Cypress Hill - Disc of the day

Cypress Hill
Black Sunday

(Ruffhouse/Columbia, 1993)

Los Angeles hip hoppers go platinum with a glock in one hand and a bong in the other.

“I’ve been in the rock and roll business all my life,” mused British guitar hero Bert Weedon once, “And I’ve never even seen a marijuana.” Clearly, he hadn’t hung out with Cypress Hill, the Latino rap crew who always consumed their greens. But despite containing tracks called Hits From The Bong, I Wanna Get High and Insane In The Brain, Black Sunday is no mere stoner goof-off. From its Deadhead skull-and-bones sleeve eeriness down, this was hip-hop bent out of shape in psychedelic ways. Produced by New Yorker DJ Muggs in the halcyon days of sampling whatever you felt like, it mined beats and noise from the likes of Black Sabbath, James Brown and Dusty Springfield, all cut and pasted into a raw, subterranean fug of tough, locomotive beats, looped basslines and grating sirens. For all the threats of beyond-casual violence – see the charming A To The K or Hand On The Glock for gratuitous, THC’d up gunplay - nasal rappers B Real and Sen Dog are too much like the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers to truly harsh the mellow. Amazingly, it debuted at Number 1 on the US charts and went double platinum. The band continue to this day, having along the way experimented with rock, reggae and, on 1996’s Homerpalooza, Homer Simpson. Now, exhale.

Ian Harrison

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 31/05/2008