Cypress Hill is currently gearing up to perform its classic 1993 album Black Sunday at this year’s Rock the Bells Festival in its entirety. In preparation for the gigs, the quartet spoke with Reebok Classics about how they musically approached the album, which spawned the singles “Insane in the Brain” and “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That.”
“What we did on the first album, musically, Muggs took to another level on Black Sunday and we followed with what that was,” said B-Real. “We sort of tailor-made everything. We never just take beats and put raps on them. We made sure that it was the right shit for the right beat, because we wanted to make songs and we wanted to make stuff that would stick. Make anthems.”
After their eponymous ’91 debut failed to catch on, the group picked up some steam after they got placements like “Shoot ‘Em Up” on the Juice soundtrack, released in ’91.
“Black Sunday built from the momentum of that first album catching fire late, and then the fact that we followed through with some good music, from beats to what Sen Dog and I were rolling on top of that music. It all just came together,” he continued. “The first album was out there for six months, seven months, eight months, and it was dead in the water. But when they flipped ‘Kill a Man,’ it gave us a whole new life. That record started to build up momentum and then the Juice movie came out and blew it up. That was already when they would be writing you off if you didn’t click in about six months.”
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