Cypress Hill - Stash (EP) (July 2, 2002)

In 1996, Ruffhouse Records released Unreleased & Revamped, an EP from Cypress Hill that was intended to keep the group’s name active within the culture while the trio of B-Real, Sen Dog, and producer DJ Muggs worked on their fourth album, IV.  It consisted primarily of reworkings of previously-released tracks, serving mostly as a vehicle for the label to promote the Fugees remix of “Boom Biddy Bye Bye”, as the two groups were among the most well-known on the roster. The trick seemed to work out for all parties: the Fugees remix seemingly received much more airplay than any of the actual singles from the Hill’s third LP Temples of Boom, since that was around the time when Lauryn, Wyclef, and Pras were nigh untouchable.

In 2002, Ruffhouse Records released Stash, an EP from Cypress Hill that was intended to keep the group’s name active within the culture while the trio of B-Real, Sen Dog, and producer DJ Muggs worked on their seventh album, Till Death Do Us Part. It consisted entirely of reworkings of previously-released tracks, serving mostly as a vehicle for the label to make a quick buck off of the Cypress Hill brand without any attention paid to quality control. There are six songs on this EP, five of which are inexplicably censored, as though the label were actively trying to recruit children and parents for the cause, even though anyone who was even remotely interested in the Cypress Hill of the early 2000’s would have already sought out their work, explicit lyrics and all.

Stash is a goddamn fucking mess.

Cypress Hill - Stoned Raiders (December 4, 2001)

The fall of 2001 was a strange time. Post-9/11, the United States was on heightened alert for possible terrorist attacks, and nobody was really sure how they were supposed to proceed with their everyday lives. We were told to continue shopping, to continue traveling, lest “the terrorists win”, as though being frightened into never leaving your home was their primary goal in attacking U.S. soil (instead of destroying the fabric of American life). The entertainment business was also affected by the events of that fateful day, but in different ways: many actors, comedians, musicians, and artists began to question whether the timing was appropriate for them to do their jobs. Some took the initiative to make careful edits to their product to remove scenes or background elements that some may have found offensive or triggering. Others chose to address the conflict head-on, with varying degrees of aggression. (Remember when Ghostface Killah claimed that he would take on Osama Bin Laden himself on the Wu-Tang Clan’s Iron Flag, released in December of 2001?) And still other groups of people made their best efforts at business as usual, pretending that nothing had happened as a way to help audiences cope with the horrific details that were still being delivered by the media at the time, and also possibly to help themselves process everything.

Cypress Hill, obviously, falls into that final category, because I wouldn’t have even brought it up otherwise.

Something (Sort Of) Different: Cypress Hill - Skull & Bones (April 25, 2000)

The subject of today's post is Cypress Hill's fifth full-length album, the double-disc affair Skull & Bones.  It is remembered as the trio's attempt to cash in on the fact that the kind of douchey asshole that loves to mosh, drink terrible (and terribly cheap) beer, and generally "rock out" to shit also seems to like Cypress Hill's earlier work, most likely because they believed B-Real, Sen Dog, and DJ Muggs to be nonthreatening stoners, and they love weed, looooove it, and they totally know a guy who can hook you up, but right now they need to borrow your phone, they left theirs in the car, and come on, be cool, stop being a bitch, alright?

For The Max-Approved Mixtape: Westside Connection - "King Of The Hill"

Artist: Westside Connection

Title: "King Of The Hill"

Producer: QDIII

Album: Bow Down (1996)

The Westside Connection, a hip hop supergroup made up of Ice Cube, his young apprentice Mack 10, and rap veteran WC (formerly of ...and the Maad Circle fame), forged their alliance on their shared belief that the West Coast wasn't receiving nearly as much respect in the hip hop game as they felt they deserved.  They happened to join forces during the height of the 1990s East Coast scene, when it seemed that a new classic was being birthed every fucking week, so it isn't like they were wrong: the media was so laser-focused on New York artists (rightfully so, mind you) that they forgot that California had their own thing going, even with the slow death of the gangsta rap movement that is still in hospice to this day.  Unless a big name like Dr. Dre or Snoop Doggy Dogg or 2Pac was making moves, the media simply didn't give a shit, which must have pissed off Ice Cube royally, since he started off as one of the preeminent gangsta rappers of our time.

The trio's debut album (one of only two they'll ever release, unless Cube and Mack 10 somehow kiss and make up), Bow Down, is filled with both thinly-veiled barbs and outright direct attacks, all set to mostly interesting beats.  "King Of The Hill" is the group's retaliation to Cypress Hill (and, specifically, their song "No Rest For The Wicked"), who accused Cube of stealing song ideas for the soundtrack to his movie Friday, specifically for its title track.  (Cypress Hill appears on that very same soundtrack, a fact nobody ever seems to remember whenever anyone else recounts this story.)  WC sits the entire track out (the only time during Bow Down that he does so), since he was still friends with B-Real, Sen Dog, and DJ Muggs, but Mack 10 jumps into the fray like the loyal lackey he was at the time.  However, the majority of the song is handled by Cube himself, and while his specific examples that are supposed to be damning to the Cypress Hill cause may not hit as hard as "No Vaseline" did N.W.A. waaaay back in 1991, he has a fire in his voice, as though Mack 10 were playfully goading him into remembering that he had a problem with the Hill and then locked him in the booth.  In short, he sounds pissed, and realistically so, as some of his thoughts seem malformed and nearly incoherent, resorting to basic threats out of mere frustration.  Most likely he recorded this shit in one take.

