Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California, consisting of rappers B-Real and Sen Dog, percussionist Eric Bobo and producer/DJ, DJ Muggs. Founded in 1987, and originally called DVX, the name was changed after Mellow Man Ace left the group in 1988. Cypress Hill was the first Latino group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18 million albums worldwide. Cypress Hill’s self-titled first album was released in August 1991. The lead single was the double A-side “The Phuncky Feel One”/”How I Could Just Kill A Man” which received heavy airplay on urban and college radio. The other two singles released from the album were “Hand On The Pump” and “Latin Lingo”, the latter of which combined English and Spanish lyrics. The success of these singles led to the album selling two million copies in the US alone.The band made their first appearance at Lollapalooza on the side stage in 1992.
Black Sunday, the group’s second album, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 1993, recording the highest Soundscan for a rap group up until that time. Also, with their debut still in the charts, they became the first rap group to have 2 albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 at the same time. With “Insane in the Brain” becoming a crossover hit, the album went triple platinum in the U.S. and sold about 3.25 million copies. Cypress Hill was banned from Saturday Night Live after Muggs smoked a joint on-air and the band trashed their instruments while playing their second single “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That”. The band headlined the “Soul Assassins” tour with House of Pain and Funkdoobiest as support, then performed on a college tour with Rage Against the Machine and Seven Year Bitch. In 1993, Cypress Hill also had two tracks on the Judgment Night soundtrack, teamed up with Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth. The band played at the 1994 Woodstock Festival, introducing their new member Eric Bobo, formerly a percussionist with the Beastie Boys. Rolling Stone magazine named the band as the best rap group in their music awards voted by critics and readers. Cypress Hill played at Lollapalooza for two successive years, topping the bill in 1995. They also appeared on the The Simpsons episode “Homerpalooza”. Prior to Bobo joining the crew, Panchito “Ponch” Gomez sat in as a percussionist when not acting. Their third album Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom was released in 1995, selling 1.5 million copies and reaching number 3 on the Billboard 200 on the strength of the hit single “Throw Your Set in the Air”. Cypress Hill also contributed a track “I Wanna Get High” to the High Times sponsored Hempilation album to support NORML. Sen Dog took a break from the band to form a Los Angeles based rap rock band SX10. Meanwhile in 1996, Cypress Hill appeared on the first ‘Smokin’ Grooves’ tour, featuring Ziggy Marley, The Fugees, Busta Rhymes and A Tribe Called Quest. The band also released a nine track EP Unreleased and Revamped with rare mixes. In 1997 the band members began focusing on their solo careers. Releasing IV in 1998 which went gold in the U.S., on the backs of hit singles “Tequila Sunrise” and another tribute to smoking cannabis “Dr. Greenthumb”, Sen Dog also released the Get Wood sampler as part of SX10 on the label Flip. Releasing a greatest-hits album in Spanish, Los grandes éxitos en español the following year.
Records:
Cypress Hill – I Wanna Get High, Columbia
Cypress Hill – Throw Your Set in the Air, Ruff House Records
Cypress Hill – And how i could just kill a man, Ruff House Records
