Cypress Hill — Cypress Hill

In 1971, the Cuban family of Senan "Sen Dog" and Ulpiano Sergio "Mellow Man Ace" Reyes emigrated to the US and initially lived in South Gate, California. In 1988, the Reyes brothers form the hip-hop group DVX (Devastating Vocal Excellence) with NYC-born Lawrence "DJ Muggs" Muggered, yet a member of the hip-hop group 7A3, and Louis "B-Real" Freese. When Mellow Man Ace chooses to persue a career as a solo artist, the group changed their name to Cypress Hill, after a street in South Gate. After recording a demo in 1989, the group deals with Ruffhouse Records and releases this historical West Coast debut in 1991.

B-Real holds the reins of this record in his hand with his youthful rapping with which he expresses aimlessly themes, writing incomplete, mediocre, sometimes meaningless lyrics and mainly focused on being against the police, on not joking with him and on weed, dominant theme and main reason why this effort was the favorite of the stoners at the time (Dre and Snoop haven't arrived yet) and will be a favorite in the following years.

The rest is light-hearted braggadocio with which this nasal-sounding MC and his hype man Sean Dog (clearly less skilled than his friend) have fun over the music provided by DJ Muggs. B-Real is at his best in career, but he's far from being considered one of the best artists in his field, this album is considered a classic by most fans and not only — remarkable Rolling Stone that slaps this record a cursory 3/5 and then raises to 4.5/5 in its Guide — but in reality it's kept firmly on its feet by the excellent production of DJ Muggs: he catches amazing and dusty funky samples building minimal and dark rhythms, slow, with dirty bass, which are a perfect carpet for the two rappers.

Without bangers, it achieved moderate commercial success, reaching the gold record in a few months, then the platinum in 1993, and in 2000, it was certified double platinum. In the end, they aren't the first Latin artists to release an album (Frost, "Hispanic Causing Panic"), they aren't the first artists to drop Spanglish bars (Mellow Man Ace, "Escape From Havana") and they aren't even the first Latin artists to have achieved a good commercial success, merit that still goes to Mellow Man Ace, founder of Cypress Hill in 1988 who then embarked on a solo career, in any case is a good debut.

Highlights: "Pigs", "How I Could Just Kill a Man" (classic), "Hand on the Pump", "Real Estate", "Stoned Is the Way of the Walk".

Rating: 7.5/10.