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Cypress Hill Classics: B-Real & Sen Dog On The Making Of 10 Key Records
If there’s one thing Cypress Hill’s eighth album, and first in six years, Rise Up, shows about the South Gate, California crew, it’s that they continually are evolving. The first Latin hip-hop group to ever go platinum has musically incorporated various genres like reggae and rock, released a Spanish-only album, and done songs with Damien Marley and Tim Armstrong of Rancid. Their new album finds them collaborating with Jim Jonsin, Marc Anthony, and Mike Shinoda, in addition to working with their long-time producer, DJ Muggs. Going on 20 years strong, Complex got B-Real and Sen Dog to tell us the stories behind the making of 10 Cypress Hill classics, from their first album in 1991 to the present…
As Told To Toshitaka Kondo
“PIGS” FROM CYPRESS HILL (1991)
B-Real: We were in South Gate coming back from a house party and we went to Jack-In-The Box. I had a dark blue 520 Cadillac Seville sittin’ on McLeans. It was gangsta. Straight up. I was using the phone booth and they decided to come harass me. Some of them were high school football guys and they didn’t go anywhere else but to become a local cop. We knew them, so we weren’t intimated by them. We’d be like, “Fuck you, you third stringer. You couldn’t even make LAPD” And they were trying to gang up on me. It was about five or six cops. We looked like thugs so they basically treated us like thugs. But I wasn’t doing nothing. I didn’t have no weapons, no weed. [They said,] “What are you doing here? Put your hands on the car?” I’m like, “What the fuck you mean? What did I do that I got to put my hands on your car?” They’re like, “Don’t create a problem.” I’m like, “You’re gonna arrest me for fuckin talking on the phone?” Then they were grouping around me and I was like, “What? You gonna jump me in front of all these all these people in Jack In The Box? Go head! The first one that jumps out at me, I’m knocking him out! I don’t care if I get beat up the rest of the way. You guys better call your on-duty sergeant or something because we got a problem.” The sergeant comes on the scene and asks me what happened. And I told them exactly what happened. And he told those guys to let me go and to apologize.
Sen Dog: B-Real was pretty pissed. When I rolled up to my house, he was sitting in front of my mom’s house in his car. I rolled up in my driveway and I walked up to him and I was like, “Hey what are you doing?” And he goes, “I’m writing a song about the pigs!” He had this look on his face. When I came back outside the house, he was like, “Listen to this!” That was actually one of the later songs that we recorded during the first album because either Muggs or I reminded him about the poem he wrote about the pigs. It was right around the time we did “Latin Lingo” because that was one of the last songs we recorded for that album. I remember having the first rough of the album, “Pigs” and “Latin Lingo” wasn’t on it. It wasn’t until we went back in with Joe The Butcher, the owner of Ruff House Records, came out to L.A. to hear the final. We recorded “Pigs”. Then we flew out to Philly to mix and master the album and that’s when we came up with “Hole In The Head” and “Latin Lingo”.
He laid it down to this funky track Muggs had come up with. And then we started to build the concept for the song more deeply around that. Names were changed, but where we grew up, a lot of people knew each other and what not. A lot of these cops would try to chase the same chicks that we chased. And chicks knew everything because what do men do? They talk to women. So we were connected back in the days. We knew exactly what those guys were up to, they were no different than us. They just wore a gun and a badge to work and we didn’t. But you know, B was swift with the pen. And they gave him a creative spark and they paid the price. And those guys know that song is about them. They have to know. [Laughs.]
“HOW I COULD JUST KILL A MAN” FROM CYPRESS HILL (1991)
B-Real: That was one of the first five songs that came out the box. It was actually comprised from three different songs that had lines that Muggs liked in each song. Muggs came up with the beat and he said, “Man, say that one line from this song on this song.” So I started saying it. Then he said, “Okay, now put the verse from this other song after that.” So we pretty much pieced it together like a puzzle. [The little “All I wanted was a Pepsi!” vocal sample at the end] was off a Suicidal Tendencies record. We didn’t end up sampling the record. What we did was we had one of our boy, Dante Areola, who actually created the logo for Cypress Hill, say it at the end so we didn’t have to deal with sample clearance.