After Cube announces that he's going after Cypress Hill in both the song's intro and the first couple of bars, he delivers what I believe to be one of his finest couplets, regardless of the era it was written in: "I got a voice you should fear / I drink a beer, bust a rap, and end your fucking career" (italics mine).  The way he recites this line has always struck me: there's menace involved, almost like he's slowly remembering the persona he had adopted during his AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted and Death Certificate years, but it's also just a true statement in his eyes.  Forget about the fact that most everyone else he had attacked up to that point (Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Common) not only didn't see their careers fade, but enjoyed their best years after the disses hit airwaves: when Cube speaks those words, you're prone to believe them.  

The QDIII instrumental helps tremendously.  It's overly simplistic, but it has to be in order for Cube's words to find their destination.  However, it's a banger, and it helps even Mack 10 sound like a professional in the booth, even though he's essentially doing what The Game would later blindly do for 50 Cent's G-Unit before being dropped from the squad himself, a fact that he never fucking shuts up about, right?  I give WC credit for being his own man and not jumping into the fray: coincidentally, WC is the only member of the Westside Connection that Cube still maintains a professional relationship with.  Hmm.

"King Of The Hill" sounds great in your car or in your earbuds, and there's very little investment here.  Most likely, you two don't give a shit about any beef that Cypress fucking Hill is involved with, especially a beef that was squashed later on when both Cube and B-Real were featured on a song for the soundtrack to a goddamn Shaquille O'Neal movie.  And given the existence of another, much-more-highly-praised dis track in Ice Cube's back history, you two may be surprised to see "King Of The Hill" listed on my playlist.  Hell, even I admit that this song dropped well outside of Cube's prime years.  And yes, the artists on the receiving end of the verbal assault most certainly don't hold the same level of importance in this here rap game as his former N.W.A bandmates did (although let's not count them out entirely: Cypress Hill still made history in their own right).  Butt one of my most important criteria regarding the songs I choose for this playlist thing I'm curating (fuck, that sounds pretentious, right?) is that I must be entertained, and "King Of The Hill" does that, even if you two may have glossed over it at first.

As an added bonus, I decided to also bring to you Cypress Hill's response, the cleverly-titled "Ice Cube Killa", which recycles the same beat (shit, I would have done that, too, it sounds good) for B-Real's shaming of O'Shea Jackson.  I don't agree with B-Real's assertion that "Muggs made the best songs on [Cube's] third album [The Predator]", but you have to admit that he sounds much more focused with his barbs, leaving little wonder as to why Cube squashed the beef later on.  I also dug how B-Real made sure to single out WC as being "cool", since he wanted no part of the fight, but then laid out Mack 10.  Ah, rap beef.  It's funny to me, unless we're talking Biggie and 2Pac.  (Although "Hit 'Em Up" is hilarious, mind you.)  And you have to admit, you miss the days where people would just say "fuck it" and name names, right?  *stares in the direction of Drake and Meek Mill*

Do you agree or disagree with this selection?  Discuss below.

-Max

RELATED POST:

Westside Connection - Bow Down (review)

When Cypress Hill Met Dubstep: Four Gut Reactions Waiting For The Drop

Back in 2012, Cypress Hill were at a crossroads. Having released their last project, Rise Up, two years prior, the founding trio of the group, made up of rappers B-Real and Sen Dog alongside their producer-slash-deejay Muggs (Eric Bobo also counts as a member, but he has nothing to do with today's article), counted themselves as members of a musical genre that none of them felt as comfortable with as they may have before. This was evident when you recall their excursions into rap-rock and reggae, which I'm sure most of us would like to gloss over, but that shit really happened, you can't will it out of existence. So they did what any reasonable rap group might do when faced with career-altering decisions: they went to the club.

Cypress Hill - IV (October 6, 1998)

There was a three year gap in between Cypress Hill's third album III: Temples Of Boom and their fourth offering, appropriately titled IV.  During that lapse, DJ Muggs released a solo album under the Soul Assassins banner, frontman B-Real recorded with his other group that he could never officially be a part of due to contractual issues with Ruffhouse Records (that would be The Psycho Realm), and Sen Dog formed a rock band, SX-10, whose music I have never actually heard, so I don't have any discernable opinion about it.  That move made complete and total sense to me, though: Cypress Hill may have been straight hip hop through and through (at least, they were at this point), but they had an ability to bring in the rock audience in a more convincing fashion than most other rappers; I'm sure all of their glorification of marijuana use had something to do with it.


Anyway, when Cypress Hill reunited (although they never actually broke up), they recorded and released IV, their most varied album to date.  DJ Muggs, who handles all production duties, dove further into the sound that he experimented with on III: Temples Of Boom: namely, blunted trip-hop that you could dance to, if under the influence of the right combination of substances.  This can be seen as a good thing: there were a good number of bangers on their third opus, even if the project as a whole didn't quite pan out.  Suffice it to say, IV proves that their breakthrough single "Insane In The Brain", which woke up the stoners who weren't particularly fond of rap music, wasn't intended as a crossover hit; that shit just happened.  (This remains true even though IV contains the crew's first obvious attempt to play to that market, which I'll get to when I get to it.  I will say that the track in question isn't intrusive enough to fuck up the overall listening experience.)


For his part, B-Real jumps at the chance to put his lyrical work with The Psycho Realm to good use, delivering deeper meditative sonnets to the listeners while his partner in crime Sen Dog amps up his hypeman role into something more Flava Flav and less Spliff Star.  They even ceded a little bit of work to longtime Soul Assassins affiliate Barron Ricks, who appears on multiple tracks.  Together, the four men delivered a far more potent product that Ruffhouse was expecting, making IV harder to market that their previous efforts.  Sure, singles were released and videos were shot, but as the album contained nothing as immediately appealing as what sold the last three records, IV was mostly ignored.  It eventually went on to sell more than five hundred thousand copies, but nobody lists this as their favorite Cypress work.  Hell, hardly anybody even acknowledges the wakaflockin' thing, save for Muggs himself, who names IV as his biggest accomplishment as a producer.


