Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 08/13/1991
Run Time: 46:54
It's hard enough to transform an entire musical genre --
Cypress Hill's eponymous debut album revolutionized
hip-hop in several respects. Although they weren't the first Latino rappers, nor the first to mix Spanish and English, they were the first to achieve a substantial following, thanks to their highly distinctive sound. Along with
Beastie Boys and
Public Enemy,
Cypress Hill were also one of the first
rap groups to bridge the gap with fans of both
hard rock and alternative rock. And, most importantly, they created a sonic blueprint that would become one of the most widely copied in
hip-hop. In keeping with their promarijuana stance,
Cypress Hill intentionally crafted their music to sound stoned -- lots of slow, lazy beats, fat bass, weird noises, and creepily distant-sounding samples. The surreal lyrical narratives were almost exclusively spun by
B Real in a nasal, singsong, instantly recognizable delivery that only added to the music's hazy, evocative atmosphere; as a frontman, he could be funny, frightening, or just plain bizarre (again, kind of like the experience of being stoned). Whether he's taunting cops or singing nursery rhyme-like choruses about blasting holes in people with shotguns,
B Real's blunted-gangsta posture is nearly always underpinned by a cartoonish sense of humor. It's never clear how serious the threats are, but that actually makes them all the more menacing. The sound and style of
Cypress Hill was hugely influential, particularly on
Dr. Dre's boundary-shattering 1992 blockbuster
The Chronic; yet despite its legions of imitators,
Cypress Hill still sounds fresh and original today, simply because few
hip-hop artists can put its sound across with such force of personality or imagination.
~Steve Huey, All Music Guide
;)
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