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	Cypress Hill - Bio


	Well, I`m having a serious problem with this! We can`t be talking about the Soul Assassins without talking about Cypress Hill, right? But if you check Google or Alltheweb on the Hill, your head gets blown off with information. Does the world need another page on the Hill? I don`t really think so.

Others have done great work on this along time ago (the link-sector will be updated soon). But I got much love for the phunky Cypress Hill shit and for the work of Muggs, one of my favourite producers; without him the Soul Assassins would have never existed. So I want ya`ll to understand this as a little tribute to the Hill, not as a serious Cypress Hill Fansite! I´d rather concentrate on House Of Pain and Funkdoobiest but I will update this shit and make it grow, so let`s see what becomes out of it...

Cypress Hill - that`s B-Real (Louis Freese), Sen Dog (Senen Reyes), Bobo (Eric Coreea) and - last not least - DJ Muggs (Lawrence Muggerud). The crew formed in 1986 as “DVX” (Devastating Vocal Excellence) and consisted of Sen Dog, his brother Mellow Man Ace, Muggs and B-Real. They started off creating a completely new latin slang style. Mellow Man Ace left the crew in 1988 and started his solo-career until that Serial Rhyme Killers-shit initiated some kind of reunion in 2002.

In the mid 80`s it was not so sure, if B-Real ever would be able to make his way as a rap superstar. He was a member of the “South Central Blood Set Neighborhood Family” gang and ended up in the crack-traffic-shit. In 1988 he caught a bullet in his lung and was brought to Martin Luther King Hospital where Sen and Muggs encouraged him to go on with making music and writing rhymes. That`s what “Lick A Shot” is about: “Where did that .22 come from? When the bullet past through my lung I've lost my breath I'm winded I've been hit, by a slug that wasn't intended”.

Sen, B and Muggs renamed themselves “Cypress Hill” after a local street (Cypress Ave., south L.A.) where they lived and began to perform around L.A. which lead to a deal with Ruffhouse/Columbia and the first self-titled album.

The style was completely new and highly influential in the early 90`s. How can one describe this sound? Ya`ll already know. It`s that mixture of B`s exaggerated nasal voice kicking pro-marijuana lyrics, Sen Dogs raw, clipped lyrics, often echoing B, and the sound of mastermind Muggs; stoned funk, sometimes slow rolling beats, sometimes uptempo with simple but ill basslines and funky guitar licks. The singles “How I Could Just Kill a Man”, “Hand On The Pump” and “The Phuncky Feel One” became underground hits; over 2 Million copies were sold in the USA.

In 1993 the Hill released their second album “Black Sunday”; the single “Insane In The Brain” became a number one hit in the charts. “Black Sunday” was sold over 2 million times in the USA and over 3 1/4 million times in the whole world. The sound was similar to the sound of the debut but had a bit of a darker mood; together with all that skulls on the cover and that ill “Ain`t Going Out Like That”-video the “horror-core” image of the Hill was born.

By that time the Hill showed, that they were up to much more than just straight up rap music when they worked together with bands like Sonic Youth (“I Love You Mary Jane”) and Pearl Jam (“Real Thing”) on the Judgement Night-soundtrack.

In 1994 the Hill toured over Europe together with “Funkdoobiest” and “Lords Of The Underground” which was the shit, one of the best things in my life - been there, seen that!

In 1994 former Beastie Boys-percussionist Bobo (the son of salsa-legend Willie Bobo) became a member of Cypress Hill; one year later, the Hill`s third album “Temples Of Boom” was released. It reached platinum status, “Throw Your Set In The Air” became a hit-single.


	Well, and there were the words of Sen Dog in track 13 (“Strictly Hip Hop”) which struck my heart a little bit: “House Of Pain ain`t down with us!”. What was that about? Was the Soul Assassins-family about to fall apart?

Hell knows what was going on; it is reported that Muggs had disagreements with the House because of their wasteful lifestyle. In fact that time marked the end of the cooperation between the Hill and the House and also the end of the cooperation between the Hill and Funkdoobiest. Good thing to see that B-Real and Everlast have worked together several times meanwhile and that B and Son - together with Mellow Man Ace - form that Serial Rhyme Killers stuff together. So it`s still all in the family, right?

Back in 1996 it seemed not to be sure, if there would be a “Cypress Hill 4” or not. Sen Dog left the crew shortly after the release of “Temples Of Boom” - some say he felt he did not get enough mic time - and started working on several other projects; he was one of the executive producers of the Delinquent Habits and joined the punk-metal-band SX-10. B-Real joined the “Psycho Realm”-crew (Duke and Jacken) which led to the release of the self-titled album which is really some sick shit! Great stuff! Muggs worked on his solo-project “Muggs presents... The Soul Assassins” which was released to positive reviews in early 1997.

In 1998 the Hill “reunited”, Sen returned and Muggs produced “Cypress Hill IV”, which was released in October, to me a great album which reached gold status. 1999 the Hill worked at the Spanish album which also went gold. Well, and than there was that “Skull and Bones” double album set in 2000 (Rock/Rap Superstar), which featured a disc of hip-hop and a disc of their more rock-inspired stuff. In the winter of 2001, the group came up with “Stoned Raiders”, another album to heavily incorporate rock music.

It took some years for the Hill to show the world that they are still alive and kickin`. “Till Death Do Us Part” was released in March 2004.

By now the Hill has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide; garnered 15 multi-platinum, platinum and gold certifications from the RIAA.

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