Review Summary: A classic album that should be in every hip-hop fan and stoner's music collection. Roll up a blunt and enjoy.
Just the mere mention of the band Cypress Hill brings to mind several bong hits and the group's distinctive funk-and-rock-sample-based sound. From the opening drone of "Pigs" to the rocking "How I Could Just Kill a Man", honking "Hand on the Pump", each track successfully translating the feel of a marijuana high. Bubbling, wavy vocals, low basslines, rough beats, shuffling turntable scratches, and funky fly rhymes. Although it only takes one review to describe Cypress' lyrical subject matter (weed, women, street life), each album is continuously entertaining and innovative, and this one is no exception. "Pigs" is about the group's dislike for cops:
"This pig harassed the whole neighborhood / Well this pig worked at the station / This pig he killed my Homeboy / So the ***in' pig went on a vacation / This pig is the chief / Got a brother pig, Captain O'Malley /He's got a son that'a a pig too / He's collectin' pay-offs from a dark alley."
"How I Could Just Kill A Man" references Suicidal Tendencies' "All I wanted was a Pepsi!" exclamation in its tale of its protagonist blasting a dude who tries to steal his stuff. The instrumental interludes "Ultraviolet Dreams" "Break it Up" are atmospheric enough to be the soundtrack to any joint-rolling session. The rolling bass intro of "Real Estate" moves forward into a gritty beat, guitar lines, hectic samples that fade in and out..."Stoned is the Way of the Walk" is slow and trippy. "Psycobetabuckdown" prominently features some of the album's most clever rhymes:
"I increase my throttle, uplift my shuttle / Tribe in a huddle, pilot on auto, bro / I’m not a role model, more like a psycho / A Bates type of Psycho, cut you like Michael / Halloween character, or computer wizard / Hit you with the blizzard, cut your circuit with my scissors / Shorts'll get crossed while you’re in the crossfire / You get blasted, you dumb-ass bastard"
The Spanglish "Latin Lingo", "The Funky Cypress Hill ***", X-rated "Tres Equis" and smokey "Born To Get Busy" round out the album, the album's final hidden sound collage resembling the hip-hop equivalent of the end of
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album sounds.....like fuzzy colors? There's really no way to adequately describe the sound of the album, just as there's no reason to explain why this is good music. I'm preaching to the choir here. Cypress Hill are true originals in hip-hop in that not only did they have their sound and subject matter down before they ever cut a record, they made the best album of their career the first time around, something very few artists have ever done - many of which seem to have been inspired by the unique sound that this record brought to the hip-hop game. Just listen to
Enter the Wu-Tang,
The Chronic, and
Enta da Stage.
Cypress Hill is a classic album, period.