Muggs had a little pre-production lab in his apartment so we did all our demos there and we’d be smoking out as usual. He had an apartment out here in Hollywood. He lived with DJ Aladdin of Low Profile. WC, Coolio, Aladdin, and Crazy Tunes were in one bedroom doing the Low Profile album while Muggs, Sen Dog, and myself were in another room doing demos for Cypress Hill. So it was a pretty trippy time. We were real close with those guys. The Funkdoobiest guys were originally from our camp. So it was all of us and them together in one apartment partying out, going over songs, and watching Muggs and Aladdin practice their DJ battle moves. And then Prince Whipper Whip and Grandmaster Caz and those guys from the old school days lived in the same apartment structure. We would see them and blaze up with them. Ice-T every now and then would show up. Eventually when we got in the studio, it was the same thing. Only we were a little bit more selective because we didn’t want to be wasting time and money on shit we didn’t like. So whatever we liked from Muggs’ bedroom, that’s what we took to the studio and eventually laid.
[The videos for] “Kill A Man” and “Hand On The Pump” were filmed back to back in New York because we were on tour with Naughty By Nature and we started to get a lot of momentum with “Kill A Man,” so Sony pulled us off the tour for two days to go film that video. We broke in New York first. No one knew we were from L.A. We were called Cypress Hill and there’s no place in L.A. called Cypress Hill. I mean, there’s Cypress Ave, Cypress City, and shit like that. What was synonymous with our name was Cypress Hill, New York. So a lot of people thought we came from there. Plus Muggs was from Flushing, Queens. So, musically we had an East Coast flavor on the beat so people had it confused.
“HAND ON THE PUMP” FROM CYPRESS HILL (1991)
B-Real: All of our shit started in Muggs’ bedroom man. There was probably one song that was created outside of that environment once we got our record deal. Maybe it was “Hole In The Head” and “Latin Lingo,” those were the two last songs that we recorded for that first album. And those were the only two that were created in a studio and not in Muggs’ bedroom. We were pretty much all together all the time. He’d either be saying, “Hey you should fuck with this.” Or we’d hear something where we’d be like, “Hey let’s fuck with that.” We always threw ideas at each other. Really, he was the one for the vision for the music and how he wanted those tracks to sound. We’d just pick the ones we liked.
“Hand On The Pump” was a co-write. My man Brett Bouldin from 7A3 had the original concept. Him and I started writing the song together. The beat came first, then the chorus, and then we wrote the rhymes around the structure of the chorus. We wouldn’t cut any vocals until we got to the actual studio. [Muggs] would finish it at home, get it to where he wanted it, and then if he felt like he needed to add anything after he would add it after we do the vocals. Every session we all did it together, we were always together. Hanging out and throwing ideas at each other. Smoking and drinking and trying to create a vibe. So pretty much every track went down like that.
“THE PHUNCKY FEEL ONE” FROM CYPRESS HILL (1991)
Sen Dog: “Phunky Feel One” was created in Muggs apartment in Hollywood. Muggs would sit there in that apartment and make beats all day. And when B and I would get there, he would have cassettes of music waiting for us. We heard the track in the apartment and that’s when we started working there. B-Real’s opening lyric is, “Well I’m the real one, yes the funky feel one.” So we were like, “We gotta use that.” It wasn’t hard to figure out the hook after that line. Our thing was we had a producer in Muggs that made everything funky and we wanted to capitalize on that. And during the break in the song, that was really funky, and along with the funky feel you got after you smoked a joint, it was that kind of vibe. To be, it was what the band would be about. I guess the whole funky vibe. The whole funky Cypress Hill shit that started taking form there.
One recording place we went to a lot back in those days was Paramount Recording and I think it was on Santa Monica Blvd. They were little studios that weren’t highly expensive. It was mostly heavy metal people and hip hop people there. I think that’s when we first put that song down on 2-inch reel back then. I’m pretty sure that’s where “Funky Feel One” went down there.
