Their first album, which was self-titled, was released in August 1991. Its single was "Phuncky Feel One", but it was the B-side "How I Could Just Kill A Man" (formerly "Trigga Happy Nigga") that attracted more airplay on urban radio and college radio. Based on the success of the single and other tracks such as bilingual track "Latin Lingo" and X-rated Spanish track "Tres Equis", the album sold two million copies in the US alone. Subsequently, DJ Muggs produced the first House of Pain album, then worked on other projects like Funkdoobiest. 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 on the charts they became the first rap artists 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 cannabis 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. Bobo is the son of salsa musician Willie Bobo. 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 appeared on the The Simpsons episode "Homerpalooza".
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.
Feud With Ice Cube
Ice Cube asked to put "Throw Your Set in the Air" on his Friday soundtrack, but B-Real refused, prompting Cube to record a new song "Friday" with a similar chorus; Cypress Hill responded with the track "No Rest For The Wicked." Westside Connection replied with the diss track "King Of The Hill" and "Cross Em Out & Put a K", to which Cypress Hill replied with "Ice Cube Killa," which uses the same beat as "King Of The Hill" and disses Ice Cube and Mack 10. "Ice Cube Killa" has never been released officially. In 1997 B-Real of Cypress Hill and Ice Cube were invited to a late night talk show in order to reconcile their differences for the benefit of the hip hop community, and the feud thus ended. Cube And B-Real would work together later that year as guest features on the track "Men of Steel" for the soundtrack of Shaquille O'Neal's film Steel. B-Real and Cube did even feature as guests in Warren G's single "Get U Down" which also featured Snoop Dogg.
Continued career
Sen Dog took a break from the band to form a Los Angeles based punk-rap band SX-10. 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, band members focused on their solo careers. Muggs released Muggs Presents ... the Soul Assassins featuring contributions from Wu-Tang Clan members, Dr. Dre, KRS-One, Wyclef Jean and Mobb Deep. B-Real appeared with Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J and Method Man on "Hit Em High" from the multi-platinum Space Jam Soundtrack. He also appeared with RBX, Nas and KRS-One on "East Coast Killer, West Coast Killer" on Dr. Dre's Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath album, and released an album entitled "The Psycho Realm" from his side project of the same name. Though the focus that year was not on Cypress Hill, the band played Smokin' Grooves with George Clinton and Erykah Badu.
Cypress Hill released IV in 1998 which went gold in the U.S., even though the reviews were somewhat negative,[citation needed] 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 SX-10 on the label Flip. In 1999, Cypress Hill helped with the PC crime/very mature video game Kingpin: Life of Crime. Three of their songs from the 1998 IV album were in the game ( "16 Men Till There's No Men Left", "Checkmate" and "Lightning Strikes"). B-Real also did some of the voices of the people in the game. Also in 1999, the band released a greatest-hits album in Spanish, Los grandes éxitos en español. Cypress Hill then fused genres with their two-disc release, Skull & Bones, in 2000. The first disc, "Skull" was comprised of rap tracks while "Bones" explored further the group's forays into rock. The album reached the Top 5 on the Billboard 200 and number 3 in Canada. The first single was "Rock Superstar" for rock radio and "Rap Superstar" for urban radio. The band also released Live at the Fillmore, a concert disc recorded at the Fillmore (in San Fransico) in 2000. Cypress Hill continued their experimentation with rock on the Stoned Raiders album in 2001. However, its sales were a disappointment, as the disc did not even reach the top 50 of the U.S. album charts. In 2001, the group appeared in the film How High.
Cypress Hill recorded "Just Another Victim" for the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a theme song for Tazz. At the time, WWE was using original music for almost all of the wrestlers, so this was an unusual step for the company to take, but it remains one of the more memorable songs to emerge from the wrestling organization. The band released Till Death Do Us Part on March 23, 2004. The album saw the band experiment with reggae especially on the lead single "What's Your Number". The track features Tim Armstrong of Rancid on guitar and Rob Aston of The Transplants on backup vocals. It is based on the classic song "Guns of Brixton" on The Clash's London Calling and has proven to be a success on the modern rock charts. However, the album represented a further departure from the signature sound of their first four albums. The album also features appearances by Damian Marley, son of Bob Marley, Prodigy and Twin of Mobb Deep and producer the Alchemist.
