Lawrence Muggerud (born January 28, 1968) professionally known by his stage name DJ Muggs, is an American DJ, audio engineer and record producer. He is a member of Cypress Hill, a member of the trip hop band Cross My Heart Hope To Die and the leader of hip hop and art collective Soul Assassins. During his career he produced tracks for House of Pain, Funkdoobiest, Daddy Freddy, Pavlos Fyssas, Die Antwoord, Westside Gunn, remixed songs for Janet Jackson, U2, Kaliphz, Simply Red, Depeche Mode, and collaborated with Tricky, GZA, Sick Jacken, Planet Asia, Ill Bill, Meyhem Lauren and Roc Marciano. As part of Cypress Hill, he received three Grammy nominations for "Insane in the Brain", "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That" and "Throw Your Set in the Air". Life and career Of Italian descent, Muggs was born in Queens borough of New York City, and was adopted into a Norwegian family. He moved to Bell Gardens at age fourteen, and got his start DJing for hip hop group The 7A3, who put out one album in 1988 before disbanding. Cypress Hill (1988–2004) After linking up with B-Real and Sen Dog to form the group Cypress Hill, he went on to produce seven studio albums with the group from 1991 to 2004. Of the seven, four reached platinum status, and three gold. Meanwhile, he scored hits on the side with Ice Cube's "Check Yo Self" and House of Pain's "Jump Around". During Cypress Hill's early years, DJ Muggs met The Alchemist and his Dilated Peoples brethren on tour, deciding to take the young producer under his wing, providing a jump-start for his career. Soul Assassins In 1997, Muggs released an album under the name Soul Assassins. The album, Soul Assassins I, reached #86 on the Billboard 200 and earned critical praise. Produced by Muggs, it featured Dr. Dre, B-Real, La the Darkman, Mobb Deep, RZA, GZA, Goodie Mob, KRS-One and Wyclef Jean. In 2000 he returned to the Soul Assassins with Soul Assassins II, which reached only #178 on the charts but garnered similarly positive reviews. He also put out the record Dust, an atmosphere-heavy trip hop affair with Greg Dulli, Amy Trujillo and Everlast on vocals. After the 2004 album Till Death Do Us Part, which reached #23 on the Billboard 200, Cypress Hill went on a hiatus from recording, enabling its members to focus more on their side projects.