“INSANE IN THE BRAIN” FROM BLACK SUNDAY (1993)
B-Real:[Muggs] wanted to get outside of working at home, so he started working in [American Recording in North Hollywood]. He came up with the beat and called me like, “Hey I got something.” He played it for me and we just started fucking with it. Muggs and I came up with the chorus and we told Sen how to do it. And eventually Sen wrote his verse. We were so pressed to finish this album and we were rushing it the whole fuckin time. We were just trying to make the best songs possible and see what stuck to the wall once we threw it up. I did not foresee it becoming the single that it did. When [the label] picked it as the lead single I thought they were crazy. I was trying to pick harder shit. I was trying to go with “We Aint Going Out Like That” first. I thought it was a good song but I didn’t know that it was worthy of being a single. I called it wrong, that’s for sure. But I’m not a record company guy so I couldn’t possibly know what they were trying to market. I didn’t argue with them. I was like, “Okay, if that’s what you guys think.” I don’t pick the songs I just write them. So I’m not going to claim credit for that at all.
Sen Dog: Those were the mushroom days. [Laughs.] I might be wrong but I want to say we recorded that in New York or Mugg’s house in Hollywood Hills. The first time I heard B-Real say the chorus, I knew exactly how to back it up. I just put a lot of emphasis on it to make it real loud, make it unmistakable. Make it a chant that could be around the world, make it universal. It was simple. When we’re in the studio and I’m listening to B-Real drop his vocals, I’m already thinking of ideas. Like, “What could I do if he wants something on the background vocal tip?” I want to have something ready to go in case he asks me. If I hear something that I just got to put on there, I’ll just put it on there myself.
“THROW YOUR SET IN THE AIR” FROM III: TEMPLES OF BOOM (1995)
B-Real: When Muggs gave us the track I thought it was a real ominous type song. It sparked the idea about talking about how a kid gets recruited into a gang. I get the concept and ideas when I hear certain tracks. Tracks say certain things. I don’t mean like a dog, like you hear a fucking dog talking on some psycho shit. It’s just the vibe of the track will take me where I need to go as far as the idea for writing it. The idea I had for it was a kid getting recruited into a gang. Once I got the story down, it kind of came easy. We borrowed from what say most hip hop heads would say in a live show like, “Throw your hands in the air, throw them around like you just don’t care.” We changed it to throw your set in the air, representing your neighborhood. That’s how that came about.That was definitely in Muggs studio. That was when he built up a studio in his crib where he had moved to later. We started in that little ass apartment doing the demos with just a four track, his turntables, and a boom box. After Black Sunday, he went and got a new crib and put in a nice studio and we started working on Temple of Boom from there.
[Ice Cube] was working on the Friday movie while we were working on Temple of Boom. We played him some songs from the album, he heard it and only him. He liked “Throw Your Set In The Air” a lot and asked if he could use that for the Friday soundtrack. We told him that it would be our lead single and that we couldn’t give it to him. He heard it again and the next thing you know he had [“Throw Your Neighborhood In The Air”], a song that was like it [on the Friday soundtrack]. In retrospect we should have gave it to him. And it all started from there. It was meant to happen the way it happened.
“BOOM BIDDY BYE BYE (FUGEES REMIX)” FEATURING THE FUGEES FROM UNRELEASED AND REVAMPED (1996)
B-Real: We toured with [Wyclef], and we were label mates, and we talked about doing something. When this came up, it was the most natural thing. So we just took advantage of the time that we had and knocked it out. He came to Muggs spot. I wasn’t there when he was there. He came into town briefly and knocked it out. We came back, heard it, and loved it. When we mastered it, I don’t remember where, but I know he was around for that. I saw him then. And we eventually filmed the video for that.