Since that guy has also provided the score for porno flicks, I'm going to have to go with Muggerund on this one.


1. LOOKIN' THROUGH THE EYES OF A PIG
On which Cypress Hill proves that they are capable of writing a song from a viewpoint which opposes their own. Over a dark and moody funk loop, B-Real rhymes as a police officer , detailing both the good and the bad with equal candor. For a crew that hates cops so fucking much, they have certainly studied their enemy well. Or maybe B-Real just watches a lot of procedural dramas on CBS. Either way, other than the fact that it fades out before the final verse is complete, this was a good way to kick things off.


2. CHECKMATE
I've always felt that this track was underrated. Sen Dog and B-Real race each other over one of the fastest-paced Muggs instrumentals ever; this sounds like his homage to Eric B. & Rakim's “Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em”. Sen Dog's threat to drop you “like one of them ill bad habits” is quite possibly the dopest thing he's ever said, and that bar is surrounded my an entire verse that is just as hot. This shit still rocks today. Listeners that only know “Insane In The Brain” may even find something to like on here.


3. FROM THE WINDOW IN MY ROOM
The title sounds like it would be a better fit for a slow R&B song about lost loves or becoming a peeping tom because you just can't stop checking out the hot chick across the way or something, but B-Real and Sen Dog take it and twist the Muggs beat into one of their typical violent tales circa their self-titled debut. The lyrics are all inconsequential, but at least the music was interesting. The interlude at the end sets up a running theme, but it still sounds out of place.


4. PRELUDE TO A COME UP (FEAT MC EIHT)
Over some blunted piano keys, B-Real and West Coast stalwart MC Eiht trade verses with about as much chemistry as B-Real and Sen Dog, who does not appear on this track. DJ Muggs provides an instrumental that makes MC Eiht sound relevant again; I'm curious as to why he hasn't worked with him more, perhaps on one of those DJ Muggs vs. projects. This was pretty nice.


5. RIOT STARTER
The beat sounds like an interpretation of Public Enemy's “Lost At Birth”. The high energy rivals that of the earlier “Checkmate”, even though the “hook” on here is unnecessary and even kind of creepy. As per usual, B-Real takes center stage, delivering three verses, each more harried than the last, while Sen Dog handles the ad-libs with care. I had completely forgotten that this song existed, so this was a pleasant surprise.


6. AUDIO X (FEAT BARRON RICKS)
Given the sheer amount of pot that B-Real has smoked over the years, I was kind of amazed that he is even capable of speed-rapping: I thought those particular brain cells were the first to go, unless you happen to be Twista. The gimmick of this track (B-Real and his guest spit every other bar in a quick fashion) gets annoying rather quickly, and Muggs provides an imitation of a Southern bounce beat that may have fit in better on one of his Soul Assassins albums. Barron Ricks sounded okay, though.


7. STEEL MAGNOLIA
Sadly, not based on that weepy chick flick, although that would have been fucking amazing: B-Real could finally prove his range. Instead, this is yet another rapper's ode to his collection of weaponry. The instrumental is frustrating, and nothing memorable is aver spoken: it takes a lot these days for a rapper to sound creative when praising his/her gun.


8. I REMEMBER THAT FREAK BITCH (FROM THE CLUB) (FEAT BARRON RICKS & ERIC BOBO) / INTERLUDE PART 2
You know what the other three Cypress Hill albums were missing? Sex raps. Also, any sort of indication that any fuckable women even existed in their universe. And I have to say, curiosity factor aside, I'd rather hear these guys talk about weed. Barron's line “My dick was hard enough to dent her car” was pretty funny, but other than that, and I realize this sounds weird, it's almost as if Cypress Hill has always been above this subject matter. The interlude at the end is also boring as shit.


9. (GOIN' ALL OUT) NOTHIN' TO LOSE
When it comes to fast-paced Cypress Hill songs, third time is not the charm. Unlike “Checkmate” or “Riot Starter”, their spiritual cousin “(Goin' All Out) Nothin' To Lose” sucks balls, no thanks to the repetition of the phrase “going all out”, which is used at least four hundred and thirty-seven times, and not just on the chorus. Even if they had stuck with just one of the two song titles used on here, and not crammed them both together, this shit would still sound terrible. Moving on...


10. TEQUILA SUNRISE (FEAT BARRON RICKS)
Cypress Hill and Barron Ricks get drunk and handle some business down in Mexico over a Muggs instrumental that sounds like it was stolen from Delinquent Habits. Remember them? Anyway, Barron's reference to The Punisher was unexpected, as was the fact that this track, IV's first single, is actually fairly entertaining, if not that great. (The horns take this over the top.) I believe there may also be an official remix featuring Fat Joe, but I've never heard that song, so I cannot confirm. Still, this is a much more concise first single than anything else Cypress has released up until this point.


11. DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES
The Muggs instrumental is fucking good, as if The Rza and The Alchemist hooked up and had a tiny beat baby. For his part, B-Real wastes no time decimating it: as a result, this track approaches the best songs from the first half of Black Sunday (still the best half, in my opinion), albeit updated for 1998. Nice!


12. FEATURE PRESENTATION (FEAT BARRON RICKS & CHACE INFINITE)
This posse cut featuring Cypress Hill and friends (Saturday mornings on Fox!) is as dull as the butter knife I jammed into an electrical socket in an effort to wake myself up. And now I'm dead, burnt to a crisp. All because “Feature Presentation” put me to sleep. Thanks, Cypress Hill! You're great!


13. DR. GREENTHUMB
The comical skit at the beginning, something that the Hill isn't really known for, runs far too long to be truly effective. (Which is probably why they never really do them.) Once the song starts, though, the stoner cousin to “Dr. Knockboots” (by Nas, a labelmate by way of the parent company Columbia at the time – why hasn't Muggs tried to get a beat to God's Son yet?) never quite overcomes its corny gimmick, but it still manages to hold your attention. This wasn't that bad, but the instrumental, as simple as it is, helps make this work.


