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Named to Washington Life magazine's Hot List September 2010

Monday, October 29, 2012

WASHINGTON POST EXPRESS
WEEKEND PASS COVER STORY


ARTS & EVENTS

Haunted Hill: When Hip-Hop Party Band Cypress Hill Performs Live, It Sure Does Light Up a Joint

Written by Washington Post Express contributor Alfredo Flores

CYPRESS HILL WOULD regularly perform on Halloween at the 9:30 Club. And why not? If the haunted holiday ever had its own theme song, Cypress' Sen Dog thinks it should be the band's 1993' mega-hit, "Insane in the Brain." "That should be played all day on Halloween," said Sen. "C'mon. It's the one day you can dress up and act like a freak if you want." The band is best known for its slow-rolling drum-and-bass loops and funky-stark grooves that have an eerily stoned feel. Cypress uses spooky effects, such as the sound of pouring raindrops, which go well with the band's gloomy album titles — "Black Sunday," "Temples of Boom," "Skull & Bones" — and their talk of paranoia, insanity, fearing the reaper, etc. And while dark themes rule on Halloween, Cypress Hill can also rock hard on tracks featuring high-energy, rapid-fire rock riffs. Cypress Hill is notorious for its live shows — stunts such as having a gigantic inflated Buddha doll as a stage prop and the band's percussionist Eric Bobo smoking out of an 8-foot-tall bong (dubbed King Arthur). Its lyrics deal with parodied versions of the violent street life of Cypress Avenue in South Gate, East Los Angeles, and, of course, the trio's obsessive advocacy for legalizing marijuana. Their vocals are just as eccentric with lead lyricist B-Real's (Louis Freese) exaggeratedly nasal high-pitched whine, and Sen's (Senen Reyes) mostly shouting his equally exaggerated deep booming "psycho beta tone" raps. The genesis of the polar opposite vocals came when the two were working on a demo. While the band's style and beats were well received, some weren't thrilled with B-Real's normal voice. "My voice didn't cut through the music like it should; it sounded average, nothing distinct about it," said B-Real. "I was asked to change it up, so I locked into that nasal vocal tone and Sen created the 'whoo-whoo' deep tones to complement mine. It was kinda like Public Enemy, but inside out." Indeed. Public Enemy's lead vocals come from the deep-voiced and physically imposing Chuck D, while Flava Flav sports giant sunglasses and a clock, and serves as comic foil. With Cypress, despite his high-pitched vocals, B-Real serves as the aggressor backing up the violent themes. "That's the dark humor about it," said B-Real, laughing. "I sound like a squirt trying to talk big. I think people trip out of it, because you have this crazy-ass voice talking some crazy-ass stuff. I think it was [an expletive] for people, but in a good way." Cypress' self-titled debut 1991 album had the bass-heavy, violent-filled "Hand on the Pump" and "How I Could Just Kill a Man," but it was the track "Hole in the Head" that featured the verse that would later become the chorus for "Insane." DJ Muggs (Lawrence Muggerud), whose production work was instrumental to the band's success, found inspiration in the title phrase and came up with the track's hypnotic beat. "When I heard Muggs' beat, I was like, 'Wow, this stuff is crazy,'" said B-Real. "It's like a magnet, a bounce — you go to the show and we could just picture everybody jumping, mosh-pitting, stage-diving." And that's just what the fans did, transcending Cypress Hill from buzz-worthy rappers to breakout superstars with the track and critically claimed 1993 album "Black Sunday." The album was loaded with odes to ganja and sprinkled with rock elements, initiating a strong following among rock audiences. "The imagery of our work has always been dark and mysterious like metal albums, and our attitude was real non-give-[an expletive]-ish like punk rock," said B-Real. "Our music was hip-hop at the base, though. After Run-DMC, we were the band in the forefront of making the hip-hop and metal connection." The trio's work in the hip-hop world alone has earned them the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors in 2008, the first for a Latin rap group. They've also become the first Latin rap group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums. "At the end of the day, we want to leave a strong legacy, and people can say Cypress was a kick-ass band," said Sen. Like its 2000 hit "(Rock) Superstar," the band continues to tour and party like rock stars, and its new album, "Rise Up" — the first in five years — is set to be released shortly. But after having sold more than 20 million records and approaching 20 years in the game, a rarity in hip-hop, how much longer can Cypress go? "People used to call us the Grateful Dead of hip-hop," said B-Real. "In about 10 years, they're going to call us the Rolling Stones of hip-hop." » 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; with Tabi Bonney, Phil Ade, Sat., Oct. 31, 8 p.m., $35; 800-955-5566. (U St.-Cardozo)