In 2004, the song How I Could Just Kill A Man was included in the popular videogame Grand Theft Auto San Andreas created by Rockstar Games, playing on West Coast hip hop radio station Radio Los Santos. In December of 2005 a best of compilation album titled Greatest Hits From the Bong was released including 9 hits from previous albums and 2 new tracks. The group's next album was tentatively scheduled for an early 2007 release. In the summer of 2006, B-Real appeared on Snoop Dogg's single "Vato". Pharrell Williams produced the track, and originally sang the hook, but because of the video idea, B-Real was asked to sing the hook. Sen Dog is now currently touring with the Kottonmouth Kings, Kingspade and Dogboy on the Joint is on Fire Tour
In 2007 Cypress Hill toured with their full line up as a part of the Rock the Bells tour, held by Guerilla Union, and headlined with Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, and a reunited Rage Against the Machine. Other acts included Immortal Technique, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, The Roots, EPMD, Pharoae Monch, Jedi Mind Tricks, Erykah Badu, MF Doom, Sage Francis, Brother Ali, The Coup, Blue Print, Lucky I Am, Living Legends, Felt, Cage, Mr. Lif, Grouch & Eligh, and Hangar 18.
Departure from Sony
Having fulfilled their contractual obligations with Sony Music, Cypress Hill will release an as-yet untitled album through a different record label in 2008.
Recently, it was announced that Cypress Hill will be members of the Kannabis Kartel along with the Kottonmouth Kings and Potluck. Their album will be released on Suburban Noize Records.
STYLE
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Production
One of the band's most striking aspects is B-Real's exaggeratedly high-pitched nasal vocals, which fits and emphasizes the lyrics' concentration on parodied gangster stories.
Sen Dog's lyrics are progressively more violent and tend to involve fewer rhyme schemes compared with B-Real's. In addition, as the style is today, some words are emphasized by adding a background voice to say them, however, Sen Dog's emphases are always more prominent, mostly shouted alongside with the rapping.
The sound and groove of their music, produced by Muggs, is also notable for its influence and stoned aesthetic; with its bass-heavy rhythms and odd sample loops ("Insane in the Brain" is notable for having a horse neigh looped in its chorus), it carries a psychedelic value, which lessened in the later albums.
The band is also known for involving rock instruments in their songs. This has caused the band to sometimes be classified as a rapcore group. In IV, there is Lightning Strikes which doesn't truly use electric guitars, but a synthesized version of it. Skull & Bones has an entire disc using such instruments, labeled Bones. As for their later works, their involvement in rock ended with the album Stoned Raiders (the tracks Trouble (also the first single of the album), Amplified and Catastrophe being the songs).
The band's music is constantly subject to change; while the first album follows a more minimalistic and funky sound, Black Sunday, the successor, has a slightly darker side to it. III (Temples of Boom) and IV are mostly influenced by psychedelic music. The band abandoned that on Skull & Bones and got closer to the modern rap as it is today. Stoned Raiders has a more authentic sound than the rest, and Till Death Do Us Part carries reggae influences.
The band is also known to involve horns in their songs, and often have guitar and horns together in the instrumentals. What's Your Number?, Trouble, Tequila Sunrise, and (Rock) Superstar have become some of the bands most popular songs featuring these elements. Cypress Hill's experimenting in different genres of music even includes reggaeton in their track "Latin Thugs" which features Tego Calderon.
Some fans feel that the band has drifted somewhat from the values of their earlier albums. For example in "Strictly Hip Hop" from Temples of Boom, the band complain about hip hop artists who have an album of hardcore tracks but have one or two pop songs which just so happen to be the singles. Cypress have arguably fallen into this trap with the single "What's You Number?"
The sound contribitions of DJ Muggs seems to be clearly influenced by marijuana consumption. Since one of the effects of a cannabis high is an altered audio sensual perception, the often slow paced and deep bass can be better appreciated. Furthermore, psychedelic sequences underly some parts of certain tracks such as "I Wanna Get High" for example. This is an interesting feature of their music, that had also been used before, especially during the 60's and 70's (e.g. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles).
Lyrics
The lyrics of tracks like "How I Could Just Kill A Man" offer an insight into the cultural expression of social stratification in L.A. at that point in history. Many other songs have cited topics such as police brutality, racial profiling, gang violence and anecdotes about invasion of privacy by police.
Furthermore the celebration of marijuana consumption is what they are often associated with in songs like "I Wanna Get High", "Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk" or "Hits From The Bong", the themes of recreational use of marijuana are prevalent.
Many of their songs also protest the current marijuana laws and voice their opinions on the hypocrisy of drug enforcement institutions.
Their lyrics often reflect the hip hop culture of Los Angeles in their earlier work such as their self-titled album and Black Sunday, which were very influential not only to Latino hip hop of the time but to many other hip hop groups around the world as well.