14. 16 MEN TILL THERE'S NO MEN LEFT
In a past life, the members of Cypress Hill must have been pirates: song titles such as “Dead Men Tell No Tales”, “16 Men Till There's No Men Left”, and “Ice Cube Killa” betray their previous incarnations. Unfortunately, unlike “Dead Men Tell No Tales”, this track is fairly boring, so B-Real's quest to take out sixteen of his rap peers to win the throne himself doesn't resonate with the audience. The Muggs production certainly doesn't help any, as it sounds like something from the inferior second half of Black Sunday. The singing at the end also weirded me out. And yes, I just used “weird” as a verb.


15. HIGH TIMES (FEAT ERIC BOBO)
Well, I suppose we were due: there hasn't been a weed anthem on IV for about two tracks now, and one with a title such as this one is so fucking obvious that I can't believe it hadn't been done by these guys already. As far as I'm concerned, “Illusions” (from III: Temple Of Boom) is the Citizen Kane of Cypress Hill's blunted hallucinatory dedications, and “High Times” doesn't even make it out of the starting gate. (“Dr. Greenthumb” skates by due to its kitsch value.) This doesn't make me want to smoke: this makes me want to complain about how lazy my stoner friends are. And if it's one thing weed does not do, it's boil your blood. Pass.


16. CLASH OF THE TITANS / DUST
DJ Muggs uses his trademarked sound bites (the guy shouting “Attention!” and the breathy female voice that quietly says “assassins”, usually after someone mentions the word “soul”; the only one missing is the guy who yells “The time has come!”) as a crutch, but “Clash Of The Titans” actually benefits from this handicap, as this is the most theatrical instrumental he has crafter for Cypress Hill to this point. B-Real also seems to relish the opportunity to spit over something different. “Dust” is an trip-hop instrumental interlude-slash-promotional warning for the eventual DJ Muggs solo album Dust. It's both pleasant and uninteresting all at once.


17. LIGHTNING STRIKES
Given Cypress Hill's cult following with mosh pits, it's surprising that it took them four albums to throw the rock audience a bone, especially since they would actually be pretty well suited to the louder, guitar-driven sounds of rock radio today. Which is why it's disappointing that this song sucks so fucking much. This ridiculous track is loud for no reason, it isn't cohesive with the rest of IV, and it only seems to exist to cause white people to fight each other at live shows. Also, it isn't a very good way to end IV. The skit at the end is also pretty stupid, but at least it ties up the album's on-again off-again storyline.


My copy of IV contains the following bonus track.


18. CASE CLOSED
Almost as if “Lightning Strikes” never existed, Cypress Hill pick back up where they left off, verbally attacking unnamed rookies in the rap game. Unfortunately, I have no idea who they're talking about, but angry Cypress Hill has made a lot of good songs, and this one is no exception.


IV contains different bonus tracks depending on the country you purchased it in, but I've never personally heard any of the the other ones, so I can't write about them fairly. If you're familiar with them, let me know if they are worth the hunt in the comments below.


FINAL THOUGHTS: IV was the first album of the new Cypress Hill era, the one where people stopped giving a fuck about Cypress Hill, but its reputation is undeserved: IV is their darkest album, but it deserves to be lumped in with the first three as prime examples of their ability to craft good music. In fact, I enjoyed more of the tracks on here than I did on III: Temples of Boom. The Muggs production explores some new territory, while B-Real broadens his rhyme horizon beyond mere weed anthems for lazy people, with actual results. IV should be known as the album where Cypress Hill took their last great stand against hip hop, throwing every good idea (and some bad ones as well, naturally) against the enemy, and while they ultimately failed and fell into irrelevancy (as far as the rest of the music world was concerned), the team of B-Real, Sen Dog, and DJ Muggs recorded an unheralded album worth revisiting. They may not have ever mastered the art of crafting an album (as opposed to a collection of singles), but on IV, they come the closest to accomplishing that very goal. Go ahead and give it a spin with some fresh ears: you will be pleasantly surprised.


BUY OR BURN? I think you should buy this shit. Not only is it better than you expected, it's also cheap, since nobody likes this album. Except for me, anyway. If you give it a spin and change your mind, let me know in the comments below.


BEST TRACKS: “Clash Of The Titans”; “Checkmate”; “Riot Starter”; “Case Closed”; “Dead Men Tell No Tales”; “Lookin' Through The Eyes Of A Pig”; “Prelude To A Come Up”; “Tequila Sunrise”


-Max


RELATED POSTS:
Catch up on the other Cypress Hill write-ups by clicking here.

Cypress Hill - Unreleased & Revamped (EP) (August 13, 1996)

After releasing their third album, III: Temples Of Boom, in 1995, all three members of Cypress Hill (B-Real, Sen Dog, and DJ Muggs) focused on their own work before linking up three years later for the coincidentally titled IV. At least, that's what Wikipedia wants us to believe: the only one of the three that released an actual solo album was Muggs, who started his Soul Assassins series in 1997 (and my use of the word "solo" there is debatable). My belief is that Ruffhouse/Columbia, their record label, panicked at the idea of no new Cypress Hill material, and decided to release Unreleased & Revamped, an EP made up of mostly remixes and a couple of original compositions.

Unreleased & Revamped takes listeners into an alternate universe where Cypress Hill was more likely to work with outside artists like Erick Sermon, Redman, and the Fugees, which was a change of pace from their first three albums, where the only guests that ever appeared were The Rza and U-God (on a crappy Wu-Tang-sounding track). In this universe, B-Real plays nice with others, opening the doors for more collaborations with established artists on future Cypress Hill projects.

