CD Review: DJ Muggs vs. Sick Jacken, Legend of the Mask and the Assassin
Dec 10, 2007 9:34 PM Dominic Umile (Writer)
Legend of the Mask & the Assassin's cover forecasts a dystopian landscape of
skeleton armies and masked evildoers a la George Romero's The Crazies. That's shitty news, but Cypress Hill founder/producer
DJ Muggs' pair-up with Los Angeles MC Sick Jacken is assuredly more positive.
Muggs' crusty breaks and perennially bewitching sonics are met with Jacken's
matter-of-fact flow on Legend, and Street Platoon MC Cynic helps render the
album a stirring, sample-heavy success.
Rarely does DJ Muggs
present anything on Legend that isn't
hard and gritty. "Unorthodox Blocks" packs more swing, but it's
loaded with buzzing guitar lines, brass and alarming background screeches.
Jacken rides Animals-sounding minor-key organ on the title track, and the
twice-as-damning religion-related dialogue samples (a Legend watermark) on "Stairs to the Beast" don
battlefield ambience and dramatic string swells. If Sick Jacken isn't well known
above ground, he will be. His biographical sketches ("God's Banker")
and poignant calls to squash street violence ("2012") are in a class
of their own. Hear the sound of legends being made.
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