The Questlove Show - A Reaction To The DJ Muggs Episode Of The Questlove Show

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

In this Questlove Show mini episode, Open Mike Eagle and Cousin Jake unpack their recent sit-down with legendary producer DJ Muggs. They explore Muggs’ evolution from boom-bap architect to self-mastered, independent creator who—as he told Ahmir—built his own musical universe. The conversation digs into the so-called “drumless” beats wave, how lowering drums in the mix opens new space for MCs, and what artistic maturity and freedom really look like after decades in the game. Along the way, the two QLS affliates touch on some highlights and key points from the episode, and the power of real, in-person collaboration in Hip-Hop.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pastos survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all?

And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.za for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive

what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor. Fyver Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman.

I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out.

You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Questlove show is a production of IHeart Radio. Open mic, man. How are you today? Man, I'm chilling. How are you? I'm all right, man. It's hot here in Philadelphia. It's probably hot in L.A. too, right?

Yeah, it's been crazy. And, you know, everybody champions the weather out here, as they should. But when it gets hot, it's real hot. And you're going to Tucson tomorrow. So it's getting real, real hot. Oh, gosh. Yeah. It's, yeah.

Yes. I'm trying to not think about it, but that is where I'm going to be. I mean, this will have run after that. But you got some amazing tour dates and an album coming. So I encourage everybody, you know, do your do your Googles, do your, do your Google's pre-s, share, pre-order, all that stuff. Pre-occupy. Pre-judge. Prejudice.

So you and I are both huge music fans. I was in the studio when it happened. You had the opportunity to listen. We had DJ Mugs on, and I love the outpouring of love this episode is getting. It was really cool to be in the room and help book the show. But just initially, did you have any takeaways or any thoughts that jumped out of you? I mean, you know, it's funny. I've never met him.

Actually, no, I never met him. I've been in the same room with him, but I've never. met him. But gosh, he just reminds me to so many people I know. Like, so many dudes that age, you know, my Latino OGs here in L.A. that have been in and around rap music, it's like, oh, it's that same energy. But it's, it's, the interesting thing to me is like most dudes I know who have that energy, even some of the ones that are very talented, they never really figured it out. And that's why I really liked what he was saying at the end of the conversation when he

was talking about having mastered himself and figured out when he needs to take vacations and figure out what his workflow is and figure out how he like stays inspired. Because I feel like that was just really, really dope to hear. Like, I just think it's really easy for a lot of people in this environment that have those sorts of talents and gifts. especially when you came up in the era where there was a lot of money in music too. Gosh, it's so easy to end up on an off ramp. You know what I'm saying?

Either from life or creatively just missed the boat or missed the opportunity to adapt. So his way of constantly checking in with himself, like what feels to me to be very like clear communication with people that. He works with. Like, it even seemed like he's perfected ways of disagreeing with people. Even in little stories he tells. He talks about, you know, him working with a younger artist and them not wanting to listen to his advice. And it's like, when you pull back on that, it's like, that's insane.

But of course, that's what happens because younger artists have a lot of ego. And he's like, and he's sort of perfected this way of telling them, like, okay, everything that you've done and thought brought you to where you are. and if you want to stay where you are, then don't listen. But if you want to go somewhere, I'm like, oh, that's so hard. And like, what a way to get through to a knucklehead?

You know what I'm saying? And not be hotheaded. You know, it's funny is like there's a moment in the interview where Amir points something out really interesting of, you know, Amir alleges. And I always am fascinated, you know, Amir has all of these, he always jokes now he's got 25 jobs. But before the roots get signed, he had 25 more.

You know, you hear these little flashes of him working at Sam Goody or him working for an insurance company. Yeah, and interning at Rubhouse, and he tells the story of like, man, the reels, I'm always curious, like the drums on Chris Cross's first album sound a lot like Mug's drums. And Mugs, as he's asked in the question, like Mug's smiles. Yeah. And, you know, and there's obviously in the House of Pain jump around. There's, you know, the shots taken at Joe Niccolo, one of Ruff House's co-founders.

But Mug said, like, he had a, I won't even say abrasive, but. a direct conversation with Ruff House at the time, which was his label, and then they move on from it. And I was just looking, I'm not a Facebook user, but I often look at the QLS Facebook and make sure, you know, we're staying on point. And Chris Schwartz, you know, one of the founders of Ruff House twice commented like, what a great conversation, what a great interview. And I'm like, that's how you know you can, you can stand up for yourself, be an OG, hold yourself a certain way, but also, you know, 35 years later maintain those relationships. Like, that's a goal that I aspire to. I mean, it's, it's a real marvel of maturity. And I think that's what I'm saying is like,

I just don't, I know a lot of people with, you know, with that, when I say energy, it almost makes it sound like I'm saying something negative, but it's, it's not. It's just like, it's a sort of like street smart you know wise you could tell he was probably a little while when he was when he was younger but to get to this this place to be so lucid and so clear you know I just

inspired isn't quite the right word but I was just really really happy to hear that just really really happy to hear that I relate to that I mean it's funny you know you and I exchange little anecdotes of our childhoods but I I think it's safe to say we both, you know, grew up, I don't know if idolize is hyperbolic in your sense, but like I grew up looking up to so many of the artists that were in my headphones.

