For over three decades, legendary hip-hop group Cypress Hill (B-Real, Sen Dog, DJ Muggs, Eric “Bobo” Correa) has been churning out hits for the charts, but on their own terms and in their own way. And it’s worked.
With a musical flavor that’s catchy, provocative, and raw, Cypress Hill continues to contribute meaningful material to the hip-hop genre and now can add a documentary to its resume.
When connecting with High Times via phone, the group shares background information on their new Showtime documentary, Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain, their latest studio album, Back in Black, and an overview of their esteemed career that has them thoroughly cemented as hip-hop’s unofficial cannabis ambassadors.
HIGH TIMES MAGAZINE: How did Cypress Hill come together, and what was the inspiration behind everybody joining the group?
B-REAL: We knew each other as teens and were all enthusiastic about hip-hop. We all had the same love and passion for it.
I met Sen Dog through his brother Mellow Man who I knew through the hip-hop circles in South Gate. We met DJ Muggs through our childhood friend Julio G, who was also a DJ, and we met Bobo a little bit later when we were touring with Beastie Boys. But Sen, Muggs, and myself have known each other since our teens, and we wanted to emulate the hip-hop groups that we looked up to. We made our best efforts to—as a hobby—get into the culture and all of that stuff. Eventually, we started taking it more seriously. [Hip-hop] became something that we knew that we could do and would do, so we ventured out into the world to try and make a name for ourselves.
ERIC “BOBO” CORREA: When I met the guys—B-Real, Sen, and Muggs—I was a fan. I had never heard a group that was outright talking about smoking weed. They were talking about what they normally do. I don’t think they sought to be the spokesperson for cannabis or anything, especially at the time when it was much more taboo than it is now.
I remember the first time I heard them. I was in college, , . I was really tripping out because, again, no one in hip-hop at that point was really outwardly rapping about weed. If it was mentioned, it was mentioned, but when you say “stoned is the way of the walk” or “light another,” you’re outright putting it down.
