Album Review:
Cypress Hill
- Release Date: 1991
- Genre: Rap
- Label: Ruffhouse
- Total Time: 46:54
- Artist: Cypress Hill
- Rating:
- Styles: Alternative Rap, Latin Rap, West Coast Rap
- Track Picks: "Hand on the Pump," "How I Could Just Kill a Man," "The Phuncky Feel One"
- Similar Albums:
Menace II Society ,2 Live Crew's Greatest Hits [Video] , Juice [Original Soundtrack], West Coast Rap: The Renegades, Hard or Smooth, F.U. Don't Take It Personal, West Coast Rap: The First Dynasty, Vol. 3, West Coast Rap: The First Dynasty, Vol. 1, Rap's Biggest Hits, Together Forever: Greatest Hits 1983-1991, Prec.I.S.E.-Ly Done, Mama Said Knock You Out, Sons of the P, Sex Packets, Ain't No Shame in My Game, Vocally Pimpin' EP
Review
It's hard enough to transform an entire musical genre -- Cypress Hill's eponymous debut album revolutionized hip-hop in several respects. Although they weren't the first Latino rappers, nor the first to mix Spanish and English, they were the first to achieve a substantial following, thanks to their highly distinctive sound. Along with Beastie Boys and Public Enemy, Cypress Hill were also one of the first rap groups to bridge the gap with fans of both hard rock and alternative rock. And, most importantly, they created a sonic blueprint that would become one of the most widely copied in hip-hop. In keeping with their promarijuana stance, Cypress Hill intentionally crafted their music to sound stoned -- lots of slow, lazy beats, fat bass, weird noises, and creepily distant-sounding samples. The surreal lyrical narratives were almost exclusively spun by B Real in a nasal, singsong, instantly recognizable delivery that only added to the music's hazy, evocative atmosphere; as a frontman, he could be funny, frightening, or just plain bizarre (again, kind of like the experience of being stoned). Whether he's taunting cops or singing nursery rhyme-like choruses about blasting holes in people with shotguns, B Real's blunted-gangsta posture is nearly always underpinned by a cartoonish sense of humor. It's never clear how serious the threats are, but that actually makes them all the more menacing. The sound and style of Cypress Hill was hugely influential, particularly on Dr. Dre's boundary-shattering 1992 blockbuster The Chronic; yet despite its legions of imitators, Cypress Hill still sounds fresh and original today, simply because few hip-hop artists can put its sound across with such force of personality or imagination. ~ Steve Huey, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | iTunes | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Pigs | |
L. Freeze, Lawrence Muggerud | Cypress Hill | (2:51) |
| How I Could Just Kill a Man | |
Lawrence Muggerud, Louis Freese, Senen Reyes | Cypress Hill | (4:08) |
| Hand on the Pump | |
L. Freeze, Lawrence Muggerud | Cypress Hill | (4:03) |
| Hole in the Head | |
L. Freeze, Lawrence Muggerud | Cypress Hill | (3:33) |
| Ultraviolet Dreams | |
Lawrence Muggerud | Cypress Hill | (:41) |
| Light Another | |
L. Freeze, Lawrence Muggerud | Cypress Hill | (3:17) |
| The Phuncky Feel One | |
L. Freeze, Lawrence Muggerud, Senen Reyes | Cypress Hill | (3:28) |
| Break It Up | |
Lawrence Muggerud | Cypress Hill | (1:07) |
| Real Estate | |
L. Freeze, Lawrence Muggerud, Senen Reyes | Cypress Hill | (3:45) |
| Stoned Is the Way of the Walk | |
L. Freeze, Lawrence Muggerud | Cypress Hill | (2:46) |
| Psycobetabuckdown | |
L. Freeze, Lawrence Muggerud | Cypress Hill | (2:59) |
| Something for the Blunted | Lawrence Muggerud | Cypress Hill | (1:15) | |
| Latin Lingo | |
Lawrence Muggerud, Louis Freese, Senen Reyes | Cypress Hill | (3:58) |
| The Funky Cypress Hill Shit | |
L. Freeze, Lawrence Muggerud | Cypress Hill | (4:01) |
| Tres Equis | |
Lawrence Muggerud, Senen Reyes | Cypress Hill | (1:54) |
| Born to Get Busy | |
Lawrence Muggerud, Senen Reyes | Cypress Hill | (3:00) |
