Los Angeles, CA · hip-hop · rap-rock · hip hop · rap rock

Cypress Hill

1 upcoming festival →

B-Real's nasal snarl over DJ Muggs's murk — the group that made stoner rap a genre with a flag, 'Insane in the Brain' still a jump-along ritual.

Cypress Hill trace back to South Gate, California, where brothers Senen Reyes (Sen Dog) and Ulpiano Sergio Reyes (Mellow Man Ace), born in Pinar del Río, Cuba, had settled with their family in 1971. In 1988 Sen Dog joined DJ Muggs, formerly of the group 7A3, and B-Real to form DVX; when Mellow Man Ace left for a solo career, the trio renamed themselves Cypress Hill after a street in South Gate.

Muggs built the group's sound from dusty, minor-key sample loops, heavy low end and odd sampled squeals, a sound distinct from the era's West Coast rap, while B-Real's high, pinched delivery gave Cypress Hill one of the genre's most recognisable voices; Eric Bobo later added percussion.

Their self-titled debut, released on Ruffhouse Records in 1991, went double platinum on the strength of the single "How I Could Just Kill a Man," and its bilingual "Latin Lingo" set a pattern of mixing English and Spanish lyrics the group kept up throughout their career. Songs from the album turned up on soundtracks for Juice and Lethal Weapon 3.

Black Sunday, released in 1993, went to number one on the Billboard 200 and eventually sold more than three million copies in the US, driven by the crossover hit "Insane in the Brain," which brought the group its first Grammy nomination and remains, alongside "Hits from the Bong," one of the tracks Cypress Hill is best known for.

Cypress Hill were among the first Latin American acts to reach a mass hip-hop audience, have sold more than 20 million albums worldwide, and openly advocate cannabis legalisation; in 2019 they became the first hip-hop group to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Their live shows and collaborations carried them into rock and metal audiences through the 1990s.

Read more

hip-hoprap-rockhip hoprap rock