Throughout their career they have commonly incorporated Spanish into their lyrics as well as slang used by some Latinos in Los Angeles on songs like "Latin Lingo". Their album "Los Grandes Exitos En Espanol" features Spanish translations of many of their hit songs.
Years active 1987 - present.
Real Estate
Cypress Hill Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A duck with the public's favorite rhyme order
I ain't no waiter or hater of a spectator (Kill 'em B-Real)
Seekin' to find the toys, with no flavor
See I'm talkin' about those whose vocals ain't coming off
A skill to kill at will, but awfully dumb of course
Some go nut, the power of the last one
Slower, flower, blower
'Cause he needs a G when you listen to the vocal
I'm not a loco but I'm lookin' just 'til punk go ohh
Now you can't see I'm real great?
Check out the story to the glory of the real estate
All these motherfuckers that want to run up on the Hill
(Step off!) You know why?
This shit is all about boo-yaa ('Cause I said step off!)
This is the crime you find you're not an exponent
Doggone it, another gonna mierda on it
Now you're wishing, fishing you could do this
But on the strength, yo, I think you knew this
Was just like a dream, where you're supreme, the king
Of a minor league team, bro
Off of 47, swung a load of eleven
Got hit with a pitch like a bitch and went to heaven
Weak ducks, ducking and bucking
Saying fuck it, ain't worth damn pay the ducats
From my public, my favorite subject, I loves it
So go 'head, talk your punk shit
Suckers, you're nothing, frontin' like a cock chocker
Crack smoker, can we adjust we choker
Oh, now you can't see I'm real great?
Check out the story to the glory of the real estate
Another soft pussy motherfucker
Another fly verse
Straight from the deficit
Another scripture of B-Real
Yeah, get funky, Real
This is the Lower Eastside of things
You know what I'm saying? Cypress Hill
You ain't flamboyant, a toy boy on it
Ain't paid a plot, for un-em-be-ployment
I won't 'cause yo I got a lot of what I gotcha
Plus I taught ya, the beat on the top of
Everything you know, still you can't do no
Damage or duel though hey yo, 'cause I'm uno
The Real is the b-est, sport and you can see this
G-ness dialogue, of the real skiers
I ain't nothing like a joke, get stoned, get smoked
And choke off, the hypes I cook off
The dialectic, funk-elistic
Chew slower or become another statistic
Oh, now you can't see I'm real great?
Check out the story to the glory of the real estate
Yo I told you to keep down brother
The motherfuckers just don't learn nothing G
Wake up Hill
They gotta keep going to school
So they keep going out
'Cause they're just not Real
Yeah that's right fool
Test the master pass, kick your ass
And feel combustion, for the dope blast
'Cause you're stepping on my property, get off it G
Get caught up, then you get shot up
See, violators will be prosecuted
By the reputed, undisputed, Cypress unit
Not so, no there's no sellout
You ain't got enough ducats to shell out
Well I'm in front, and yo I feel great
Check out the story to the glory of the real estate
Yeah, roaches come in but they don't come out G
Don't come on the Hill
That's right
The song Real Estate by Cypress Hill has a raw, gritty feel with its aggressive delivery, pounding beats, and lyrics that take aim at those who lack the authenticity and skill to be real in the rap game. The first verse focuses on those whose rhymes are bland and unoriginal, lacking any flavor, while the chorus warns any wannabes that try to step up to the Hill to back off, as they will not be able to handle their realness.
B-Real's verse continues to put down fake rappers, using clever wordplay and aggressive rhymes to prove his greatness. He boasts about his skills and puts down those who try to talk tough but cannot deliver, using violent imagery to show his dominance over any potential rivals. The song ends with a warning to anyone who would try to challenge Cypress Hill on their own turf, promoting the idea that they are the real deal when it comes to rap.
Line by Line Meaning
Yo it's time to hurt her, sorta like murder
It's time to take action, like committing murder
A duck with the public's favorite rhyme order
Someone who lacks real talent and is only popular because of their gimmick
I ain't no waiter or hater of a spectator (Kill 'em B-Real)
I'm not someone who watches from the sidelines and criticizes, I take action and get things done
Seekin' to find the toys, with no flavor
Looking for the people who lack skill and originality
See I'm talkin' about those whose vocals ain't coming off
I'm talking about the people whose lyrics and delivery are not working
A skill to kill at will, but awfully dumb of course
They have the ability to make good music, but for some reason they can't
Some go nut, the power of the last one
Some people go crazy for the one in power
Slower, flower, blower
They are getting high and taking it slow
Those who ain't pros I wet my stupid radio
The people who aren't professionals annoy me and I don't want to hear them on the radio
'Cause he needs a G when you listen to the vocal
Because you need to have some street knowledge to understand what is being said
I'm not a loco but I'm lookin' just 'til punk go ohh
I'm not crazy, but I'm waiting for someone to mess up so I can call them out on it
Now you can't see I'm real great?
