What are the producers of Santana and Everlast doing working with such underground rappers as Del, Sadat X and Casual? Dante Ross and partner John Gamble, who make up the Stimulated Dummies production team, are just returning to their roots.

After going multiplatinum with both Santana and Everlast, the producers are working with straight-up hip-hop again on Stimulated Volume 1, a compilation being released on their own Stimulated label on Tuesday (October 23).

"Both of those records sold way more than I'd ever sold making hip-hop records," Ross said. "I decided I wanted to do some hip-hop stuff again. I was doing a lot of rock stuff and I still am. [Hip-hop] is a relief from making guitar records. I enjoy it."

The buzz single for the compilation includes two songs: "Del Meets the Dummies" and "Stimulated All-Stars," a previously available posse cut featuring Missing Linx, Sadat X, Casual and Del.

"We vibed in the studio," said Casual — who released the "VIP" single on Stimulated in 1999, and also appears on the album's "Same O.G." and "I Gotta (Get Down)" — of recording "Stimulated All-Stars." "We just put some lyrics down and it came out hot."

The album also has tracks from Newark, New Jersey's Hom ("It's Hom") and Raleigh, North Carolina's V.O.R. ("Beyond City Lights").

Ross' motivation for the compilation is simple. "I've got a lot of good songs in the stash and I've been doing a lot of joints lately and I just want to put them out," he said. "I've put out a bunch of stuff that I think my fanbase likes, so I'm going to take them and a bunch of new songs, put them together and put it out."

After the compilation runs its course, albums from Hom, V.O.R. and Camp Lo will be released. Each of them should arrive by May 2002, while a full-blown album from the Stimulated Dummies is scheduled for a February release. That album, Ross said, will not follow a traditional format.

"It's not necessarily going to be a hip-hop record," he said. "It's going to have a lot of sh-- on there. I'm going to do a lot of crazy sh-- on there."

The Dummies will be working on Everlast's next album, as well as on material for Santana, N'Dea Davenport and indie rockers the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

Despite his impressive recording resume, Ross decided to get into musicmaking on a whim. "I didn't really have much else to do and I saw the Beastie Boys do it and make a lot of money doing whatever they wanted," he said. "I thought, 'Hey, that doesn't look too hard, let me try it.' "

Ross then got an A&R job at Tommy Boy, saw producing genius Prince Paul figure out music equipment fairly easily and started making his own music. He then moved to Elektra Records, where he signed such hip-hop heavyweights as Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Leaders of the New School.

Even though his work is scattered among genres these days, Ross said that type of multifaceted mission is how he approaches life.

"I like to always evolve and try different things," he said. "I don't like doing one thing. That's boring. Just like you can't mess with just one girl. You've got to do different things."