Songoftheday 12/10/18 - To da one on da flam boy it's tough, I just toss that ham in the fryin' pan like spam...
from the album Black Sunday (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15
Today's song of the day comes from the rap group Cypress Hill, who came together in the South Gate section of Los Angeles in the late 1980s. Led by Cuban-American brothers Sen Dog and Mellow Man Ace (with the latter leaving early for a solo career), the group added DJ Muggs and the man who would became their lead, B-Real (Louis Freese). The Latin hip-hop act released their self-titled debut album, and from it the lead single saw both "A" and "B" sides make the American pop chart with the aggressive "How I Could Just Kill A Man" going to #77, and "The Phuncky Feel One" slipping in at #94. However, neither of these tracks even made a dent on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, with the combination of their heritage and the stoner brand that turned off many R&B radio stations in that time, even though each track sported its own video. Nevertheless, the album reached the top-5 on Billboard's R&B list, and set the stage for college and alternative radio to embrace their sophomore effort. Black Sunday, which came out in the summer of 1993. The first single from the album, which debuted in the #1 position (a first for a Latin hip-hop act). would the the party anthem "Insane In The Brain". Written by B-Real, Sen Dog, and DJ Muggs over a handful of samples including a horse whiney from a 60s record, the production held a lot in common with House of Pain's "Jump Around", which Muggs also produced...
"Insane In The Brain" became Cypress Hill's first and only top-40 pop hit in September of 1993. The song climbed to #27 on Billboard's R&B chart (their first appearance there), and even made it to #16 on their Dance Club Play list, a sign of the different audience the track was cultivating. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#12), Ireland (#18), the UK (#21), and Australia (#40). At the Grammy Awards in 1994, "Insane In The Brain" was nominated for best Duo/Group Rap Performance, losing out to the obviously more commercial and artistic "Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" from Digible Planets (they would earn nominations the next two years as well, losing to Salt N Pepa and Method Man with Mary J. Blige).
The next single pulled from Black Sunday, "When The Shit Goes Down" (with "Shit" censored to "Ship"), wasn't released in America, but nevertheless got to #5 in New Zealand while hitting the top-40 in the UK (#19) and Ireland (#25). Meanwhile, the American follow-up, "We Ain't Goin' Out Like That", couldn't reach the widespread audience as their breakthrough, stalling at #65 on the American pop Hot 100 and #86 on the R&B list, though overseas again doing better, peaking at #6 in New Zealand, #15 in the UK, #19 in Ireland, and earning the trio their first top-40 hit in Sweden at #40. Lastly, the track "Lick A Shot" granted them a fourth top-40 hit in the UK at #20. Touring behind the album, the trio added instrumentalist Eric Bobo (Beastie Boys) as an official member.
Cypress Hill returned in 1995 with their third release III: Temple Of Boom. The album made the sales chart at #3, but the lead track "Throw Your Set In The Air" missed the top-40 on both the pop (#45) and R&B (#60) charts here in the States. But by this time mainstream airplay wasn't what they were aiming for, but rather the coalition of college stoners and inner city Latinos than were their loyal base. Also, overseas they were still hot, scoring a pair of top-40 hits from this as well as their fourth effort IV in the UK. In fact, the half-Spanish track "Tequila Sunrise" so far is their final Hot 100 pop hit at #70. When the group came back in 2000 with their Skull & Bones album that brought them back to the albums top-5, they included a song worked for different formats, with "(Rap) Superstar" going to #87 R&B, and "(Rock) Superstar" making it to #18 on the Alternative Rock radio format chart. Combined as one single in Britain, it became their biggest hit there, rising to #13. They continued in the rock vein for their next few albums - and in 2010 they rose to #20 on the rock list with their collaboration with Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morrello with the title track "Rise Up". Their most recent album, Elephants On Acid, arrived in the fall of 2018, but didn't manage to even make the top half of the chart at #120.
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Here's the group appearing live on Saturday Night Live to promote the album in 1993...
And later that year for an MTV-broadcast concert ("Insane In The Brain" comes on at 6:30)...
They made the crowd go wild at Woodstock '94...
And finally at the California Roots show in 2015...
Up tomorrow: Pop superstar has a choice word.
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