My Gut Reaction: DJ Muggs x Meyhem Lauren x Classic Car Club Manhattan - Members Only (September 6, 2019)

Members Only is the third project in three years from the team of DJ Muggs and Queens-based rapper-slash-television personality-slash-F.O.B. (that’s ‘friend of Bronson’) Meyhem Lauren. It follows 2017’s full-length Gems From the Equinox, which doubled as the prolific Muggerud’s full-time return to the culture after a hiatus of sorts, and the 2018 EP Frozen Angels, which compiled all of the various bonus tracks off of Gems and threw in some other trinkets for the fuck of it.

I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of years talking about DJ Muggs, and there's only so many ways I can keep telling the same story, so we’ll keep these paragraphs brief.

Members Only is a four-song EP credited to Muggs, Lauren, and Classic Car Club Manhattan, which sounds like a cool name for a rap group and will likely become just that since I wrote it into existence, but for the purposes of this project is literally just a classic car club that helped Muggerud and Meyhem promote their work. It follows multiple Lauren solo efforts (the man also likes to work, which makes him a good match with DJ Muggs) and the roughly fifty-three albums Muggerud has produced since late 2017, all of which seem to feature East Coast-based crime rappers that specialize in apathetic mumbling.

Meyhem Lauren is anything but apathetic when it comes to his performances, however – he’s likely provided Muggs with the most energetic recordings of this phase of his career.

Members Only is fully produced by DJ Muggs and follows a general racing theme throughout, utilizing sound bites and samples to help tell a story of some sort. My indifference to the narrative is a reaction to just how little Lauren gives a shit about it: there are a lot of bars about cars, which seems to either have been a mandate from the Car Club or was just at the forefront of Lauren’s mind during the day or two it took to record this bad boy (I’m speculating – for all I know Members Only consists of even more leftovers from Gems). It features zero guest spots, so in theory it’s representative of what Muggs and Meyhem are capable of doing when they have very few constraints.

MembersOnly, then?

1. AZTEC SNOW FLAKES

One surefire way to win me over on the blog is to throw a sound bite from Better Off Dead into your song, exactly as Muggerud does to kick off “Aztec Snow Flakes”. The joke will be lost on listeners who aren’t familiar with that John Cusack classic, but the reference’s insular nature in no way detracts from the track itself – it’s merely an additional perk. Muggs programs some drums that were much harder than I had anticipated after having listened to both Medallo and Kill ‘Em All (the latter of which I’m sure is giving away an upcoming review on either the main feed or the Patreon, I guess – SPOILER ALERT!), and although the instrumental is barely more than that, it works incredibly well. Meyhem Lauren doesn’t say anything especially enlightening on here: you get your automobile brand name drops, and the hook alternates between the two phrases, “We getting’ money over here,” and “All my n----s getting’ money”. We’re not reinventing the wheel here, folks. And yet, Lauren sounds both excited and excitable, and maybe this is just my own perception as he was the first artist Muggs worked with when the producer began mounting his “comeback” of sorts, but our host seems to fit these soundscapes much better than Lawrence’s other recent collaborators over their own Muggstrumentals. So “Aztec Snow Flakes” starts Members Only off at a level that it almost certainly cannot maintain throughout, right?

2. GT3

Muggs’s otherwise low-key “GT3” instrumental doubles down on the car references by working the sound of a fucking revving engine into the very beginning, so even if Lauren hadn’t been talking about vehicles or going so far as to call the entire goddamn song “GT3”, the duo still would have met the minimum requirements here. Lauren is still on his boasts-n-bullshit here, as that is his first gear, but he sounds fine, if uninspired and indifferent to the music at large. He does manage one fire line, however: “Don’t expect shit from people, they can’t fail me.” It sounds defeatist, but it’s also realistic and should ring true to anybody who’s ever been disappointed with the actions of a friend or family member. The rest of “GT3” succumbs to the broadly bland worldview presented in the man’s outro: “I really live this / Fast money and fast cars, I really live this,” (emphasis mine) which couldn’t sound more clichéd if you had heard it come from a robot that you programmed with thirty years of New York boom bap history downloaded onto its hard drive, tasking it to write something original.

3. WAVY

The crown jewel of this EP is “Wavy”, which was also the first single and video released from Members Only. A looped-up melody, paired with some fuzzy, hard-as-fuck drums, creates a hypnotic effect, and our host rides the, um, wave like a pro. “Wavy” is the first song on here that matches the energy and intensity of Gems From the Equinox, so it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Muggerud had been holding on to this one since those original recording sessions. Lauren’s simplistic hook is catchy and engaging, his confidence and swagger behind the microphone easily selling his braggadocio. And yes, the car references pop back up, but our host keeps them to a minimum, choosing instead to run with the boasts-n-bullshit that got him to where he is today. This was fun as hell, you two.

4. BLUE CHINESE

Members Only ends with what is possibly the best instrumental DJ Muggs has blessed our ears with in all of goddamn 2019 (at least so far: for all I know, Soul Assassins Records is going to drop another seven projects before the year is out). “Blue Chinese” is a slow, methodical cruise through the city, Meyhem Lauren handling the wheel while Muggerud stares out the passenger window with a thousand-yard stare, and the combination works more often than not, even withstanding a very noticeable downshift in Lauren’s natural flow. Our host turns in two verses (and another catchy chorus) while firmly in his bag: don’t come to the goofily-titled “Blue Chinese” (or Members Only, to be honest) looking for insight into the human condition, as Meyhem Lauren gives listeners almost nothing in the way of personal introspection. This shit was entertaining, though. A fantastic way to end the evening, or to start your day, I suppose.

THE LAST WORD: Due to the project’s rather short length, after writing these original notes I took the EP for a spin in the time it took me to get to the office, and it is fucking bonkers how well it works. With Members Only, it is officially canon that Meyhem Lauren is DJ Muggs’s most consistent collaborator ever since he popped back up on the hip hop scene back in 2017. (For that last sentence to work, pretend Cypress Hill doesn’t exist for a moment.) Lauren’s brand of shit-talking is exactly the type that could grow tiresome over the course of twelve or more tracks, but Members Only is a four-song EP with three undisputed bangers, so there is very little to complain about here. DJ Muggs reverts to the gutter shit he excels at here, providing his collaborator with some absolute fire while Lauren, in turn, provides the listener with genial, ignorant, ridiculous, and boisterous New York gangsta shit, and the combination just clicks for me. Those of you who found the Roc Marciano, Eto, Mach-Hommy, and Crimeapple projects lacking that special sauce will locate it on Members Only, and folks that still play the hell out of Gems From the Equinox and Frozen Angels should have been already listening to this EP. I wouldn’t be mad if a collaborative project becomes an annual event for DJ Muggs and Meyhem Lauren – shit, is there a GoFundMe where we can all help make that a reality?

-Max

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Catch up with the DJ Muggs and Meyhem Lauren saga here.