Also, Unreleased & Revamped sold over half a million copies, most of which were sold to junkies looking for a fix and mistaking this EP for a dime bag. Speaking of the Fugees, the concept of Unreleased & Revamped worked out so well for the label that they also decided to give us Bootleg Versions, another EP release filled with remixes, a few months later.

1. BOOM BIDDY BYE BYE (FUGEES REMIX) (FEAT FUGEES)
I've always thought this pairing was a goofy one, but this remix blows the original out of the fucking water. This song is the shit, in other words: Wyclef Jean commits to the dark realm in which B-Real resides with surprising conviction, and Lauryn Hill's ad-libs and cooing on the chorus is very pleasant. Oh, and Pras also makes an appearance.

2. THROW YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR (FEAT ERICK SERMON, REDMAN, & MC EIHT)
Ostensibly a remix to "Throw Your Set In The Air", but there's also a more direct remix of that song set to this same beat, which I have somewhere in my boxes, but I can't remember if it was titled anything than a simple "remix". Erick Sermon's line about being "doper than the Pete Rock remixes" is pretty funny, if not exactly true, and potheads the world over have been waiting for Reggie Noble and B-Real to work together ever since Redman sampled Cypress Hill on his "Time 4 Sum Aksion". West Coast stalwart MC Eiht is the odd man out on here, but he still manages to sound decent.

3. INTELLECTUAL DONS (FEAT CALL O' DA WILD)
I don't know much about Call O' Da Wild (except that the group also has a track on the first Soul Assassins album), but I do know that this is their song and not Cypress Hill's, so either the label is pulling a bait and switch (as B-Real does technically appear on here, but only on the hook), or Cypress was trying to provide their beneficiaries some much-needed exposure, which didn't help matters anyway, since when was the last time you ever heard of a song by Call O' Da Wild? For what it's worth, this shit sounds nice, though, with a decidedly blunted Muggs beat that would have sounded nice wrapped around some kind bud.

4. HAND ON THE PUMP (MUGGS' BLUNTED MIX)
I like this version more so than one on their debut album, and the fact that Muggs still uses Gene Chandler's "Duke Of Earl" (like he did with the original) is pretty inspired, as it deftly undercuts the overly violent content. This shit is just catchy as hell.

5. WHATTA YOU KNOW
B-Real and Sen Dog rhyme over the same Issac Hayes sample ("Walk On By") that Biggie used to chilling effect for his "Warning" (and different components of the same song have also been used by many other rappers, including 2Pac, Method Man, and Redman), with piss poor results. Okay, that was a bit harsh. B-Real sounds okay (his slow flow reminds me of one of Cypress Hill's best little-known songs, "Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up", from the Friday soundtrack), but Sen Dog doesn't impress me, and seriously, whose idea was it to release this song after The Notorious B.I.G.? Even if Cypress somehow got to the sample before Biggie, they should have just left well enough alone and kept this one in the vault.

6. HITS FROM THE BONG (T-RAY'S MIX)
This was boring as shit.

7. ILLUSIONS (Q-TIP REMIX)
I'm a stan of A Tribe Called Quest (not that anyone could tell after reading that write-up for Beats, Rhymes and Life), so I can't say that this (edited) remix of one of my favorite Cypress Hill songs is completely without merit, but this pales in comparison to the masterwork that Muggs turned in previously, to such a degree that one wonders why Kamaal even fucking bothered. At least the original song sounded as if it could facilitate some illusions of its own.

8. LATIN LINGO (PRINCE PAUL MIX)
There isn't really anything on here that sets this apart as a distinctive Prince Paul Huston remix (except for a brief classical snippet before the third verse): this could have been literally retooled by anybody, and you wouldn't have cared, so why go for the brand name? That said, it still sounds alright, but that's about all.

9. WHEN THE SHIP GOES DOWN (DIAMOND D REMIX)
I'm not sure what this remix borrows the handle from the clean radio edit of this song (originally titled "When The Shit Goes Down") when the lyrics are clearly taken from the dirty version. Diamond D's beat grabs me more than the Muggs original, but that's about all.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The first four tracks on Unreleased & Revamped feature tracks that Cypress Hill should have incorporated onto their actual albums. (Okay, with the exception of "Intellectual Dons", but only because that isn't really Cypress Hill.) The rest of the short disc veers off into questionable territory, with poor beat choices by high-profile artists punctuating the disappointment while blowing bunk weed smoke in your face. This EP was created for the hardcore fans (and by a record label desperate for your hard-earned money), and it shows in the tracklisting: Cypress Hill recorded with the likes of Prince Paul, Redman, the Fugees, Erick Sermon, Q-Tip, and DIamond D because they fucking could, and some of these experiments work fantastically, while others are the definition of navel gazing.

BUY OR BURN? Because of the first four tracks, and the fact that EPs are traditionally cheaper than full-length projects, I recommend you pick this one up if you happen upon it. It's technically out of print, but stranger things have happened, and hey, there's always iTunes. It may appeal more to Cypress Hill soldiers, but anybody with an appreciation for hip hop and an interest in alternate realities will enjoy this.

BEST TRACKS: "Throw Your Hands In The Air"; "Hand On The Pump (Muggs' Blunted Mix)"; "Boom Biddy Bye Bye (Fugees Remix)"; "Intellectual Dons"

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Read up on some more Cypress Hill albums here.

Cypress Hill - III: Temples Of Boom (October 31, 1995)

Although Cypress Hill had already tasted a bit of success with their debut disc, conveniently entitled Cypress Hill, it was Black Sunday that brought them an entirely new level of attention. Their track "Insane In The Brain" opened the field of B-Real and Sen Dog's drug-induced and oft-violent rhymes, and the blunted production work of DJ Muggs, up to the masses, creating a mosh pit anthem for the ages, one that still gets people excited whenever it plays on the radio or in the club.

