Cypress Hill

Thrasher Magazine, June, 2004 by Aki X

DJ MUGGS WAS LIKE "Look, it's that muthafucka from Thrasher!." A quick minute back, I was over in the San Fernando Valley at DJ Muggs' studio for the listening party of Cypress Hill's new album 'Til Death Do Us Part. It was Rolling Stone and us, and I certainly was repping Thrasher correct. I had stitches in my eye, a swollen black and blue forehead and cuts all over my face. And that was from partying and spinning the night before at Skaties? No wonder Muggs kept his baseball bat in hand while his pitbull mean-mugged me all funny. As Shelblack shot Cypress outside, I posted up in the studio and blazed an el with Soul Assassin Chase Infinite and listened to Mugg's new Eminem track he was remixing for his Power 106 radio show. After a green minute I sat down with Muggs, B Real and Sen Dog, exchanged mix CDs and rapped about the new album featuring banging tracks like "Latin Thug," produced by the Alchemist; "What's Your Number," the new single with the Clash sample "Guns of Brixton;" and a thumping Tony Kelly dancehall track with Damian Marley. West Coast bounce to this, West Coast smoke an ounce to this.

B REAL

What's up B Real?

Oh, just getting ready to release this album and start the Cypress Hill machine back up.

So talk about the new album.

We got together about a year and a half ago and started recording a bunch of stuff, mainly hip-hop in the beginning. At some point in the recording process I felt we needed to change direction as far as the production goes; you know, experiment with different-sounding shit. One of the things that came about was the reggae.

I used to live in Brixton, and I see you sampled the "Guns of Brixton" for the new single. You got Tony Kelly on there too.

Yeah.

Is this the first time you moved into recording dancehall?

Well, it's always been a big influence on us so it's only natural to go in that direction and see how we would sound over that shit. So when Muggs gave it to me I automatically knew what it was. The Clash, right? Everybody knows that. So we fucked around and came up with the track. After we did that song it gave us more confidence to move on to other tracks like the Tony Kelly track. It gave me the confidence to deliver the shit over that type of music.

So this is the first time you flowed over a reggae beat?

Yeah.

You record in Jamaica or in LA?

We recorded it here in LA. We didn't have time to go out to Jamaica.

The "Latin Thug" track is taking things back to your roots.

We'd been wanting to do that for a while. We've been experimenting with a lot of new stuff; in music, when you got ideas, you got to give them a shot. Whether they work or not you never know until you lay the track down.

Any plans to do a Latin dancehall track?

They've been doing that shit in Puerto Rico. I am definitely familiar with it, so yeah.

You've got Prodigy on the album. You a big Mobb fan?

Yeah, I have been all the time. They come with hardcore reality shit. It sounds good; the way they instrument their tracks is good.

Did Muggs do that beat or was it Alchemist?

Muggs did that.

How do you anticipate the reaction when the album comes out?

I think a lot of people are going to be really surprised. Some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it, but for the most part people will find something on it they like. There is something for everybody on there.

Who you feeling from the West Coast?

The only thing I like from the West Coast is what Dr Dre does or Westside Connection, And Snoop Dogg, Daz Dillinger. There's a shortage of talent out here. It's hard right now 'cause the East Coast and the South are running hip-hop now, so it's hard for any LA artist to even get out there.

Who you feeling from the South?

I like David Banner, Bone Krusher. I didn't really like it before but it's grown on me.

Shouts?

Big up to everybody out there who supported throughout the years. Big ups to Tim Westwood in London. Big ups to Thrasher and the skateboard industry for always being there behind us.

Shouts to Block?

We go way back. He photographed lots of moments in our career. He's basically one of us.

SEN DOG

How goes it?

Thrasher magazine, my favorite magazine. Yeah, dog.

Who did the beat on the "Latin Thug" track?.

That's Alchemist right there. NYC Alchemist; we been wanting to work with him for a long time. He's one of our kids. Al came down and busted a couple of tracks on the album, which is cool 'cause we had him since he was 12 or 13 years old. Now he's all established as a big-shot hip-hop producer.

How do you feel about the new album?

I feel good about it 'cause my bandmates feel good about it. When the band, management and the label are happy, you know you're doing something right. On this album we threw everything out of the window. We had no set game plan; we didn't do what the record company executives wanted us to do. We just did what we felt. For a long time we'd been wanting to rhyme over some Jamaican beats.

How did you hook up with Tony Kelly?