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
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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.
Tequila Sunrise
Cypress Hill Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Pa' la salud primero yo
Primero usted
Ay
Cómetelo joven
Cómetelo jajaja
Aquí estoy con mi barrio, listo a hacer feria
Colectando queso allá en México
Donde el sol quema duro y baja despacio
Tengo mis camaradas y todo esta bien
Tengo una mansión en tierra que mide cien
Y todos se den cuenta vengo a hacer tranzas
Con mucha libra aquí estoy pa' La Raza
Me ven en mi ranfla con todos los hierro
Cuidando mi negocio con todo mi perro
No trates nada tengo mis soldados
Espíritu asesino, vienen preparados
Raperos desperados es nuestra tema
El dicho de nosotros A¿agarra la crema
Tequila Sunrise, con los ojos rojos, un día vamos a morir, escandaloso
Nunca conocí dinero así, en mis manos
Hasta que conocí un camarada como hermano
No importa donde miro tiene a todos asustados
Corriendo por cubre, con mas que vende 'marrados
Pero como un querieron me enseno la foto grande
Así vendiendo drogas jamas, nunca andes
No como rateros que no entienden, no comprenden
No pases anos torcido con placas en tu frente
Entiendes
Me dio una copa y tome, el sabor malo del gusano
Mejame dándome lecciones
Me cacheteo y dijo Mira, eres mi mejor paisa pero nunca me miras
Has lo que digo y te hago rico chico
Ratas duermen en hoyos, no me cruces o te pico
Que no se te olviden las reglas del juego
Te van a conocer hasta que quemes en el fuego
Mujeres falsas y dinero no va
Como tomando, manejando, mi hermano te mataran
Quédate alerto a lo que esta alrededor
Esas cosas que te dije van a ser tu matador
Tenlo todo en orden la plata no va a parar
Recuérdate de mi y siempre vas a ganar
Tequila Sunrise, con los ojos rojos, un día vamos a morir, escandaloso
Tequila Sunrise, ayayay
Tiempo vuela rápido, hijo y by surprise
Mi vana se murió y a mi me dejó
Capitán de las movidas aquí digo yo
Trágate el gusano cabrón, soy el matón
Si no me matas te mato a ti como un ladrón
Confía en nadie, vengo pa' tras
Y jamas me cruces a mi porque yo tengo más
Me recuerdo lo que dijo Jesús
Si quieres el dinero, paisa, tienes que ser primero
Que te peguen mis palabras, esta listo pa' morir
A todo tiempo, porque si no vas a sufrir
Tequila Sunrise, con los ojos rojos, un día vamos a morir, escandaloso
The lyrics to Cypress Hill's song "Tequila Sunrise" depict the life of a drug lord in Mexico and the dangers that come along with it. The singer talks about his gang and the success they have had collecting "queso" (money) in Mexico. He also talks about his luxurious life, including a mansion and a fancy car, and his "soldados" who protect his business. However, the singer warns of the danger that comes along with the drug game, including the possibility of violence and death. He also talks about learning the hard way and being taught lessons by a mentor who helps him become successful but also reminds him to stay alert and be ready to die at any moment.
Overall, the song conveys a sense of danger and excitement, as the singer navigates his way through the drug world and tries to stay ahead of his enemies. The tequila sunrise mentioned throughout the song symbolizes the beauty and danger that life can offer, with the sunrise representing the hope of a new day and the tequila representing the dangerous allure of drugs and the lifestyle that comes with them.