Cypress Hill's third album, III: Temples Of Boom (which was probably not influenced by the second Indiana Jones flick), was released on Halloween in 1995, and probably provided the soundtrack for many a person who sat at home handing out candy to children. Black Sunday was already a pretty dark album, when you look back on it, but their third effort made Black Sunday sound like a day at fucking Disney World. Muggs twisted his beats into his bleakest images yet, and B-Real and Sen Dog (okay, mostly B-Real) followed suit, and although it's not like their subject matter changed at all (read: they still like to smoke), III: Temples Of Boom still happens to contain some of the best songs the crew would ever record.

III: Temples Of Boom would up selling over one million copies, proving that there was, in fact, still an audience out there that supported acts where only one member of the group was actually maturing as an artist. It's no surprise that DJ Muggs went on to create his first Soul Assassins album after this disc, expanding his horizons by working with a much wider variety of artists. However, it's not like B-Real and Sen Dog sat around twiddling their thumbs, although that may have been an incredibly spiritual experience for them: instead, B-Real linked up with some of his other friends and released an album as the group Psycho Realm, although he had to immediately leave that group because of his day job, and Sen Dog apparently created a punk group called SX-10, although to be honest, I don't believe I've ever heard any of their work.

Neither one of the last couple of sentences have anything to do with III: Temples Of Boom, though. I just felt like actually writing a bit today.

1. SPARK ANOTHER OWL
What could have been a useless rap album intro morphs into an actual song, which automatically makes III: Temples Of Boom seem like a better album than some of these other rap discs out there. Of course, it helps that the song relaxes you and encourages listeners to get as stoned as fucking possible.

2. THROW YOUR SET IN THE AIR
I didn't like this song upon its initial release, but back in 1995, I wouldn't have been able to tell you why. Today, I can: it comes off as a paint-by-numbers Cypress Hill track, specifically engineered to appease the fans that mosh to "Insane In The Brain" but are blissfully unaware of the rest of the Hill's catalog. It's certainly not the worst song they've ever recorded, but there isn't a whole lot of substance here.

3. STONED RAIDERS
I always thought this song was a nice change of pace for Cypress Hill. The Muggs production is relaxing and ethereal (save for the drums, of course), and while the rhymes may be inane (B-Real will never be up for consideration when the best emcees in the game receive their gold watches after retirement), they're not the true focal point anyway.

4. ILLUSIONS
My favorite track on here, by far. When it was released to radio I felt it was kind of ruined, but in its purest form, with the long-ass intro attached, you are thrown into a drugged state of mind. This is possibly the only Cypress cut that has successfully accomplished that feat: for that alone, DJ Muggs deserves a goddamn medal. A remix of this song, produced by A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip, appeared on the 12-inch and CD single to "Illusions", but that version comes nowhere close to the original.

5. KILLA HILL N----S (FEAT THE RZA & U-GOD)
Surprise! I'm a well-documented Wu-Tang stan, and I never liked this song. The effect of having the dude talk all over B-Real's chorus is frustrating, to say the least. Prince Rakeem's beat is blah at best, and worst of all, fucking U-God's on here. (I suppose Rza was unable to shake him at the light.) A major disappointment. I mean, seriously, Cypress Hill seem to be advocates of marijuana use (at least, that's what I understand): where the hell is Method Man???

6. BOOM BIDDY BYE BYE
When compared to this song's remix, which featured labelmates the Fugees, this song is terrible. When you look at it as a standalone product, it's alright, but, once again, there isn't much substance to be found. I had a similar comment about Black Sunday: as a listener, I completely understand that, whenever he's stoned, B-Real likes to violently hurt people, but there's truly more to life, and certainly there's more to rhyme about.

7. NO REST FOR THE WICKED
The first salvo in the case of Cypress Hill v. Ice Cube, which was originally sparked by accusations of song ideas being stolen (specifically, B-Real accused Cube of stealing the concept of the then-unreleased "Throw Your Set In The Air" for his own "Friday", from the Friday soundtrack: now that I think about it, the two songs do share a similar chorus), but was eventually resolved. This song is okay, if only because I tend to like rap songs where the artists specifically call out other artists and talk random shit, but its real contribution to the cause was "King Of The Hill", the song that Cube and Mack 10 responded with on Westside Connection's Bow Down. Now that song is just awesome.

8. MAKE A MOVE
The Pulp Fiction sample runs a bit too long. This song kicked off the second side of the cassette tape version, which I still have somewhere, and to be honest, I could never actually get past this one song: I would listen to side A and then switch out to something else. (Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I had a similar issue with Black Sunday.) This track isn't actually that bad today, but even after listening to it, I can't recall specifics, other than the aforementioned Pulp Fiction lift.

9. KILLAFORNIA
The beat is really fucking good, but B-Real is not even close to being the right fit for the song. Perhaps Muggs should have kept this instrumental in his back pocket, to be used only in case of an emergency, or for one of his collaborative efforts with Gza/Genius, Sick Jacken, or Planet Asia, whichever came first.

10. FUNK FREAKERS
A dull-as-shit track is rendered even more frustrating, as B-Real's final verse fades out prior to the completion of the song. You don't have to be a longtime reader of the blog to know how much that irks me.

11. LOCOTES
Not entirely terrible, as the beat, though relatively simple, works, and the interaction between B-Real and Sen Dog is entertaining, but the track leaves you with an overall empty feeling inside.

12. RED LIGHT VISIONS
I honestly did not remember that the intro to "Illusions" kept popping up throughout the entire album. I thought this song was actually pretty good, although it truly is a godsend that it is incredibly short.

13. STRICTLY HIP HOP
Sadly, for a song with that particular title, this song is boring as shit. From the production down to B-Real's lazy delivery, the track is an overall failure. The only interesting part of the cut is found in one of Sen Dog's multiple meandering monologues, where he claims that "House Of Pain ain't down with us". I can't recall there ever being a beef. Any help, folks?

