Cypress Hill: search and destroy

Lyrically, it's the same Cypress Hill, usually B-Real fronting most verses, with other guys backing him up: "hell, yeah." "bitch!" shouting "motherfucker!" in the background, you know. there's actually so much of it layered throughout that there's always some humorous aside you notice on new listenings. but typical focus on weed and enemy MCs, including "No Rest for the Wicked," their pissy little dig at Ice Cube. the one track worth grabbing is "Killa Hill Niggas," on which the RZA and U-God guest.

Sometime afterwards DJ Muggs did his own project, "Muggs presents .. the Soul Assassins," which was him with a ton of guest MCs. There's some wack shit, like his song with Wyclef Jean, and the Dr. Dre + B- Real track is just kind of generic grandstanding, but the Goodie Mob do a fucking awesome piece called "Decisions, Decisions." Then there's this weird two-track conceptual piece that's worth checking out just because it's bizarre. The RZA & GZA do the first part, "Third World," will all these apocalyptic political visions, and then it segues to B-Real's "Battle of 2001," where he's calling out tactical orders, his voice all fading out and back in like he's talking into a walkie-talkie. The Mobb Deep song isn't bad, either.

They did a second Soul Assassins but I haven't heard it. and B-Real did a solo thing called "Psychorealm" that I haven't heard. Likewise, Cypress Hill went on to do a two-CD album, and just put out another single-CD called "Stoned Raiders." Haven't listened to any of that, no need to. The only other thing I know about is a remix/rare tracks thing called "Unreleased and Revamped." "Throw Your Hands in the Air" is a reworked old track with nice verses by Erick Sermon and Redman, if I remember right. Q-Tip does an upbeat remix of "Illusions," and the Fugees remix and rap on "Boom Biddy Bye Bye," but I really can't listen to them anymore, their sound is too smooth and calculated, catwalk shit ..

they should make that a grammy category.

And B-Real may not be the best lyricist there is, but his flow is simply great in all its irritatingness. Everytime he's featured on other rappers' albums, he tends to outshine them, be it Dilated Peoples, Outkast or De La Soul. The tune he had on The Alchemist's album is one of my favourites of the last couple of years.

Regardless though, Hits from the bong, that song with the bassline from Son of a preacher man, is a classic.

weird opinions in this thread

I was listening to Stankonia recently and had forgotten about that track with B-Real on it. "Dre, pass me the glass of wine/So I can pour it over my homies' graves then mine" Not the greatest song anyway but his verse kinda derails the whole thing like WTF is this guy doing on an OutKast album? How did that even come about?

I like this one:

trip hop? wtf. the first album is classic. 2nd still had some good songs on it too. kinda lost interest after that. but muggs is still a great producer.

First album still sounds great to me. Haven't heard the others.

dj muggs & planet asia made an album last year which I enjoyed

yah it was good

im kinda looking forward to the new b-real album thats supposed to come out in feb. even tho the single is kinda whatever (and samples toms diner ...?)

er, interpolates

First album is classic

does the 2nd album get a bad rep (for being the one that crossed them over to college kids and rock fans?) im thinking it might actually be pretty good. i need to find my copy.

first record is top shelf but black sunday sounds pretty damn good to me today

Yeah, I never understood why Black Sunday is considered not-so-good? Maybe the beats are are a bit samey, but they found a killer formula with that record.

And everyone who loves Muggs' beats should listen to Temples of Boom, that's one of the best-sounding rap albums of the 90s. The RZA guest production is actually kinda weak compared to some of the Muggs beats there.

That Muggs and GZA record is good too. Grandmasters.

MUGGS VS KUTMASTER KURT VS ALCHEMIST

Muggs is one of the best producers in rap. The first disc of Skull and Bones has pretty goddamn good production.

I listened to the first two back-to-back last night, there's not much to choose between them really but I prefer the overall sound of Black Sunday. That and Ill Communication were the two rap albums the rock crowd at my school liked back in about 1994.

Cannot believe these guys are still cranking out records honestly. The new single is getting crazy amounts of airplay on Q101 right now.

I remember Black Sunday and Doggystyle being the two rap albums that were really played a lot at my school around that time, and Cypress Hill especially was one of the main things that got me into rap (besides Warren G and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony). "Sabotage" was known because of the video, but I don't think Beastie Boys were that popular in here back then, at least not among North Helsinki working class kids. Can't remember anyone actually owning Ill Communication.

(x-post)

their first album is straight up CLASSIC and is on par with "The Chronic" even though it's got an old school East Coast sound. In fact, it has some of the most interesting and catchy beats I've heard on any rap album. I especially like the beats on "Real Estate" and "Psychobetabuckdown."

I agree their first album is a classic, but I prefer "Black Sunday", as it pushes their sound even further into the pleasure zone. It's a perfect stoner album

Hits from the Bong is so fucking good

whenever i hear son of a preacher man I'm always disappointed

Both otm

Perhaps inevitably...

http://www.factmag.com/2017/04/26/cypress-hill-delight-fans-simpson-possible-collab-london-symphony-orchestra/