Back in 1991, I was still learning a lot about rap music, though
\nI enjoyed it very much (and still do). I still remember the first
\ntime I heard Cypress Hill: it was on a sampler that Sony Music had
\nsent me. I had plowed through the tape up to that point, when
\n“Pigs” kicked in. Its interesting choice of samples, the delivery
\nfrom B-Real, Sen Dog and D.J. Muggs (complete with a nasal,
\nsneering delivery of the vocals) and an overall sense of humor
\n(even though the subject was a bit dark) was enough to convince me
\nto drop the 10 dollars on their debut album.<\/p>\n
Seven years later, their self-titled debut album is as
\npolitically incorrect and enjoyable as ever. While you might cringe
\nat lyrics glorifying violence and marajuana use, Cypress Hill does
\nbreak some new ground in rap music for their originality (not to
\nmention the occasional raps in Spanish).<\/p>\n
“Pigs,” a song slamming the police (and, if you listen closely,
\ndeclaring one cop to be cool to the rappers), is not as
\ncontroversial as Body Count’s “Cop Killer” was, but I detected a
\nsarcastic edge to the song that almost added a humorous aspect to
\nthe song. It’s almost as if they weren’t serious about what they
\nwere saying.<\/p>\n
The same can’t be said about their glorification of marajuana,
\nespecially on tracks like “Light Another” and “Stoned Is The Way Of
\nThe Walk”. You know some parents groups are eventually going to
\nclaim that songs like these make their kids want to smoke dope.
\nSorry, Granny, but if Junior is that impressionable that a
\nrecord<\/i> is going to tell him what to do with his life, hold
\nhim back a few years in school… or better yet, let natural
\nselection take its course and let the herd thin itself out.<\/p>\n
Ahem, excuse me… don’t know what got into me there…<\/p>\n
Anyway,
\nCypress Hill<\/i> does have your traditional leanings toward
\ngangsta rap (“Hand On The Pump” and “Hole In The Head”), but for
\nthe most part, this is rap music that glorifies getting stoned and
\nhaving a good time. (Well, one out of two ain’t bad.) The fact is,
\nonce you get past the messages, this is simply fun music to listen
\nto, and B-Real and Sen Dog know how to create a verbal rhyme that
\ndances on your eardrums. Don’t agree with the message behind the
\nsong? Simple: don’t listen to it.<\/p>\n
This album turned out to be a stepping stone for Cypress Hill
\n(who would get their first chart-topping album and hit single with
\ntheir follow-up release) as well as a high-water mark they would
\nhave a tough time bettering. (The repetition of ideas on the
\nfollow-up release
\nBlack Sunday<\/i> emphasizes this.)<\/p>\n
Critics of rap music will poop all over this album (which,
\nunlike some rap acts, doesn’t seem to belittle women, and keeps the
\nsex talk to a minimum). Damn the critics, I say, and fire up (oops,
\nforget I said that)
\nCypress Hill<\/i> a few times in the tape deck. This album proved
\nthat this threesome was onto something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7469],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39139","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-cypress-hill","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39139"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}