Cypress Hill is a mostly-Latin American hip hop group from South Gate, California, who is quite possibly
most well remembered for their song "Insane in the Brain". Their consistent advocacy
around the legalization of cannabis consumption
has contributed to their popularity. Cypress Hill was the first Latin rap group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums and are
history's best selling Latin rap group.
The band was originally called DVX, but the name was changed after Mellow Man
Ace left in 1988. Ice Cube used Cypress Hill lyrics that he heard on a demo tape against
B-Real's wishes; Cypress Hill responded with the track "No Rest For The Wicked." Westside
Connection replied with the diss track "King Of The Hill", to which Cypress Hill replied
with "Ice Cube Killa," which uses the same beat as "King Of The Hill" and disses Ice Cube and Mack
10. "Ice Cube Killa" has never been released officially. "How I Could Just
Kill a Man" can be played in the video game GTA San Andreas' radio
stations. The song features an appearance by B-Real on radio Los Santos, making him the first musician to use his real (stage)
name on a GTA series video game. Cypress Hill's song "Hits from the bong" can be heard in the film The Brave One starring Jodie Foster.
Members
- B-Real (Louis Freese, rapper, born June 2, 1970)
- DJ Muggs (Lawrence Muggerud, DJ and producer, born January
28, 1968)
- Sen Dog (Senen Reyes, rapper, born November 20,
1965)
- Eric Bobo (Eric Correa, percussionist, born August 27, 1968); joined in 1994
Biography
Early career
Their first album, which was self-titled, was
released in August 1991. Its single was "Phuncky Feel One," but it was the B-side "How I could just Kill A Man" (formerly "Trigga Happy Nigga") that attracted more airplay on
urban radio and college radio. Based on the success of the single and other tracks such as
bilingual track "Latin Lingo" and X-rated Spanish
track "Tres Equis", the album sold two million copies in the US alone. Subsequently, DJ Muggs produced House of Pain's first album, then worked on other projects like Funkdoobiest. The band made their first appearance at Lollapalooza on
the side stage in 1992.
Black Sunday, the group's second album, debuted at number one on the
Billboard 200 in 1993, recording the highest Soundscan for a rap group up until that time. Also with their debut still on the charts they became
the first rap artists to have 2 albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 at the same
time. With "Insane in the Brain" becoming a crossover hit, the album went triple
platinum in the U.S. and sold about 3.25 million copies.
Cypress Hill was banned from Saturday Night Live after Muggs smoked
cannabis on-air and the band trashed their instruments while playing their second single "I
Ain't Goin' Out Like That". The band headlined the "Soul Assassins" tour with House of
Pain and Funkdoobiest as support, then performed on a college tour with
Rage Against the Machine and Seven Year
Bitch. In 1993, Cypress Hill also had two tracks on the Judgment Night soundtrack, teamed up with Pearl Jam and
Sonic Youth.
The band played at the 1994 Woodstock Festival introducing their new member Eric
Bobo, formerly a percussionist with the Beastie Boys. Bobo is the son of salsa musician Willie Bobo. Rolling
Stone magazine named the band as the best rap group in their music awards voted by critics and readers. Cypress Hill
played at Lollapalooza for two successive years, topping the bill in 1995. They appeared on
the The Simpsons episode "Homerpalooza".
Their third album Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom was
released in 1995 selling 1.5 million copies and reaching number 3 on the Billboard 200 despite not having a hit single. Cypress
Hill also contributed a track "I Wanna Get High" to the High Times sponsored
Hempilation album to support NORML.
Continued career
Sen Dog took a break from the band to form a Los Angeles based punk-rap band
SX-10. Meanwhile in 1996, Cypress Hill appeared on the first
'Smokin' Grooves' tour, featuring Ziggy Marley, The
Fugees, Busta Rhymes and A Tribe Called
Quest. The band also released a nine track EP Unreleased and
Revamped with rare mixes.