14. LET IT RAIN
This is actually pretty good. Whenever the Hill abandons their regular programming for some actual hip hop, the crew usually has favorable results. B-Real takes a shot at The Source for good measure, as well. The Muggs beat sounds like some vintage Cypress Hill shit, but sped up and taken to a completely new level.

The following is listed as a CD-only bonus track.

15. EVERYBODY MUST GET STONED
This slow, calm, relaxed, and hunger-inducing song (which shouldn't be surprising, given its title) is to be considered a bonus track for a valid reason: it's kind of really boring. For a song with a similar flavor but a better execution, you should hunt down "Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up", Cypress Hill's contribution to the Friday soundtrack, pre-beef with O'Shea.

FINAL THOUGHTS: III: Temples Of Boom represents a progression of the sound that DJ Muggs has been cultivating since the debut disc, and more than a few of the beats on here remain among his best work. However, although some of these songs deserve their eternal place in the crew's catalog, most of III: Temples Of Boom is boring. Obviously, at this point in their career, Cypress Hill (or, more accurately, B-Real, since Sen Dog seems to hardly appear at all) felt that there was no need to switch things up lyrically, as they continue the themes presented on Cypress Hill and Black Sunday. Just like with Black Sunday, though, the first half is much better than the second, which makes for a frustrating listening experience.

BUY OR BURN? Burn this if you must. Cypress Hill has essentially mastered the art of having at least three tracks on each album that hip hop heads must find by any means necessary, but creating full albums is not their strong suit. Follow the guidelines below and be well.

BEST TRACKS: "Illusions"; "Stoned Raiders"; "Spark Another Owl"; "Let It Rain"

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Read up on the other Cypress Hill posts here, and the DJ Muggs-related albums here.

Cypress Hill - Black Sunday (July 20, 1993)

The three-man West Coast rap collective known as Cypress Hill (made up of rappers B-Real and Sen Dog, with production assists from DJ Muggs) released a surprisingly popular eponymous debut album in 1991. Their clever mesh of blunted production values coupled with tales of street violence, laced with the relaxed-yet-paranoid sensation of being stoned out of your fucking mind at a carnival funhouse in Minnesota with your cousin's scantily-clad girlfriend while being chased by a masked serial killer who uses a serrated golf club in lieu of sensible words, resonated with listeners who were growing weary of their gangsta raps leaving out all of the fun. In fact, the primary hit from their debut, "How I Could Just Kill A Man", remains popular to this day; overtly political rap/rock group Rage Against The Machine recorded a version for their Renegades covers album in 2000. It sounds terrible, by the way, but the mere fact that the song was covered in the first place is pretty impressive.

With dollar signs in their eyes, Ruffhouse/Columbia commissioned more product, and Cypress Hill were soon hitting them corners with their re-up, Black Sunday. Lyrically, B-Real and Sen Dog kept things at their most primal level, which is a nice way for Max to say that their content didn't change one single bit. However, Muggs stepped up behind the boards, creating a sound that essentially defined Cypress Hill, one which they are still unable to live down. Thanks to hit singles such as "Insane In The Brain" and "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That", Cypress found themselves crossing over onto rock radio playlists, which sparked talk amongst hip hop purists that the crew 'sold out' for the perks a wider audience entails (i.e., all of the Fruit Roll Ups they can get on their concert riders). This is an argument I never understood; all of their musical output up to this point was tinged with a rock sensibility anyway. It wouldn't matter much, since Cypress Hill was raking in the dough as the most successful Latino rap group in history. (Interestingly enough, in the case of "Insane In The Brain", the white guys in the mosh pit with their very carefully-color-coded grunge attire make for an odd contrast with the fact that the song was recorded by B-real as a dis towards Chubb Rock. Seriously.)

Black Sunday sold tremendously well, hitting the number one spot on the Billboard 200 in 1993, moving the highest number of units in its first week than any other rap album at the time. That success was short lived, though, as it woul dbe eclipsed later that year by Snoop Doggy Dogg's Doggystyle, which sold over eight hundred thousand records in its debut week. This was back in 1993, mind you, back when people still bought CDs.

Shit, do I feel old.

1. I WANNA GET HIGH
A very slow and hazy way to start an album. At least it's a short song and not a recording of B-Real coughing and telling us why Black Sunday will be the best album since Jesus Christ's King of Kingz Presentz: Tha Disciplez.

2. I AIN'T GOIN' OUT LIKE THAT
The soundtrack to murdering your ex-wife and her lover, snatching up your friend, and riding down the freeway in your white Ford Bronco leading a frantic-yet-slow-moving police chase while having a paranoid freak-out in the back seat while holding a gun in your mouth and babbling incoherently. Wow, that example got weird.

3. INSANE IN THE BRAIN
I shouldn't have to write much about this song. So, I won't.

4. WHEN THE SHIT GOES DOWN
A very weak song to follow "Insane In The Brain". I was always amused at the fact that the radio edit of this song was retitled "When The Ship Goes Down", but for the life of me, I can't remember why I found that so funny to begin with.

5. LICK A SHOT
The beat is truly more impressive than the violent-for-no-good-reason lyrics, although I have to admit that B-Real is probably the only guy that would sound good over this instrumental, so at least he has that going for him, which is nice.

6. COCK THE HAMMER
I've always liked the dark, dank production of this song. Also, Sen Dog completely outshines B-Real, this being one of the few occasions where he actually pulls that off. Could have done without the ridiculous chanting on the hook, though.

7. LOCK DOWN
An instrumental piece from DJ Muggs. Back when I first bought Black Sunday, I would use this song as a signal to find something else to listen to, since I could never get into the remainder of this album. What follows is possibly the first time I've heard the second half of Black Sunday in at least ten fucking years.