Line by Line Meaning
Pa' la salud
To health
Pa' la salud primero yo
I prioritize my health above all else
Primero usted
You go first
Ay
Oh
Cómetelo joven
Eat it, young one
Cómetelo jajaja
Eat it, hahaha
Aquí estoy con mi barrio, listo a hacer feria
I'm here with my neighborhood, ready to hustle
Cartel Cypress Hill esta en tu área
The Cypress Hill gang is in your area
Colectando queso allá en México
Collecting money over there in Mexico
Donde el sol quema duro y baja despacio
Where the sun burns hard and sets slowly
Tengo mis camaradas y todo esta bien
I have my comrades and everything is good
Tengo una mansión en tierra que mide cien
I have a hundred-acre mansion
Y todos se den cuenta vengo a hacer tranzas
And everyone knows I'm here to make deals
Con mucha libra aquí estoy pa' La Raza
With lots of cash, I'm here for the Hispanic community
Me ven en mi ranfla con todos los hierro
They see me in my car with all my weapons
Cuidando mi negocio con todo mi perro
Protecting my business with all my dog
No trates nada tengo mis soldados
Don't try anything, I have my soldiers
Espíritu asesino, vienen preparados
Killer spirit, they come prepared
Raperos desperados es nuestra tema
Desperate rappers are our theme
El dicho de nosotros A¿agarra la crema
Our saying is 'take the cream'
Tequila Sunrise, con los ojos rojos, un día vamos a morir, escandaloso
Tequila Sunrise, with red eyes, one day we will die, scandalous
Nunca conocí dinero así, en mis manos
I've never known money like this in my hands
Hasta que conocí un camarada como hermano
Until I met a comrade like a brother
No importa donde miro tiene a todos asustados
No matter where I look, everyone is scared
Corriendo por cubre, con mas que vende 'marrados
Running for cover, with more than just selling illegal drugs
Pero como un querieron me enseno la foto grande
But as a friend, he showed me the big picture
Así vendiendo drogas jamas, nunca andes
Selling drugs like this, never walk around
No como rateros que no entienden, no comprenden
Not like robbers who don't understand
No pases anos torcido con placas en tu frente
Don't spend years twisted with a criminal record on your forehead
Entiendes
Understand?
Me dio una copa y tome, el sabor malo del gusano
He gave me a drink and I took it, with the bad taste of the worm
Mejame dándome lecciones
He kept giving me lessons
Me cacheteo y dijo Mira, eres mi mejor paisa pero nunca me miras
He slapped me and said 'Look, you're my best friend but you never look at me'
Has lo que digo y te hago rico chico
Do what I say and I'll make you rich, boy
Ratas duermen en hoyos, no me cruces o te pico
Rats sleep in holes, don't cross me or I'll sting you
Que no se te olviden las reglas del juego
Don't forget the rules of the game
Te van a conocer hasta que quemes en el fuego
They will know you until you burn in the fire
Mujeres falsas y dinero no va
False women and money don't mix
Como tomando, manejando, mi hermano te mataran
Like drinking and driving, my brother, they will kill you
Quédate alerto a lo que esta alrededor
Stay alert to what's around you
Esas cosas que te dije van a ser tu matador
Those things I told you will be your downfall
Tenlo todo en orden la plata no va a parar
Have everything in order, money won't stop coming
Recuérdate de mi y siempre vas a ganar
Remember me and you will always win
Tequila Sunrise, ayayay
Tequila Sunrise, ayayay
Tiempo vuela rápido, hijo y by surprise
Time flies fast, son, and by surprise
Mi vana se murió y a mi me dejó
My woman died and left me
Capitán de las movidas aquí digo yo
Captain of the moves, that's me
Trágate el gusano cabrón, soy el matón
Swallow the worm, bastard, I'm the boss
Si no me matas te mato a ti como un ladrón
If you don't kill me, I'll kill you like a thief
Confía en nadie, vengo pa' tras
Trust no one, I'm coming from behind
Y jamas me cruces a mi porque yo tengo más
And never cross me because I have more
Me recuerdo lo que dijo Jesús
I remember what Jesus said
Si quieres el dinero, paisa, tienes que ser primero
If you want the money, my friend, you have to be first
Que te peguen mis palabras, esta listo pa' morir
Let my words hit you, you're ready to die
A todo tiempo, porque si no vas a sufrir
At all times, because if not, you'll suffer
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Missing Link Music
Written by: Larry Muggerud, Louis M. Freeze, Senen Reyes
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@justanadams9430
Cypress Hill Definitely Deserves To Be Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Class Of 2024 Along With Eric B. & Rakim.
@petragroselj1133
This aint rock and roll
@justanadams9430
@@petragroselj1133 they have rock in their music.
@rjxofficial2804
Good music won’t die cause we here to spread it
@socalsays
Classic timeless song
@og160
Cal7AMG keep it real homie
@iletaMarchita
insane man, this shit is as good as it was in 98
@zeb06tem
Like most of the Cypress songs 👍
@motv-independentthinkingfo3817
Sippin' My Gold Jose Cuervo Listening To Tequila Sunrise On This Beautiful February 25, 2024💯🙏🏾🔥
@501stproduction6
I broke my wrist not so fucking Beautiful is it independentthinkingfo3817