x Eto - Hells Roof (March 1, 2019)

He never really went anywhere, but it certainly seems like we’re witnessing the second coming of Lawrence “DJ Muggs” Muggerud. Since “returning” to the hip hop scene in 2017, he’s had a prolific and entertaining run, releasing projects with Meyhem Lauren (two of them, to be exact), Roc Marciano (ugh), his own group Cypress Hill (Elephants On Acid, which I’ll get around to reviewing eventually, was really fucking good from what I remember after listening to it), and even dropping another entry in his Soul Assassins series. Five albums fully produced by Muggs within a two-year timespan is nothing to laugh at: the man may have spent a significant chunk of this decade focusing on side projects in the realm of trip hop, rock, dubstep (which was an unfortunate detour, but whatever), and offering occasional production to Die Antwoord, but he hasn’t stopped working since Meyhem Lauren’s Gems From the Equinox was announced.

His Vs. series features some of my favorite works from Muggs, as he teams up with various artists to provide them with a soundscape that helps them tell their story, all while challenging himself to adapt his sound with each environment. So far he’s aligned himself with the likes of GZA/Genius, Sick Jacken, Planet Asia, Ill Bill, and the aforementioned Lauren and Roc Marcy, with more promised in the coming months. Having rediscovered his love of hip hop, apparently, he’s also started paying much more attention to fringe artists who haven’t yet broken out of their box, but are deserving of a wider audience. That brings us to the subject of today’s post, Hells Roof, Muggerud’s collaboration with rapper Eto.

Eto, or Lil’ Eto as the Interweb tells me he sometimes goes by, is a Rochester-based rapper cut from the same cloth as most other New York spitters: he has a fondness for darker street tales, a keen observational eye, and knows how to paint a picture using as few strokes as possible. Hells Roof, a title that annoys the shit out of me because it reads as though it should be Hell’s Roof, is how Eto and his boys refer to his neighborhood.

Eto is a dude who I wasn’t really familiar with before the Soul Assassins project Dia del Asesinato, where he turned in a guest performance that was among the highlights of the album, besting much bigger names such as Raekwon and MF DOOM. In fact, screw it, I’m just going to show you what I originally wrote, because I have a point to make:

This was published on August 14, 2018, by the way.

So basically I’m a psychic, and when I tell you something needs to happen, it happens.

Hells Roof follows your standard crime rap narrative, focused around how crack was introduced into the Black community, with the death and destruction that followed. Hey, I never said this was going to be a happy album: when was the last time Muggs ever produced something joyous and buoyant? Yes, that’s correct, it was House of Pain’s 1992 anthem “Jump Around”. Now please, take your seats as DJ Muggs and Eto relay their findings to us in what is hopefully an entertaining manner.

1. CRACK WARS

…

2. DOMINATE

By isolating a good chunk of the dialogue sample(s) to the first audio track, “Dominate” becomes the default rap album intro, its statement of intent, and, thankfully, it succeeds on all fronts. Muggerud’s choppy organ sample, paired with apathetic, militant drums (which mirror the emotion of your average drug dealer peddling death to their community) bangs, bringing with it a sense of dread that Eto matches line-for-line with his disaffected observational bars, delivered in the slow cadence of, say, a Roc Marciano, but livelier in a way. The rhymes themselves are fine, nothing too special there, but Eto manages to paint a picture of a crack-infested neighborhood with minimal effort, choosing the smallest amount of words possible to get his point across. This was pretty fucking solid, is what I’m saying. The chorus is overly and unnecessarily wordy, but that’s a minor quibble.

3. HOLY WINE

I couldn’t really get on board with this one, however. “Holy Wine” and “Dominate” serve essentially the same function on the project, and this track could have just as easily opened Hells Roof, but the two aren’t truly interchangeable, as Muggs turns in an instrumental that is somehow both thrilling and exhausting. You feel the highs and the lows simultaneously, and so you end up walking away from the song feeling absolutely nothing. Eto’s crack rhymes and street tales are matter-of-fact, without embellishment and never condescending to the audience, because this is just what he’s seen and he’s just the messenger. But his energy level has already tapered off from “Dominate”: it almost sounds like the point in the recording process where our host realized that he and Muggs have to stick with this “crack era” narrative for the length of a full album, and that exasperation is captured on wax. Huh.