And they were bigger than life for me and to still now in my 40s encounter some of those same artists and be able to look up to them. Like your point about, you know, a few years ago, even before this conversation, I got hired to do a press bio for mugs. And I love those jobs. I've done it for 20-some years because you get an artist on their terms. You know, there's no agenda. Like, you're helping them tell their own story.

Right. And Mugs brought that up of like, if I get bored, I go to Italy. If I get bored, I go to Hawaii. I get inspired. I come back and I make music. And I thought, what a cool life. Like, that's what stardom looked like to me when I was eight years old. And, you know, and to hear him echo that.

And the point you made of like, I make an album, I make sure we own it. I don't go to a label for it. We shoot amazing Jason Goldwatch directed videos to it. We put it out and we move it on to the next. And I'm like, that's what, that's the dream. That's the final level. But I bet that's not what the dream looked like to him when he was younger. Hell no.

Yeah. And that's sort of interesting to think about because when you think about following the dream, especially like I said in that era where there was so much money in the system, I don't know if he would have thought that freedom and true sort of freedom and fulfillment looks like, you know, controlling his own musical ecosystem, like smaller projects, even though, you know, a lot of them are very impactful artistically. It's not like everything's a big, huge, major label release.

Like, you hear him talking about making that second Cypress Hill album in like, what, a month? Something like that, you know? And to go from that, to this, very measured and intentional way of living and way of creating. I bet he didn't think that's what the dream looked like, but it's so dope that that's what he found. Yeah, that's very well said. And I love those juxtapose anecdotes, you know, and I was always curious, like, I've lived in Philly 25 years now, and Cyprus, a lot of the roughhouse acts have history in Philly,

even if they came from other cities. And Mugs in that conversation, it was really fun to watch him in Amir smile and reflect on some of the session players and different folks in the roughhouse ecosystem. But the hotel that Muggs mentioned staying at, one of his bandmates from 783 happened to be there, and they talk about, I think, you know,

writing hand on the pump and all these things. You and I talked about relics recently. It's still here. It's not a, I think it's a holiday and express now. I drove by this morning. and to imagine this group walking. It's not a short walk. It's a studio four.

And Muggs is talking about getting a little soup in the basement. I love that image because you need that to get to what you and I are talking about. And if you don't have that arc, A, the story isn't as interesting. And B, it doesn't ground you the way that. And Mugs just seems super grounded to me. It was my first time meeting him in person. And I just really, you know, MIR was wanted to do a. few last minute things getting his intro rights.

Mugs and I were just hanging out. We were talking about Rammel Z. We're talking about, you know, all these different things. And I'm like, man, this guy still lives it. It's like you and me talking. It's just true fanship. So, um, what else in the conversation, um,

really kind of stuck to your ribs? I really thought the, um, the conversation that Mugs and Amir were having about like the drumless wave. In, you know, in the current sound of hip hop. I thought That was super fascinating because Mugs is one of the early, you know,

masters of that boom bap sound. And again, if you were to go back then and fast forward, you wouldn't think that Mugs would be somebody who's making beats now that have that sort of less aggressive drums or drums completely out of the equation. But then you hear him remind me, no, I did drumless back on a couple of the early Cypress Hill records. And in Amir, of course, being a drummer, right? So of course, him having a soft spot, a sensitivity for the drum's place in the thing. But you hear that Amir sort of embracing the new style of the new sounder right now too. But I thought the really interesting thing was

mugs being very clear on something that I hear a lot, but I don't hear a lot of people say. And it's not, and what he was explaining was that it's not so much that the new sound is drumless. It's that the drum, the snare, particularly is way lower in the mix. And that sort of defines modernity. It defines like, like he was saying, letting the sample shine. To me, as an MC, it defines like giving the rapper more space, right? Like, to where you can be a little bit more conversational. if you're not having to fight through a super loud snare,

you know, every bar or whatever. And I just thought, I thought that was interesting. I haven't heard a lot of people say that out loud, that it's not without drums. It is a different way of looking at where drum sits in a mix. And I thought that was super insightful. It is. It's funny because I,

as a writer and as a fan of hip-hop, I don't like using the term drumless. Like, I just, I don't want that to be a sub-genre unto itself, like it's the new beats to study to. But the first time that I noticed drums were different and in prepping for our conversation

today and just analyzing what Mug said was a former label made of yours, the Apollo Brown Planet Asia Antchovies album. I think that was the first one of the several they did. I remember when that came out 10 years ago, I was with Justin Hunt, a mutual friend of you and I and some folks in New York, and they were like, man, the drums are just

different here. And I listened to it this morning. I'm like, there are drums there to Echo Mug's point. Or you go to somebody like Brownsville Ka, you know, rest of the peace. Yes. There's drums there. Yes, there are drums there, but they're subtle. And traditionally, sample-based hip-hop, there was no subtlety to the drums.

