Representing rap’s New Wave,
Cypress Hill was formed in southeastern Los Angeles by Italian New York City transplant DJ Muggs (Larry Muggerud); Mexican-Cuban South Gate, Calif. native B-Real (Louis Freeze) and fellow Cuban Sen Dog (Senen Reyes), taking their name from Cypress Avenue, a street which ran through their neighborhood in the Latin quarter of the City of Angels. The group signed with Ruffhouse/Columbia in 1991 and released their self-titled debut album in 1992. Several months after its initial release, the Cypress Hill songs "How I Could Just Kill a Man"
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and "The Phuncky Feel One" became underground hits, and the group's public pro-marijuana stance earned them many fans among the alternative rock community. Cypress Hill followed the album with Black Sunday in the summer of 1993, and while it sounded remarkably similar to the debut, it nevertheless became a hit, entering the album charts at #1 and spawning the crossover hit "Insane in the Brain." With Black Sunday, Cypress Hill's audience became predominantly white, collegiate suburbanites, which caused them to lose some support in the hip-hop community, but the group continued to record and tour.
In the mid-90s, the Cyprus Hill split up to pursue solo projects, but t hey came back together again in 2000 to release Skull & Bones, a double disc that was half hip-hop and half-rock-inspired songs. Appropriately, the album also included rock and rap versions of the single "Superstar," earning the group both street cred and acceptance from alternative rock audiences. The videos for both versions that followed featured many famous rap and rock musicians talking about their profession, and the song was a smash on MTV because of it. Cypress Hill next experimented with reggae, but came back to the fold with the 2004 rap single “How I Could Just Kill A Man,” which was included in the popular videogame Grand Theft Auto. In 2007 Cypress Hill demonstrated their versatility by trekking on the Rock the Bells tour, and headlining with such diverse acts as
Public Enemy,
Wu-Tang Clan,
Nas, and a reunited Rage Against the Machine. Now with a new label, Cypress Hill shows no signs of slowing down as they push the envelope with their parodies of gangster stories and other acts of rebellion.