4. ROSES (FEAT. ROC MARCIANO)

Of fucking course Roc Marciano appears on Hells Roof: I mentioned him three times before even getting to this paragraph, so he appears out of the ether like Beetlejuice. (I didn't even plan that as a joke, either: I really did naturally name-drop the guy three times. Damn, I'm good.) You two may also have noticed how I’ve refused to review the DJ Muggs and Roc Marcy project KAOS, so obviously the universe is just screwing with me now. I’m just surprised that his cameo happens so early on in the program. He performs exactly as I expected him to: aside from the goofy-as-shit ad-libbing of the word “whilst”, which is extremely my shit and at least proves that he has a tiny speck of a sense of humor about himself, Marcy’s callous, barely-on-beat flow speaks a bunch of nothing into the atmosphere. Eto follows immediately after (I’m grateful that neither rapper saw the need for a hook on this shit) and comes across as a grittier, less refined Roc Marciano, which essentially tanked any potential interest I ever had in “Roses”, but had this just been a solo song, he would have sounded fine: the direct comparison, which cannot be avoided on here, is a detriment. Muggerud’s piano-laden lo-fi instrumental, which is what I imagine the entirety of KAOS to sound like (let me know if I’m incorrect below), isn’t a good fit for either participant, really: of the producer’s recent collaborators, Meyhem Lauren could have worked some magic with this beat. But that’s not what we ended up getting, so.

5. STILL MOBBIN (FEAT. FLEE LORD & BIG TWINS)

The song title makes me think that DJ Muggs was holding on to “Still Mobbin” for a Mobb Deep collaboration that was put on the backburner after Prodigy’s passing, and the presence of the Infamous Mobb’s Big Twins has me believing that this song is actulally a remnant of a failed joint project between he and Muggerud. Whatever the origin story is, the track itself has me overthinking it in no such manner: “Still Mobbin” is just a pleasant-enough rap song, one that isn’t very memorable, but it’s enjoyable while it plays. Our host is joined by the artist also known as Twin Gambino (with whom a collaborative effort with Muggs isn’t a bad idea – I spoke Hells Roof into existence in my Dia del Asesinato write-up and I refuse to believe otherwise, so why can’t there be a DJ Muggs x Big Twins album?) and Flee Lord, the unlikely trio unleashing their street tales and threats (and, on Eto’s part, pushing the crack thread that ties the project together) with ease. Twin benefits from having his voice, which sounds as though someone poured honey into a jar full of gravel, standing out from the flows of his co-conspirators, but both Flee Lord (who overdoes it with the ad-libs, but who doesn’t these days, right?) and our host sound just fine regardless.

6. HOMIE

Eto takes a break from hosting his friends in the studio for the solo song “Homie”, his ode to not trusting anyone outside of his circle (and even then, the bond is strained at best) that takes place over a motherfucking exhilarating Muggs synth concoction that gets the heart racing and feels as cathartic as watching Nicolas Cage (finally) exact his revenge on the evil cult in Mandy. (While I liked the action sequences, and the flick is shot beautifully, my fucking God that movie took its sweet time getting to the fireworks factory, am I right?) Eto talks to the horror-fueled score like peanut butter to chocolate, his bars sounding more potent the deeper we dive into his ocean: even if the subject matter is par for this type of course, Eto sells the shit out of the material with his boasts and observations. Muggs and Eto have a banger on their hands here, no lie.

7. THE BLUES

The bluesy sound (obviously, given the song title that must have taken, at maximum, two milliseconds to come up with) is jarring when it immediately follows “Homie”, but perhaps Muggs felt the listener would appreciate an opportunity to catch their collective breath at this point in the program. The music itself isn’t that bad: “The Blues” sounds like what would happen had DJ Muggs scored The RZA’s The Man with the Iron Fists. But it is repetitive as all hell, and Eto’s bars aren’t engaging enough to maintain your interest in the final product. Our host’s flow has roughly an eighth of the energy as the instrumental, which transfers to his bars about as well as you would expect, so this was a no for me. The skit that ends the audio track also plays for too long with no payoff, unless you count the next song as such, anyway.

8. TIO INTERLUDE

The Muggs beat that plays underneath “Tio Interlude”, which features spoken dialogue from someone who may actually just be Eto’s uncle for all I know or care (I couldn’t find any confirmation as of this writing), reminded me of those brief instrumental interludes he used to throw on to the early Cypress Hill albums. It’s chill as fuck, and B-Real probably could have done some damage to it. I’m also okay with it not being used for an actual song, as well. Not that anyone ever needs to listen to this interlude more than the once.

