Beyond Metal: Cypress Hill

 

  

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Rap got some bad rep (heh) from me in the past two month, so as an act of goodwill, I decided to write about something positive for a change.

Cypress Hill is pretty well-known and of course, it's an example beaten to death. Maybe in future I will feel like writing about Onyx, Gang Starr, or Wu Tang Clan, or maybe even about Slums Attack, but for now, it will have to suffice.

Just like Metal scene had its own division, or even a war between Black and Death Metal, the Hip-Hop world had its East Coast, and West Coast. There is however a problem with classifying C.H., as while they come from L.A., California, they were a massive influence for New York style. Everything thanks to the DJ of the group, Mr. Lawrence Muggerud, DJ Muggs in short. And while his name is obviously Norwegian, he actually has Italian ancestry. Anyway...

Muggs was obviously inspired by seminal Public Enemy, and also tried to find new ideas for sampling, instead of stealing for the nth time Soul classics. He was also one of the many contemporary producers, who based the bass on Jazz. And that was in contrast to what West would become known for, namely party-oriented, jumpy, happy melodies based more on Funk.

For some reason, Cypress Hill became popular among varied crowd, including, but not limited to, Metalheads. It's hard to understand why, as they weren't really that much different from their Rap competition. The band decided to capitalize on that and very gradually metallized their approach. The cover for their third album (which you can see in the OP) signallized upcoming changes, which would have their culmination with albums like "Skull & Bones" (2000) and "Stoned Raiders" (2001). On the latter, the band would basically become a Rock band. The final album of that era will be their 8th LP, "Rise Up" (2010), with many popular guests, like Daron Malakian (SOAD), or Tom Morello (RATM). Afterwards, the band would be in a sort-of hiatus for many years.

Their next album, "Elephants on Acid" (2018) was a return to form, and to the sound of their first three releases, albeit it wasn't without its own share of experiments. The final (so far) album "Back in Black" (2022), gives a nod to AC/DC and is the first full length without the involvement of DJ Muggs. It received lukewarm reactions, although I myself don't consider it in any way an inferior release.

The final thing that I want to mention are side-projects. The main Rapper, B-Real, along with RATM (again) and Chuck D (Public Enemy) formed Prophets of Rage, where they play Rap Metal to not much fanfare. The secondary Rapper, Sen Dog also has his own share of similar hybrids in form of Powerflo and slightly superior SX10.

So maybe there is indeed some fire to this flame. Metalheads can always sniff out another brother in arms.