The Alchemist

Here's an article from back in the day

Earning His STRIPES
Although The Alchemist's first group, The Whooliganz, disbanded in the mid-'90s, Al stayed close with the Soul Assassins team — especially its producer, DJ Muggs, who became his mentor and frequent collaborator. “I worked a lot with Muggs under the radar,” The Alchemist says. “I was still coming up. I had just learned how to make beats, and I was just eager. So Muggs kinda took me in. We would collaborate on beats a lot; I was living at his crib damn near every day. I would just crash on the couch; we'd wake up and make joints. It was for the [Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom] album. I was blessed to be in the circle and just be able to learn.

“Our working relationship was great because there was always a respect for each other's talents and skills,” Al continues. “At that time in my career, I was still a nobody trying to come up, and Muggs was one of the biggest names in music, so, naturally, he ran the show, and I found ways to add on and fit in. I was nice with the [Ensoniq] ASR-10 keyboard, which was good for manipulating samples because of the extended sample time and the feel of the keys, and Muggs was the man with the [E-mu] SP-1200, which was the shit for drums because of the gritty sound because of the sample rate. We knew each other's strengths: I'd usually work the music, and he'd work the drums. But at the end of the day, it was Muggs' call on what we'd keep or erase, and I always respected that.

“It was a great learning experience because he had the know-how to produce songs and albums in their entirety — all the meticulous details involved with making a hit record from start to finish — whereas at that time, I was still just a beat maker wrapped up in sample-chopping techniques and drum sounds, kinda like a driver who looks only 10 feet ahead when driving, when Muggs was looking miles ahead. However, his style of producing was very renegade and unorthodox, and I was all into precision and discovering new techniques, also working with technology to take shit to the next level, so we taught each other things. The most important thing I learned from Muggs was to never be lazy, to take a song or album to the next level and carefully scan the entire body of work slowly with a magnifying glass to make sure every second of the song was right.

“He was — he still is — like a big brother to me,” The Alchemist concludes. “He was keeping me paid. I'd have $1,000 cash in my pocket — it was great; we were eating at Benihana everyday. Then, the album came out, and everything said, ‘Produced by Muggs.’ I didn't really have any credit anywhere. But at that time, I really didn't trip. I was very confident with it because I knew that I was making my mark, and I was earning my stripes. There was a handful of my friends who I grew up with being like, ‘Yo, man, what's up? Why is your name not on here?’ So I had to correct them so they could understand that was part of the game. It helped me realize that I needed to become Alchemist. And I owe Muggs for that; it was like a life-lesson thing. I'm still down with Soul Assassins.”

http://emusician.com/remixmag/artist...pular_science/