Thug Life Army

Mr. Mixx (David Hobbs) co-founded one of hip-hop’s most legendary rap group 2 Live Crew and created the famed Miami bass sound that is the forerunner for today’s Dirty South crunk.

For the past four years, he’s been on the road with the notorious hip-hop rap MC Afroman as DJ and guest performer. Mr. Mixx currently makes his home on the famed Bunny Ranch in Carson City, NV, producing the soundtrack to the HBO series, Cathouse, and DJ’ing for owner Dennis Hof’s NV50 nightclub. And now, Mr. Mixx is about to release his first solo album in three years, VGNL MINDED, on his own Mr. Mixx Recordings, distributed by Afroman’s Hungry Hustler Records/Redeye Distribution, in-stores March 28.

VGNL MINDED is Mr. Mixx’s first solo album since his 2002 Nasty, Controversial and Unauthorized, and features the tracks “Shake Your Moneymaker,” “Get Krunk Wit’ It,” “When Are We Gonna F**k?” and “Look at the A** on That B**ch,” with hard hitting rap artist Afroman. The 2-disc set will also include behind-the-scenes footage of Mr. Mixx at the Bunny Ranch and bonus videos from Hungry Hustler Records.

“What Lil Jon and Ying Yang are doing now is what we created back then,” says Mixx about the speeded-up, boisterous, heavy-bottomed Miami bass sound that brought 2 Live Crew, the group he founded with Fresh Kid Ice and Amazing V in the spring of 1985, to the national spotlight with albums such as As Nasty as They Wanna Be. “Basically, I’m taking the same musical approach. They may feel like I’m going behind them, but they went behind me in the first place.”

Mr. Mixx was the chief architect of the legendary 2 Live Crew hip-hop / rap sound, along with Luther Campbell’s salacious lyrics, and went on to work with the Poison Clan, Lil’ Troy, the west coast rap artist and producer Daz Dillinger, the Geto Boys and with his old partner Luke, Ludacris and Tricky on another project. Mixx released his solo debut, the Oh My Gosh EP, in 1993.

Since 2001, he has been an integral part of Afroman’s touring group as a DJ and also takes his own turn in the middle of the set.

VGNL MINDED is filled with the kind of blatantly explicit, party-hearty anthems Mr. Mixx is known for. “People want to hear the unedited versions first,” he says about the prospects of radio airplay for his new album. “They want to hear what they’re playing in the street and in the clubs. And that’s where my stuff starts… Otherwise, it’s not the same.”

While preparing for the release of VGNL MINDED, Mr. Mixx keeps busy mixing business with pleasure at the famed Bunny Ranch, where he’s holed up working on the soundtrack for the new season of the HBO series, Cathouse, and DJ’ing for the NV50 club nearby. Needless to say, he is available for interviews on site.

Hungry Hustler Records will also release the debut of LA-based rap artist, FATSOE1, in early 06.