The 7A3 — Coolin in Cali: DJ Muggs Made This Record Before Anyone Knew His Name

DJ Muggs Made This Record Before Anyone Knew His Name — the Vault Deep Dive on The 7A3 — Coolin in Cali (1988).

The Story

In 1988 Geffen put out an album by three transplants working out of San Diego: brothers Brett and Sean Bouldin, and a DJ from Queens named Lawrence Muggerud. Coolin' In Cali was their only record. It sold modestly, the group dissolved, and the story would end there — except that Muggerud went on to become DJ Muggs, and the group he built next was Cypress Hill. This is the album where that production ear takes its first shot at a full record.

The Sound

It is late-eighties West Coast rap caught right at the turn: still built on the party-record cadence of the era, but with sample choices and a darkness in the low end that point straight at what Muggs would do a few years later. The Bouldin brothers trade verses with an East Coast bite that never quite got sanded off in the move west, and that friction — Brooklyn delivery over California production — is exactly what makes the record sound like nothing else from 1988.

The Sessions

The 7A3 were an East-Coast-to-West-Coast transplant story before that was a common one, and the record carries the seams of it. Muggs handled the beats and the cuts, learning in public what he would perfect on record after record in the nineties. Everything about the album is a young producer's sketchbook: ideas tried once, dropped, and returned to years later in far more famous form on records that sold in the millions.

The Legacy

Coolin' In Cali is one of hip-hop's great footnotes that turned out not to be a footnote at all. Once Cypress Hill broke worldwide, collectors went looking backward for the first Muggs production credit, and this is where the trail ends. Original 1988 Geffen CD pressings were made in small numbers for a record nobody expected to matter — which is precisely why they are hard to find now and priced accordingly.

Why This Copy

This is the original USA Geffen pressing, catalog 9 24209-2, manufactured by DADC — the first-run configuration, not one of the later CD reissues that followed the Cypress Hill boom. Early DADC-pressed hip-hop CDs are their own collecting lane now. Ours is Near Mint throughout, disc and inserts.

What the pressing tells us

The part most listings skip. This is how we grade and how you can tell copies apart:

• Original 1988 USA Geffen pressing, catalog 9 24209-2
• DADC-manufactured — the first-run configuration
• Not a post-Cypress Hill reissue
• Near Mint — disc and inserts clean throughout

Session file

• Released in 1988 on Geffen — the group's only album
• Produced by Lawrence Muggerud, later known as DJ Muggs
• Muggs went on to found Cypress Hill
• Brett and Sean Bouldin were Brooklyn natives working out of San Diego
• This copy is the original USA Geffen press, 9 24209-2, DADC-manufactured

Who played on it

• Brett B — Vocals
• Sean B — Vocals
• DJ Muggs — Production, Turntables

Vault Trivia

1. Which future superstar producer made this record?

1. Dr. Dre
2. DJ Muggs
3. DJ Premier
4. Pete Rock

Reveal the answer

DJ Muggs — DJ Muggs — Lawrence Muggerud, before Cypress Hill.

2. How many albums did The 7A3 release?

1. One
2. Three
3. Five
4. Two

Reveal the answer

One — Just this one, in 1988.

3. Which label issued it?

1. Def Jam
2. Ruthless
3. Geffen
4. Priority

Reveal the answer

Geffen — Geffen — catalog 9 24209-2.

4. Where were the Bouldin brothers originally from?

1. Brooklyn
2. Compton
3. Oakland
4. San Diego

Reveal the answer

Brooklyn — Brooklyn — they relocated to San Diego.

5. What identifies this as a first-run disc?

1. A gold CD face
2. The DADC manufacturing stamp
3. A bonus track
4. A slipcase

Reveal the answer

The DADC manufacturing stamp — DADC-manufactured, original USA Geffen press — not a later reissue.

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