| Sen Dog | |
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 Sen Dog at the 2006 Bonnaroo Music Festival.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Senen Reyes |
| Born | November 20, 1965(44) Havana, Cuba  |
| Origin | Los Angeles, California |
| Genres | Hip hop, rap rock, West Coast hip hop |
| Occupations | Rapper |
| Years active | 1986 to present |
| Labels | Columbia Ruffhouse Sony Suburban Noize Records |
| Associated acts | Cypress Hill, Kottonmouth Kings, SX-10 |
Sen Dog (born Senen Reyes) is a Cuban-American rapper, and member of rap group Cypress Hill. He is the older brother of fellow rapper Mellow Man Ace.
Sen Dog has been developing his own solo career in addition to his work with Cypress Hill. Along with his brother Mellow Man Ace, he formed the duo "The Reyes Brothers" and in October 2006 released the album "Ghetto Therapy." In addition to his work with Cypress Hill and Mellow Man Ace, he headlines the rap rock band SX-10.[1][2]
Contents |
Biography
Sen Dog is a member of the popular rap group Cypress Hill. With Cypress Hill, Sen Dog has accomplished such things as having top ten records and a #1 album. Some of the most well known songs that Sen Dog performs with Cypress Hill are “How I Could Just Kill a Man, “Rock Superstar, and “Insane In the Brain.” Sen Dog is known as one of the first ever Latino hip hop artists. He has played a very large role in making Latin hip hop more prevalent.
In the late 1990’s Sen Dog took a leave of absence from Cypress Hill to develop a new rock/rap band called SX-10. Sen Dog wanted the band to have a funk sound with Latin influences. SX-10 released an album in 2000 called “Mad Dog American.”[3]
On September 30, 2008 Sen Dog released his first solo album. The title of the album is “Diary of a Mad Dog.” The album was released seventeen years after the release of the first Cypress Hill album. In an interview with HipHopDX Sen Dog discussed how he felt that he had more control and could talk about personal aspects of his life with this album. Sen Dog said “With Cypress, I never really felt that comfortable to put personal aspects of my life into the music. It feels good to have the opportunity to be the quarterback, if you want to call it that, in the studio, and be creative. I definitely found that I had more in me than I thought I did.” [4] Sen Dog stated that he wanted to have fun with this album. He said that he has tried out a lot of different types of music but had no agenda for the type of music on “Diary of a Mad Dog.” Sen Dog said “We’ve done the whole dark, morbid thing. The rock n’ roll crossover; just a lot of things. I’m not going to have an agenda on this; I’m going to jam and record whatever is fun to me.” [5] On this album Sen Dog worked with his friends, he did not choose to collaborate with artists just because of their popularity.
Album Review
The album received a 7 out of 10 review when reviewed by Steve ‘Flash’ Juon. This review says that Sen Dog benefits a great deal from making music without Cypress Hill. Steve also writes that Sen Dog is not as big of a star as fellow Cypress Hill group member B-Real. Steve Juon writes “15 tracks, Diary of a Mad Dog has just enough material for Sen Dog to make a name for himself, but not so much that you'd be overwhelmed by the prospect of a guy you'd barely heard on his own suddenly dropping an entire album of his own material.” In the same review the music was given a 7.5 out of 10 rating and the lyrics were given a 7 out of 10. Overall the album was given a 7 out of 10 rating. [6]
Personal life
Born Senen Reyes on November 20, 1965. B-Real, Sen Dog's long time friend, had his career as a drug dealer and a gangbanger come to a close after he was shot in the lung with a .22 pistol in 1988, and the shooting and subsequent hospitalization caused Sen Dog to rethink his priorities and take up a job as a department store security guard. He is also a professional paintball player for the Los Angeles Stoned Assassins. Before B-Real dropped out of Bell High School, he befriended Sen Dog and Mellow Man Ace (who forewent staying with the group to go solo).
Sen Dog is known to be an avid marijuana smoker. In April of 1999 Sen Dog went to the emergency room after experiencing symptoms of what he thought was severe heartburn. The Dr. checked out Sen Dog’s throat and he coughed out a cloud of stale-smelling pot smoke. Sen Dog recognized it as a type of marijuana that he smoked in 1993. The cloud of smoke was reportedly stuck in his lungs the whole time. Sen Dog said “As soon as I smelled the smoke I knew exactly what hit it was because I’ve only smoked that kind of pot once in my life. It was some ‘Light of Jah’, which is a sativa haze hybrid that will blow your mind.” [7] The group Sen Dog belongs to, Cypress Hill, has been known to make songs about the use of marijuana. Some of their more well know songs relating to marijuana are “Legalize it,” “I Wanna Get High,” and “Hits From the Bong.” Sen Dog and B-Real were childhood friends and Sen Dog gave B-Real his first joint when the two were just 13 years old. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly Sen Dog said Pot got a bad name with the flower children of the '60s, and then all these hard drugs came in, and people started dropping like flies. Today, people want to get high on something that's not going to give them a heart attack, like speed or crack.[8]
In 2007 Sen Dog suffered from a life threatening heart attack. After the heart attack Sen Dog appreciated his band and family much more than he had before the incident. It also made the band appreciate each other more. After the heart attack B-Real said “You were given a second chance; you've got to take everything way more serious, and appreciate things more. It definitely made me appreciate being part of Cypress way more.” [9] Eventually he got a stent to unblock the artery, after about 5 months he fully recovered. After the incident Sen Dog gave up eating steak and drinking hard liquor for the sake of his children.[10]
Discography
- 2008: Diary of A Mad Dog
- 2007: Guest Feature on Stop Light Muzik by Southern Kappin Soldiers
See also
References
- ^ "SX10 tocara hoy en el DanZoo" (in Spanish). Mexico City: La Jornada. May 24, 2003. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2003/05/24/21an2esp.php?printver=1&fly=2. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ "Sen Dog's Still All Bite with the Reyes Brothers". LatinRapper.com. November 18, 2006. http://www.latinrapper.com/sen_dog_interview.html. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
- ^ "SX-10". Spirit of Metal Webzine. http://www.spirit-of-metal.com/groupe-groupe-SX*10-l-en.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ "Sen Dog Explains Near Fatal Heart Attack, Solo Debut". HipHopDX. 5 October 2008. http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.7836/title.sen-dog-explains-near-fatal-heart-attack-solo-debut. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ "Sen Dog". Suburban Noize Records. 5 October 2008. http://www.suburbannoizerecords.com/sendog_bio.php. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ Juon, Steve. "Diary of a Mad Dog". RapRewviews.com. http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2008_09_diaryofamaddog.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ Buckridge, Phil. "Cypress Hill's Sen Dog Coughs Out Remainder of Bong Hit Taken In 1993". Larely Beagle Newspaper. http://www.larelybeagle.com/2009/04/30/cypress-hills-sen-dog-coughs-out-remainder-of-bong-hit-taken-in-1993/. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
- ^ Svetkey, Benjamin. "High Fidelity". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,307752,00.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ "Sen Dog Explains Near Fatal Heart Attack, Solo Debut". HipHopDX. 5 October 2008. http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.7836/title.sen-dog-explains-near-fatal-heart-attack-solo-debut. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ Gonzalez, Carolina. "Sen Dog still learning new tricks". New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2008/10/08/2008-10-08_sen_dog_still_learning_new_tricks.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
External links
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