Robbed Hit of the Week 1/19/20 - Cypress Hill's "Throw Your Set In The Air"...

"Throw Your Set In The Air" - Cypress Hill
from the album Cypress Hill III: Temples Of Boom (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #45

This week's "robbed hit" belongs to California stoner-rap group Cypress Hill, who had landed their biggest hit (and sole top-40 pop single) in the fall of 1993 with "Insane In The Brain". Two years later, rapper B-Real and Sen Dog along with DJ Muggs and just-hired drummer Eric Bobo released their third studio album Cypress Hill III: Temples Of Boom. The lead single was the track "Throw Your Set In The Air", which had the eerie samples and the gun references, but surely was more geared towards the stoner than the thug...

While "Throw Your Set In The Air" climbed to #11 on the Rap Singles chart in Billboard magazine, and #60 on the R&B list, the single stopped just short of the pop top-40 in October of 1995. Internationally, the record was an even bigger success, hitting #7 in New Zealand and reaching the top-40 in Sweden (#13), the UK (#15), Ireland (#19), and Australia (#29). At the Grammy Awards in 1996, the single was nominated for Best Rap Performance, Duo or Group, which went to Method Man & Mary J. Blige's "I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need"...

With "Throw Your Set in the Air" being accepted warmly by geek-rock love in the alternative rock press, the next single put out was "Illusions", which had made #31 on Billboard magazine's rap singles chart, #87 on the R&B chart, but missed the pop Hot 100 altogether (it "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #103). But the track did great in the UK, stopping at #23. Lastly, the reggae-influenced "Boom Biddy Bye-Bye" managed to scramble to #87 pop, #73 R&B, and #19 on the Rap Single tally.

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There was an alternate video filmed for the remix of the song...

And the group appearing live on TV in 1995...

And lastly, at a concert in 2019...