9. LAST SUPPER (FEAT. MEYHEM LAUREN)

Not sure if it’s due to the presence of Muggerud’s current BFF Meyhem Lauren or the excitable instrumental that, nevertheless, works gunshots into the mix, but Eto’s flow on “Last Supper” is less Roc Marcy and more that of a just-having-woken-up Jadakiss, as our host is in his most committed form on here. His threats and punchlines (which aren’t “ha ha” funny, more deserving of a smirk than anything) sound pretty good over this beat, but Lauren’s verse walks away with the song, locking the door and pushing a couch in front of the frame behind him in order to prevent any rescue attempt from our host. Meyhem’s been on quite a run ever since Gems From the Equinox, having found Muggs at just the right time, and that streak continues here, and as a bonus, Eto’s pretty goddamn good on this track, as well.

10. ATTICS

Muggs opts for a jazzy, smoke-filled atmosphere for Eto’s performance on “Attics”, on which he sounds like he’s sitting at the head of the table dictating his biography while his employees count up all of the cash he obtained from his many customers. Eto holds court on “Attics” (there’s a pun about addicts and the album being titled Hells Roof in here that I'll let you two discern) as though he were the oldest of the O.G.s, and his brash confidence and sarcasm ooze out of your earbuds. (He sounds like he’s pulling a “Jim Halpert stares directly into the camera” multiple times throughout the track. That is not a criticism.) Muggerud’s decision to pair our host’s words with the downright sultry backdrop is pretty brilliant: you’ll buy into everything Eto is selling on here, and he peddles his wares effortlessly. A nice late-game gem.

11. VICTORY (FEAT. WILLIE THE KID)

I have to say, I’m loving this DJ Muggs career renaissance – whatever inspired him to return to hip hop is definitely working overtime, as the man hasn’t sounded this inspired behind the boards in years. “Victory” slaps, is what I’m trying to say. Guest Willie the Kid, self-described “second generation Soul Assassin” and younger brother of will-they-or-won’t-they? Wu-Tang Clan affiliate La the Darkman, delivers a snappy, kinetic first verse, only for Eto to swoop in and dominate the paint with a spirited stanza that strings together an array of threats and shit-taking into an impressive performance. Eto genuinely sounds like he’s belonged in the rap game for years. You’re going to enjoy “Victory”.

12. WHAT YOU SAYIN

No such luck here, though. The finale of Hells Roof features a Muggs loop that, frankly, would have worked better as a brief instrumental interlude, not as an album closer. Eto’s bars revert back to the disinterested omnipresent narrator mode that he’s prone to use when left to his own devices, and that renders “What You Sayin” a disappointment. The song is so boring that it’s difficult for me to recall anything specific about it (except for Muggs adding his signature “Soul Assassins” drop at the very end, albeit not in its original form) – this track falls into the same trap as “The Blues” had previously. Ah well, not every song can be a winner: if that were the case, then what purpose would this blog even serve? (He asked, knowing full well that you two have your own opinions on the matter.)

THE LAST WORD: When compared to the rest of Muggerud’s current run, Hells Roof is slightly worse than both of Meyhem Lauren’s efforts and much better than Dia del Asesinato, an album I remember really liking, so what does that tell you? (I can’t speak on KAOS, as I haven’t listened to most of it, and Cypress Hill’s Elephants on Acid is on an entirely different astral plane than this project, so it would make no sense to compare the two.) But in no way does that mean Eto has gotten the short shrift from his producer: there are many solid-as-shit songs on Hells Roof that will make you want to invade someone’s home and breathe on all of their silverware. The pairing of Eto with DJ Muggs is inspired: when provided with the right type of atmosphere, Eto’s bars spin tales as old as time within a manageable two-to-three-minute stretch, while Eto’s mere presence and background forces Muggs to pull back on some of his sonic impulses - indeed, a lot of Hells Roof plays at a slower tempo than we expect from him outside of a B-Real and Sen Dog deep album cut. Eto sounds most enthusiastic (relatively speaking) when alongside other artists (except for Roc Marciano, ironically – the man Eto reminds me of the most kills the momentum fairly quickly with his actual cameo, forcing the album itself to regroup), but while those performances are (mostly) killer, you get a true idea of what Eto is capable of with “Attics” (my clear favorite) and “Dominate”, both of which are stunning examples of street rap with a soul. Fans of gritty New York hip hop and boom bap will enjoy Hells Roof, an album that you two should go out of your way to listen to. Hells Roof was the first rap album I actually sat down and listened to in 2019, and if the rest of the year is even half as entertaining, this could be a very interesting time. Especially as Muggs is supposed to release projects with Mach-Hommy and Crimeapple later this year (or month): looks like someone is trying to challenge his (former?) Soul Assassins homeboy The Alchemist for the collaborative-album top spot. Looking forward to seeing what happens on that front.

-Max

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