8. 3 LITTLE PUTOS
An instrumental piece from DJ Muggs would have been preferable to being subjected to this boring-as-fuck track.

9. LEGALIZE IT
Skit.

10. HITS FROM THE BONG
The world's most effective sleep aid, now available without a prescription. Never has smoking out sounded so boring.
11. WHAT GO AROUND COME AROUND, KID
I know, I couldn't believe that Justin Timberlake and Timbaland would choose this Cypress Hill song to cover, either. Personally, I would have gone with "Dr. Greenthumb".

12. A TO THE K
I swear to God, all of these songs are starting to sound like one long suckfest. It doesn't help that B-Real and Sen Dog can't be bothered to switch up their lyrical content. I almost wish they would start rhyming about being stoned again.

13. HAND ON THE GLOCK
I prefer the remix, with its "Duke Of Earl" sample. This track sounds okay lyrically, but the beat betrays the artists by sucking more than a group of whorish leeches.

14. BREAK 'EM OFF SOME
Listening to this album closer today, I have to admit that I don't remember the beat sounding this good. Its fast pace would be better suited to a tale regarding an escape, either on foot or behind the wheel, rather than what B-Real actually talks about. We get it, you carry a gun and like to shoot people that look at you funny! Why did you become a rapper and not take a job at the post office again? Oh, yeah, right, the drug testing.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Overall, I'm not one hundred percent on why people who loved the debut album hate Black Sunday so much. Is it because of "Insane In The Brain"? Maybe. I don't really consider this to be their sellout disc; I think Cypress Hill just got lucky. However, with every single song showcasing a very limited scope of lyrical content and beats that sound better than they deserve to be, I do consider Black Sunday to be a bad album.

BUY OR BURN? You don't really need to buy this one. A burn will satisfy your curiosity, although if you were really that interested in the group, you'd already have this disc, so I guess it's a wash.

BEST TRACKS: "Cock The Hammer"; "Insane In The Brain"

-Max

RELATED POSTS:DJ Muggs - Soul Assassins Chapter 1
DJ Muggs - Soul Assassins II
Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill (August 13, 1991)

Cypress Hill is a rap trio from California, made up of Latino rappers B-Real and Sen Dog, along with resident white boy DJ Muggs. Thanks to their hard-hitting beats and B-Real's nasal lyrics, most of which involve marijuana or the legalization of said marijuana, Cypress Hill is the biggest-selling Latino hip hop group in history.

Cypress Hill, the debut album, dropped after original group member Mellow Man Ace left the group to do his own thing, a career move which I'm sure he sort of regrets now. The first single was, unbeknownst to most hip hop heads, "Phuncky Feel One", which was, in hindsight, a horrible fucking choice. Luckily, the B-side was "How I Could Just Kill A Man", an undisputed hip hop masterpiece that made the Hill household names to those who maintained subscriptions to either The Source or High Times. Eventually, they sold over two million copies of their weed-, profanity-, and anti-pig-sentiment-laced debut disc.

1. PIGS
You have no idea how thankful I am that this album doesn't start with the mandatory rap album intro.

2. HOW I COULD JUST KILL A MAN
You've all heard this one already, and it still sounds great. You already knew that, though.

3. HAND ON THE PUMP
I'm one of those guys who always loved the use of the "Duke Of Earl" sample. This is another classic track. Obviously Method Man and Redman think so as well (listen to "Da Rockwilder", off of their collabo album Blackout!, to hear what I mean).

4. HOLE IN THE HEAD
This is definitely not one of those classic tracks, though.

5. ULTRAVIOLET DREAMS
I would probably appreciate this skit more if I were stoned while writing this.

6. LIGHT ANOTHER
Muggs's production throughout the debut lends the sound a very consistent feeling, as if every song was meant to fit together in this sequence, instead of sixteen different songs on a CD that could be placed anywhere. That doesn't mean this one is very good, though.

7. THE PHUNCKY FEEL ONE
B-Real used to date Carmen Electra? Really? Are you kidding me?

8. BREAK IT UP
More of a musical interlude than an actual song.

9. REAL ESTATE
Still sounds good today, especially with the beat switch.

10. STONED IS THE WAY OF THE WALK
Uses the same sample as A Tribe Called Quest's "Vibes and Stuff", from The Low End Theory, which was released after this CD dropped. Both songs freak the sample well.

11. PSYCOBETABUCKDOWN
The title track from the Nicolas Cage film of the same name.

12. SOMETHING FOR THE BLUNTED
Another musical interlude.

13. LATIN LINGO
In case you had forgotten that two-thirds of Cypress Hill was of Latin descent.

14. THE FUNKY CYPRESS HILL SHIT
There is funkier Cypress Hill shit to be found on their second album, Black Sunday. But that's just my opinion.

15. TRES EQUIS
You'll probably enjoy this X-rated inclusion more if you understand Spanish.

16. BORN TO GET BUSY
One of those "final song combined with an album outro" things that you would, once again, appreciate more if blown out of your fucking mind.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Cypress Hill is a good, but not great, debut album from one of the more creative collectives in the rap game. Most of the beats are on point, as are the rhymes (B-Real's subject matter may rarely change, but he always rhymed well), but the songs that don't hold up, really don't hold up. If you were to judge this to their 2007 output, though, 1991's Cypress Hill would fuck their new shit up.

BUY OR BURN? The great songs outnumber the missteps, so by all means, buy this shit. Buy yourself a bit of hip hop history, and as an added bonus, you can show up your friends by proving that, yes, they were around before "Insane In The Brain".

BEST TRACKS: "How I Could Just Kill A Man"; "Hand On The Pump"; "Latin Lingo"; "Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk"

(Disagree with the above review? Leave a comment below! Make your opinions known!)

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
DJ Muggs - Soul Assassins Chapter One