Don't you see that I'm talented and successful?
Check out the story to the glory of the real estate
Take a look at my success story and how I made it big
All these motherfuckers that want to run up on the Hill
All these people trying to compete with me and take me down
(Step off!) You know why?
Back off because you're not a real threat
This shit is all about boo-yaa ('Cause I said step off!)
This is all about aggression and being the best
This is the crime you find you're not an exponent
If you can't keep up with me, you're committing a crime against yourself
Doggone it, another gonna mierda on it
Damn, another person trying to mess things up
Now you're wishing, fishing you could do this
Now you want to be like me and do what I'm doing
But on the strength, yo, I think you knew this
I think you already knew that you couldn't do what I'm doing
Was just like a dream, where you're supreme, the king
It's like a dream where you're the best, but in reality it's not true
Of a minor league team, bro
You're only the best in a small group, not in the big leagues
Off of 47, swung a load of eleven
They hit the ball and scored 11 runs off of pitch number 47
Got hit with a pitch like a bitch and went to heaven
They got hit with a pitch and it was a weak hit, resulting in an easy catch
Weak ducks, ducking and bucking
Weak people, avoiding confrontation
Saying fuck it, ain't worth damn pay the ducats
They give up and don't want to put in the effort
From my public, my favorite subject, I loves it
I love pleasing my fans, it's my favorite thing to do
So go 'head, talk your punk shit
I challenge you to talk trash and see what happens
Suckers, you're nothing, frontin' like a cock chocker
You are nothing and pretending to be something you're not
Crack smoker, can we adjust we choker
You are a drug addict and need to quit before it kills you
Another soft pussy motherfucker
Another weak person who can't handle things
Another fly verse
Another great verse of music
Straight from the deficit
Coming from a negative situation
Another scripture of B-Real
Another great piece of music from B-Real
Yeah, get funky, Real
Let's get the party started, B-Real
This is the Lower Eastside of things
This is where real talent comes from
You ain't flamboyant, a toy boy on it
You're not flashy or talented, just trying to fit in
Ain't paid a plot, for un-em-be-ployment
You're not contributing to society or yourself, just wasting time
I won't 'cause yo I got a lot of what I gotcha
I won't do what you're doing because I have plenty of real talent
Plus I taught ya, the beat on the top of
I taught you how to create the best beats
Everything you know, still you can't do no
Even with all that knowledge, you still can't create great music
Damage or duel though hey yo, 'cause I'm uno
You can't compete with me because I'm the one and only
The Real is the b-est, sport and you can see this
My talent is the best and it shows in everything I do
G-ness dialogue, of the real skiers
The real musicians know how to speak and what to say to each other
I ain't nothing like a joke, get stoned, get smoked
I'm not someone to mess around with or underestimate
And choke off, the hypes I cook off
I shut down all the over-hyped music and focus on the real stuff
The dialectic, funk-elistic
The true, original sound of funk music
Chew slower or become another statistic
Slow down and take your time or you will become just another failed musician
Test the master pass, kick your ass
Try to keep up with me and I will beat you
And feel combustion, for the dope blast
The music is so good it's like an explosion
'Cause you're stepping on my property, get off it G
You're trying to compete with me on my own turf, back off
Get caught up, then you get shot up
If you try to mess with me, you will get destroyed
See, violators will be prosecuted
I won't hesitate to go after those who try to compete with me and fail
By the reputed, undisputed, Cypress unit
I have a reputation for being the best and my music speaks for itself
Not so, no there's no sellout
I never compromise my values or talent for money
You ain't got enough ducats to shell out
You don't have enough money to pay for my services
Well I'm in front, and yo I feel great
I'm the best and it feels amazing
Check out the story to the glory of the real estate
Take a look at my success story and how I made it big
Yeah, roaches come in but they don't come out G
I'm like a roach motel, musicians come to me but they can't leave without gaining real talent
Don't come on the Hill
Don't try to compete with me, you'll never win
That's right
I'm always right
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: LARRY MUGGERUD, LOUIS M. FREEZE, ULPIANO SERGIO REYES
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind