Getty Image / Al Pereira / Michael Ochs Archives
Cypress Hill was one of the driving forces of West Coast Hip-Hop in the 1990s.
They were a band that was instrumental in bringing me to the genre. I vividly remember the day my older brother gave me money and told me to ride up (on bike) to the CD shop in our neighborhood and pick up a copy of Black Sunday and it was one of those albums that changed your list from the first track.
Cypress Hill has been together since the late 80s! And they’ve stood the test of time. Case in point, their Tiny Desk Concert on NRP this week that includes “When the S— Goes Down”, “Hand On the Pump”, “How I Could Just Kill a Man”, “(Rap) Superstar”, and “Insane in the Brain.”
There are explicit lyrics in these songs so be forewarned if that’s something that bothers you.
I didn’t think NPR was going to be able to top this Summer’s Tiny Desk Concert from rapper Juvenile which also featured Mannie Fresh, Trombone Shorty, Jon Batiste, and others. But here we are. They keep bringing the hits.
One interesting development about this Tiny Desk Concert is the timing of it. Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog recently stated that the group would reunite with DJ Muggs. They would then hit the studio for an 11th album but that album would be the last of Cypress Hill’s career.
Sen Dog did add “Even though we’ll have one last album after Back in Black, you will stay hearing Cypress Hill material but we’re just gonna do things a lil’ differently.” So while retirement from the studio seems imminent, the days of fans experiencing their music seem far from over.
To stream ‘Black Friday’ in full on YouTube, it can be found here.