"Insane In The Brain" is the name of the first single and video clip from Cypress Hill's new Ruffhouse/Columbia album, Black Sunday. It's also a warning: that when it comes to the Cypress Hill crew, crazed intensity is more than skin deep; it's a state of mind and a way of life. Cypress Hill -- visionary rappers B-Real and Sen Dog, and DJ/Producer Muggs -- are back again and explosive as ever. The group's self-titled Ruffhouse/Columbia RIAA platinum debut album of 1991 has sold more than 1 million copies to date in the US, establishing them as one of the most popular as well as hardest hitting, musically innovative, hip-hop acts on the planet Earth. The Cypress Hill album remained in the upper reaches of the Billboard's Pop Album chart for over 73 weeks, earning the group the Billboard Music Award for Best Rap Artist. That's a hard act to follow, but B-Real and company remained cool under pressure. "When it came to Black Sunday, people asked 'can we top the last one,' you know? What we did was take all those questions about making a follow-up and asked ourselves that shit." "With everything that had been going on this year, we felt we should have made this album months ago but we were doing a lot of shows and that took time away from doin' the album. We were kind of frustrated that we hadn't started yet, because we were so eager to make this record. We came up with a lot of dope shit that we felt topped the last one. So being that we were hungry to do it, it brought out the best when we finally got to record." They continue, "The new album is named Black Sunday because its whole vibe is ominous. The album was recorded in Muggs' native New York in early '93. (Revisit the LP, the press release continues below)...
"Insane In The Bran" features a hydraulic bass groove and pounding beat being strafed by braying screeches -- classic Cypress Hill. "I wrote "Insane In The Brain" about when people come to our concerts they lose their mind in the adrenaline of it all. It's also talking about some of the people on the street, who are just crazy motherf#ckers." "When The Shit Goes Down," the B-side to "Insane In The Brain," and second video, is also cautionary. Cypress Hill may be stoners, but don't think for a minute they're sleeping. The rap is a reminder for everybody out there to be ready when the going gets rough. "It's saying, 'don't sleep,' because if you sleep and let somebody get the drop on you, whether it's in the business, sports, rap, or out on the street fighting, you just gotta be ready for anything." Muggs cooks up an ultra-funky mix of scratchy deep fried soul guitars and fat bass licks. "Ain't Goin' Out Like That" opens with looped feedback, giving way to saxophone screeches, a jazzy bass figure and crackling drums. B and Sen's raps reprise some of the rhymes from the debut album that helped establish them as the hardest and smartest hip hoppers on the street, promising more of the same and then some this time around. In addition, Black Sunday includes special new, never commercially available versions of "A to the K" (the original appeared on the Juice soundtrack) and "Hand On The Glock" (a radical remodeling of "Hand on the Pump"). In order to make the album more readily available to Cypress' younger fans, there will be a clean, unstickered version. - Press Kit '93.