The drums were just, like, very on top of everything. And I, like, I follow the development of the genre with a lot of interest. Like, that's what interests me, especially. I can track hip-hop's development pretty much along the lines of my own age, right? And so I'm watching this still sort of new genre going different directions. And that, like that little bitty change to me represents such a pivot towards a kind of sophistication. And I think that Muggs was really putting it smartly when he was saying, try to approach the drums now

how you used to do it. It sounds old school and not in a way that's like necessarily good. Right, right. I get what you're saying. It's interesting too. Like, you know, one of my favorite Mugg's productions,

and a lot of people kind of mentioned this in the comments as being their jump off is how I could just kill a man. And, you know, it's A, the beat before the beat, and then both of them are amazing. And they're very drum-driven, and it's that pocket. but it also lends itself to the type of rhyming for the time of the you can almost predict the next line because you know what you have to work with

versus what you're talking about, which is giving the MC more parameter to be more conversational. So I mean, are we saying the same thing? I think, yeah, I'm saying, I think that's the part of it that's particularly interesting to me as an MC. Got you. You know, is that you get more space to paint when the drum is more subtle.

you it gives you license to have a different timbre. You don't have to be necessarily hollering either, right? You can, like you're saying, you can be a little bit more conversational. But then I think there's a, there's a pullback overall sort of directional thing that happens to where the form itself is moving in that direction. And I think that's interesting too, you know. I would agree. And the thing that stands out to me about mugs is, I think of his class. He's the most prolific. You know, you look at guys from, you know, I think 73 comes out.

They're on the color soundtrack. I think the first album is 88, but their first single might have even been 87. But you look at your drees, your Eric Sermons, your Marley. Yeah, I mean, and Dela is a good counter, but, like, Mug's is putting out multiple projects every year. Oh, right. Yes, yes. So I love that he has that freedom and that he's, I think that sometimes artists get hung up on legacy that they think of every ad bat.

You know, like, oh my God, I got to get on base. Just use a bad sports analogy. But Mugs is like, I'm going to keep just coming up to the plate. Some are going to be single. Some will be home runs. And I just love that mentality. And it sounds like he's challenging himself. And on the last Soul Assassins before this current one, he did a joint with Scarface and Freddie Gibbs called Street Maid, which hard as hell drums.

I mean, just right back. You know, give you that flash. It's almost like, you know, Scorsese's making all these different movies. But then, you know, he'll make a departed. Comes back to the gangster. Exactly. Exactly. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies?

Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode eight before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave. Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month, price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor files. I just remember this low. taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable.

I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle.

I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can see. say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So, you're a So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip,

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They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm curious for you just on this subject as an artist. You and I, you had mentioned some of me a few episodes ago about, you know, previous industries and just like budding heads with bandmates over beat selection, something that everyone who's ever been in a group can relate to in, you know, you're soon to release an album, but in making your own albums, when you're listening to Beats, how mindful are you of things like what we're talking about

just in listening? You know, it's interesting. It's like a lot of the producers that I work with, even if it's not necessarily pronounced, they're following these lines too. And not in like a chasing after it since, but like most of the producers I know have been around for it. a long time and they're very aware of the changes and things. It's interesting. Sometimes I'll try to connect with a producer I've never connected with before. I remember I had this experience, I'd say maybe a year ago. I go sit with my homie I've known for years.

He makes beats all this. He makes hundreds of beats all the time, but I haven't worked with one of his beats on my own. And I'm sitting with him and he's playing beats. He's playing beats. And I'm like, got that loud snare on all of these. And he's like, yeah. But he's old school.

