"When you really want to hear something different take a trip deep, deep underground and you will find Cypress Hill ominously lamping in a thick cloud of buddah smoke. The Cypress Hill experience is purely pscyho-delic. Imagine a rhythmic, progressive tribe vibe combined with ultraviolent gangsta grooves. The music is dark and murky yet it remains hard and funky at the same time. Cypress takes a straight-up uncompromising look at life in the urban battlefield with songs like "Pigs," "Kill A Man," and "Hand on the Pump." DJ Muggs, formerly of 7A3, provides the heavily blunted beats while MC's Senen (Sen Dog) and B-Real kick ballistics in a crazy offbeat and unorthodox style.... this slamming debut album is one of the best new albums of '91. It will definitely have heads nodding - and nodding out - this summer and beyond." - The Source (August, 1991). That's a big compliment when you consider the classic albums that were released in 1991: NWA "Efil4zaggin," EPMD "Business As Usual," Brand Nubian "All For One," De La Soul "De La Soul Is Dead," Gang Starr "Step In The Arena," Main Source "Breaking Atoms," A Tribe Called Quest "Low End Theory" and Naughty By Nature's self-titled album, just to name a few! Cypress Hill was also named "Artist of the Year - Group" by The Source in '92. The LA Times gave the album a mostly-favorable review, however they felt, "the tracks are built around the simplest of repeated patterns, as if the producers had just figured out how to work a sampler." I think they missed the mark, not understanding the true genius behind Muggs' production. Their debut LP was released on this day in 1991, revisit it below!
Copies of some of the press for Cypress Hill's debut in 1991...