Thursday, October 25, 2012

WASHINGTON POST EXPRESS
WEEKEND PASS COVER STORY


ARTS & EVENTS

Old School Is In Session: Wu-Tang's RZA, Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa, Rock the Bells, at Merriweather Post Pavilion

Written by Washington Post Express contributor Alfredo Flores

This year's Rock the Bells festival is bringing it back to 1993, with an impressive slate of hip-hop greats set to perform classic records in their entirety. More than 20 acts throw down on two stages at Merriweather Post Pavilion Sunday: Lauryn Hill appears on her first tour in more than a decade, Snoop Dogg reprises the G-Funk era sound with Tha Dogg Pound, Q-Tip performs jazzy-infused hip-hop jams with A Tribe Called Quest, and hip-hop pioneers Slick Rick, KRS-One and Rakim re-enact their respective landmark '90s recordings. Hip-hop had a watershed year in 1993. A single two-week span in November of that year saw the release of three of the genre's most critically acclaimed and influential albums, all by Rock the Bells headliners: Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, and A Tribe Called Quest. "These albums are my some of my favorite albums," said Wu-Tang Clan's RZA. "It feels like a road map to hip-hop history, show people some of the hip-hop revolution." This year's lineup — the seventh time around for Rock the Bells — is arguably the festival's most ambitious. The tour marks the first time Wu's "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)," Snoop's "Doggystyle" and Tribe's "Midnight Marauders" are being performed straight through live. But it's not the first Rock the Bells for Wu Tang. Back in 2004 — when members of a divided Clan were notorious no-shows at their own concerts — a reunited nine-member Wu was the big draw for the inaugural RTB. Guerilla Union concert promoter Chang Weisberg had just pulled together the fledgling fest, encouraged by the fanatical reaction to hip-hop heroes Mos Def, Talib Kweli and others when they popped up for a few tiny, underground club shows in Los Angeles. Rock the Bells was a smash that first time out — in what also turned out to be the late Wu-Tang member Ol' Dirty Bastard's final performance. The fest now tours internationally, bringing together alternative and indie hip-hop artists with mainstream performers. It also birthed the offshoot SmokeOut music festival, where Cypress Hill's beginning-to-end performance of its seminal 1993 album "Black Sunday" was met with a tremendous response. So, it was only natural to take that concept and expand it for RTB. "I like what this tour is doing, bringing together the O.G.s of rap, the foundation of the '90s," said Wu-Tang's Inspectah Deck. "These songs are what influenced and inspired a generation of hip-hop." Nurturing hip-hop's next generation has been RTB's mission from the start, said Vinnie Paz of festival veterans Jedi Mind Tricks. "[Rock the Bells] provides a venue for independent hip-hop artists like us to open people's eyes," Paz said. "Because we don't have million-dollar videos doesn't mean we can't play. People often say, 'Yo, I never heard of these guys before, but their stuff is raw.'" Like Jedi Mind Tricks, Wu-Tang were once independent artists who combined mythological imagery with hardcore raps. The Wu found an escape from the violence of early-'90s New York City in their vision of feudal Asia. Their samurai daydreams — where honor was valued above all and wrongs could be avenged — converted Staten Island's Park Hill Projects into "Shaolin." Their grimy lyrics of anger and urban struggle were a judo chop to the decadent club-bangers that dominated late-'80s hip-hop. Gone were the flashy gold chains of the previous decade; in were the Wu, brandishing baseball bats along with piano loops, soul-music samples and kung fu-flick dialogue. "It was the sword style of rhyming, where your tongue is a sword — karate to the empire world. It came at a time when people were starving for a Wu-Tang song, people hungry for true hip-hop," explained Deck. "Put the Beatles and the Rolling Stones together and you might have close to what the Wu is capable of manifesting to the world," added Wu's Masta Killa. "There has never been a concert of this size and magnitude with so much talent from one source, one movement," said Wu's RZA in closing. "It's a historic concert I'm proud to be a part of, and I'm also proud to witness. That's how the RZA feels. Bong bong." » Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, Md.; Sun., doors open at 11 a.m., $66-$150. 410-715-5550 begin_of_the_skype_highlighti