Muggs was just vibing on some shit and we happened to be there. We liked the beat and we started messing with it. It was a little bit more relaxed than what we like to do, but it was so moody and it had a vibe. Muggs had moved and built a better studio in his pad in Hollywood. Like a full blown professional studio, not a pre-production lab. A lot of the music we were doing then for Temples of Boom, we were doing at his house. And when we were mastering it, that’s when we’d take it to an actual spot. For that particular album, despite all the success we were having, we were pretty pissed off. We were just trying to knock the album out. Just because you’re huge doesn’t mean your not going through some shit personally with family and friends or even in the streets. We were all going through different things at that time because of the success we were having. So we were pretty much in a fuckin’ dark place. I think that’s why that album came out as dark as it did.
Myself, I was going through shit with my friends that I had lost from the neighborhood that were really close to me as I was doing my career. Topped off with the relationship I was going through with the woman I was with. I mean, there was a lot of turmoil going on within the band and management at that time. We weren’t getting along with our management. It was a trying time. But we had so much momentum musically we couldn’t let personal issues and things fuck up what we had worked so hard for.
“DR. GREENTHUMB” FROM IV (1998)
Sen Dog: Back in those days we were working in a place called American Recording in North Hollywood. That one right there is one of the classic B-Real weed anthem songs. That’s one of those songs when I heard it all I had to do was lace with a little background vocals. That was one of those songs that was undeniable the first time you heard it. To me it was one of those songs that doesn’t need much else on it than what’s on it. Maybe a little fuckin’ spices and stuff like that. It was basically done in my opinion. I could listen to it one time and know what I needs from my end. And it’s always good to have the other person’s point of view to see what they hear. I just have them rely to me what they hear other than what’s on there.
“(RAP) SUPERSTAR AND “(ROCK) SUPERSTAR” FROM SKULL & BONES (2000)
Sen Dog: I think that song come about from just watching people. Like B-Real says in one of his verses, “Gimmie him a year and he’ll be gone.” Something like that. What’s that line? “Soon as the next kid, just like the last one.” We always been able to handle success and whatever fame we gotten. We’ve always been able to handle it very well. In my opinion, we all remained humble cats. But we’re also very observant and we seen countless assholes come and go. They’re here for a second and they think they’re the second coming of Elvis. And you see how their personality lays out, who they hang with, who they’re photographed with. The business will use you up and spit you out. And I seen it a lot of times with really good musicians, too. But those people were just flavor of the month for that time.
We turned in “Rap Superstar” and I wasn’t on that song. I think what happened when that first one was done, that was back in the day. I had just got married. And I was off on a honeymoon vacationing in Mexico. They were still working while I was out spending money on my ex-wife. The story that I heard, it was the label that requested that we put a guitar on it and have me rap on it. And I went ahead and rapped on it. The personality of the group was to have a song that these hip hop kids will relate to, but also something these alternative kids could relate to. So we tailor made them for each section. Crazy mosh pit heads, here’s your version. Hip hop heads, here’s your version. I think that was a stroke of fuckin’ genius. Both versions are cool but when I heard the version with the guitar it peaked my interest way more. I get energy to that style of instrumental. I don’t know why but I think I’m a better writer when I have some rock and roll music to write from.
“IT AIN’T NOTHIN’” FROM RISE UP (2010)
B-Real: We felt it was a strong enough song so we wanted to put it out there to start getting the momentum and hype behind the record. We recorded that in the beginning process of the album. I have my own studio called The Temple in Chatsworth, California, where we probably did 80% of the recording. It took us two and a half to three years to record [Rise Up], so somewhere in-between that time. That beat was kind of inspired by a KRS song that he did in a LUGZ commercial, “Get Yourself Up.” When I heard that beat I was like, “That shit is fire.” When I started chopping this beat up it had that same kind of jump to it as that particular KRS-One track.
I sat on that one for a while. We liked it, but I didn’t have any real vibe to it as far as writing to it. It started off real simple, just a drum and a beat. I wasn’t sure I was going to use it. I played it for Sen Dog and Bobo and a couple of other people and they said, “Hey man, you should use this track.” After we wrote to it, that’s when we started adding other elements to the beat. Muggs will put the skeleton of the beat together, the foundation, and then have us come write and spit and then he’ll start adding all the other little elements that make up the track. I learned that from him. So basically I utilized that little bit of education that I got from him in making the tracks that I make.
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