In 1997, band members focused on their solo careers. Muggs released Muggs Presents ... the Soul Assassins featuring
contributions from Wu-Tang Clan members, Dr. Dre,
KRS-One, Wyclef Jean and Mobb
Deep. B-Real appeared with Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool
J and Method Man on "Hit Em High" from the multi-platinum Space Jam Soundtrack. He also appeared with RBX,
Nas and KRS-One on "East Coast Killer, West Coast Killer" on Dr. Dre's Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath album, and released an album entitled "The Psycho
Realm" from his side project of the same name. Though the focus that year was not on Cypress Hill, the band played Smokin'
Grooves with George Clinton and Erykah
Badu.
Cypress Hill released IV in 1998 which went gold in the U.S., even
though the reviews were somewhat negative, on the backs of hit singles "Tequila Sunrise" and another tribute to smoking cannabis
"Dr. Greenthumb." Sen Dog also released the Get Wood sampler as part of SX-10 on the label Flip.
In 1999, Cypress Hill helped with the PC crime/very mature video game
Kingpin: Life of Crime. Three of their songs from the 1998 IV album
were in the game. B-Real also did some of the voices of the people in the game.
Also in 1999, the band released a greatest-hits album in Spanish, Los
grandes éxitos en español. Cypress Hill then fused genres with their two-disc
release, Skull & Bones, in 2000. The first disc, "Skull" was
comprised of rap tracks while "Bones" explored further the group's forays into rock. The
album reached the Top 5 on the Billboard 200 and number 3 in Canada. The first single was "Rock Superstar" for rock radio and "Rap Superstar" for urban radio. The band also
released Live at the Fillmore, a concert disc recorded
at the Fillmore (in San Fransico) in 2000.
Cypress Hill continued their experimentation with rock on the Stoned Raiders
album in 2001. However, its sales were a disappointment, as the disc did not even reach the top 50 of the U.S. album charts.
Cypress Hill recorded "Just Another Victim" for the World Wrestling
Entertainment (WWE) as a theme song for Tazz. At the time, WWE was using original music for
almost all of the wrestlers, so this was an unusual step for the company to take, but it remains one of the more memorable songs
to emerge from the wrestling organization.
The band released Till Death Do Us Part on
March 23, 2004. The album saw the band experiment with
reggae especially on the lead single "What's Your Number". The track features Tim Armstrong of Rancid on bass and Rob Aston of The Transplants on backup vocals. It is based on the
classic song "Guns of Brixton" on The Clash's London
Calling and has proven to be a success on the modern rock charts. However, the album represented a further departure
from the signature sound of their first four albums. The album also features appearances by Damian Marley, son of Bob Marley, Prodigy and Twin of Mobb Deep and producer the Alchemist.
In 2004, the song How I Could Just Kill A Man was included in the popular videogame
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas created by Rockstar Games, playing on West Coast hip hop radio station
Radio Los Santos.
In December of 2005 a best of compilation album titled Greatest Hits From the Bong was released including 9 hits from previous albums and 2 new
tracks. The group's next album is tentatively scheduled for an early 2007 release.
In the summer of 2006, B-Real appeared on Snoop Dogg's single "Vato". Pharrell Williams produced the track, and originally sang the hook, but because of the video idea, B-Real
was asked to sing the hook.
Reggaeton Tego Calderon was featured in one of their
songs.
Sen Dog is now currently touring with the Kottonmouth Kings, Kingspade and Dogboy on the Joint is on Fire Tour
Cypress Hill is currently touring with their full line up as a part of the Rock the
Bells tour, held by Guerilla Union, and are headlining with Public
Enemy, Wu-tang clan, Nas, and a reunited
Rage Against the Machine. Other acts include Immortal Technique, Mos Def, Talib
Kweli, The Roots, EPMD, Pharoae Monch, Jedi Mind Tricks, Erykah Badu, Doom, Sage Francis, Brother Ali, The Coup, Blue Print,
Lucky I Am, Living Legends, Felt, Cage, Mr. Lif, Grouch & Eligh, and Hangar 18.