Like, that's his whole thing. Like, he really liked that error the most. So his whole thing is wanting to continue that. But I find it really difficult. And it's not like I can't wrap over something with big drums. Like I still, you know, Kenny Siegel's drums are huge. And that's who I'm making my project with. But there's a particular approach to start.

starting with a sample and putting drums super on top, that I find it really difficult to use the rap styles that I want to use these days over that. It doesn't feel like it mesh as well. You know, I'm curious, and it's funny, last time I saw him, I told him that your work with him was some of my favorite on the beat side that he'd done in years. And I meant that as a compliment,

it might not have landed the way I meant it to. But Diamond D, somebody I've known a really long time, and you worked with it. I'm just curious because Diamond fits into sort of what we're talking about with mugs, like an innovator, a mainstay, somebody who came up DJing, wasn't even producing, but kind of producing, and then it moves into production and rhyming and all the things. Right. And when you worked with him on a number of songs a few years ago, I'm just curious, was there a direction or were you operate on your part, or were you operating off of beat tapes?

No, we sat together, and he was adamant that we were. we sit together. And it was obviously not a problem to me because, I mean, that's a, that's a real legend. You know what I'm saying? Like, so, you know, I was like, yeah, if you're, if you're down to work with me, we can do it however you want to do it. And, right. So I flew out to his spot and, and he was sitting in playing beats. And, you know, he kind of, like, it was not only just for me to pick what I liked, but it was also like, Like, he kind of wanted to hear what I was gonna at least start doing on it. Do you know what I'm saying?

And like, he wanted like, it wasn't that he was trying to guide it, but he wanted to be like on board from jump. And to me, it felt like the sort of old school thing of still wanting to feel like you made songs with a person, you know, which has not been my experience, really. Like most of my experience has been like doing stuff by email. But. Right. That was one of the really fulfilling things about that experience was like, no, we're going to do it this way.

And then I don't know, like there's more satisfaction for me having sat with him, having like, you know, not only him offering what he's offering in terms of beats, but knowing that I have his approval on what's about to happen with him too, like that felt, it felt really good, you know. That's really cool. And that underpins with something Mug said. I don't think it made, I don't think it made the final conversation. But, like, you know, Mugs goes to work every day. Like, he goes to work as a producer. And to your point, I mean, if he's not feeling it, he doesn't. But there's a space that Soul Assessons has, which has a studio in it.

And Mugs is like, I treat it like it's a job. I go in and I make beats and some of them I keep and some of them I don't. And to hear, and I think in a lot of his, you know, collaborations overreaching, recent years, be it, you know, a Makami or a Maham LaRen or, you know, rock Marciano on and on and on. I think there's value. And I think he emphasizes the value of, no, let's get together. Let's share air. And I think that comes out in the music.

I mean, I know so many great albums these days are made over email. Right. But I just love that folks are being so intentional about it. I do too. And one jewel that I thought was so fascinating in that, too. It's these little things that really, to me, give me a peek into somebody's artistry. how he arrived at, yeah, I make 12 beats a day, but I don't finish him.

And when he said it, I was like, what do you mean you don't finish him? But then he explained like, oh, I took stock of how much time I was spending, finishing beats that nobody ever used. So basically he's making 12 sketches at this point. And if somebody wants to use one of them, then he finishes.

I love how that came from a probably very, unprompted self-inventory. You know what I'm saying? Like it wasn't like somebody, you know, sent him a memo like, hey, you're spitting too much time in the studio. It was like, he's just looking over his process, looking over his time and like trying to find ways

to be more efficient. I'm like, oh, that's sick. Yeah, but if I'm TF or, you know, he has an artist that when I spoke to Mozart, he said, yeah, I got the TF, don't call me lucky album. Then I got this other one called an artist out of Memphis named Heartbreak J.C. and a lot of blues samples and stuff

I've really been enjoying that one. But if you're the MC and you come in and almost is like picking a suit out, like it's there, it's kind of got your dimensions, now we tailor it. Sort of like what you had with Diamond of like, show me what you're going to do because maybe I'll hear something

and move something around. And, you know, for the music, for the fans, for the collaborators, that is the beauty of it. Yeah. It's a real collaboration. Real collaboration. I encourage everyone out there,

check the episode more than that. Go watch the Jason Goldwatch you know you talk about um in a previous episode we spoke about bugged out videos and sound garden jason gold watch is a visionary he is did a feature film with mugs called don't call me lucky and the uh lamc named tf and yeah just check out the music check out the episode and please folks give us um give us feedback uh questions for mike questions for amir you know suggestions on the show it all gets reviewed vetted it lives someplace but yeah man and that's As always, I just thoroughly enjoy rapping with you.

Yeah, man, it's always a pleasure. Safe travels on the road. Go catch Open Mike Eagle and clipping and get the album doomed, right? Yeah, yeah. August 14th. Out now. Grab it. All right, Mike. Thanks so much.

Appreciate you. Questlop shows a production of I-Heart Radio. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth. And these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hoda Kotney, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hote.

Kotopi. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. Listen to Joy 101 with Hotocotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our hometown is not a test tube. 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America plays out in one small town. Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land.

We need cities on a shining hill. This is Our Town, a podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-heart podcast, guaranteed human.