Departure from Sony
Having fulfilled their contractual obligations with Sony Music, Cypress Hill will release an as-yet untitled album through a
different record label during the first quarter of 2007[1]. In 2007, they signed with the Kottonmouth Kings label,
Suburban Noize Records, and have begun recording tracks for the upcoming
label-debut album.
Sound
One of the band's most striking aspects is B-Real's exaggeratedly high-pitched nasal vocals, which fits and emphasizes the
lyrics' concentration on parodied gangster stories.
Sen Dog's lyrics are progressively more violent, but involves less rhymes compared to B-Real. In addition, as the style is
today, some words are emphasized by adding a background voice to say them, however, Sen Dog's emphases are always more prominent,
mostly shouted alongside with the rapping.
The sound and groove of their music, produced by Muggs, is also notable for its influence and stoned aesthetic; with its
bass-heavy rhythms and odd sample loops ("Insane in the Brain" is notable for having a horse neigh looped in its chorus), it
carries a psychedelic value, which lessened in the later albums.
The band is also known for involving rock instruments in their songs. This has caused the band to sometimes be classified as a
rap-metal group. In IV, there is Lightning Strikes which doesn't truly use
electric guitars, but a synthesized version of it. Skull & Bones has an entire Bones CD using such instruments.
As for their later works, their involvement in rock ended with the album Stoned Raiders (the tracks Trouble (also
the first single of the album), Amplified and Catastrophe being the songs).
The band's music is constantly subject to change; while the first album follows a more minimalistic and funky sound, Black
Sunday, the successor, has a slightly darker side to it. III (Temples of Boom) and IV are mostly influenced by
psychedelic music. The band abandoned that on Skull & Bones and got closer to the modern rap as it is today. Stoned
Raiders has a more authentic sound than the rest, and Till Death Do Us Part carries reggae influences.
The band is also known to involve horns in their songs, and often have guitar and horns together in the instrumentals.
What's Your Number?, Trouble, Tequila Sunrise, and (Rock) Superstar have become some of the bands
most popular songs featuring these elements. Cypress Hill's experimenting in different genres of music even includes
reggaeton in their track "Latin Thugs" which features Tego Calderon.
The sound contribitions of DJ Muggs seems to be clearly influenced by marijuana consumption. Since one of the effects of a
cannabis high is an altered audio sensual perception, the often slow paced and deep bass can be better appreciated. Furthermore,
psychedelic sequences underly some parts of certain tracks such as "I wanna get High" for example. This is an interesting feature
of their music, that had also been used before, especially during the 60's and 70's (e.g. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The
Beatles).
Lyrics / Content
The lyrics of tracks like "How I Could Just Kill A Man" offer an insight into the cultural expression of social stratification
in L.A. at that point in history. Many other songs have cited topics such as police brutality, racial profiling, gang violence
and anecdotes about invasion of privacy by police.
Furthermore the celebration of marijuana consumption is what they are often associated with in songs like "I Wanna Get High",
"Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk" or "Hits From The Bong", the themes of recreational use of marijuana is prevalent.
Many of their songs also protest the current marijuana laws and voice their opinions on the hypocrisy of drug enforcement
institutions.
Their lyrics often reflect the hip hop culture of Los Angeles in their earlier work such as their self-titled album and Black
Sunday, which were very influential not only to Latino hip hop of the time but to many other hip hop groups around the world as
well.
Through out their career they have commonly incorporated Spanish into their lyrics as well as slang used by some Latinos in
Los Angeles on songs like "Latin Lingo". Their album "Los Grandes Exitos En Espanol" features Spanish translations of many of
their hit songs.
Discography
-
Albums
Filmography
Cypress Hill appeared in the film How High
References
External links
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