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Album Review
by SashaS
25-3-2004
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| Cypress Hill: till rap do us part |
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Cypress Hill: 'Till Death Do Us Part'
(Columbia)
Cypress Hill: frankincense of herbal politics
Halfway through their second decade, Cypress Hill have blended a couple of genres - most notably hard rock - with their Hip-hop. On the crew’s seventh album, ‘Till Death Do Us Part’, they’re tapping into a style that, given their well-known penchant for herbal-rolls, they should have explored long ago. Yo - reggae which, they admit, to have liked since their childhood.
Cypress Hill’s follow-up to 2001’s ‘Stoned Raiders’ isn’t all about toasting, relaxed rhythms, and rhyming with “mon”, however - there are only five reggae-derived songs, twice as many as straight Hip-hop or crossovers. The albums starts in a measured way, just checking the opposition but not blowing much larger. Then, track 4, ‘Ganja Bus’, finds da mob kicking into a gear where that elevating ride up the pleasure dome truly blasts in!
There is still a lot of combination of heavy riffs with their Hip-hop before rap-rock was institutionalised on the backs of bands like Limp Bizkit, such as ‘What’s Your Number?’ [featuring Rancid’s Tim Armstrong], the one song that is tied back to the guitar-based sounds of ‘Stoned Raiders’ and the double-album before it, 2000’s ‘Skull & Bones’.
Other guests on the album, featuring production by the Alchemist (Nas, Fat Joe), include Puerto Rican rapper Tego Calderon on ‘Latin Thug’, Mobb Deep’s Prodigy on ‘Last Laugh’ and Damian Marley on ‘Ganja Bus’. [Yeah, the latter is one of Bob Marley’s offspring.]
‘Another Body Drops’ and ‘Till Death Comes’ set the scene they know so well that is subsequently confirmed by the straight-up gangsta-rap of ‘Can‘t Stop The Gunshot’ before burning Latino-beats on ‘Latin Thugs’ and generally having spliffing time. Then, the matrix-expending section starts with ‘Ganja Bus’ reshaping reggae into Rap-hood [originally titled ‘Smoke it Up’, we are led to believe], ‘Busted In The Hood’ is a huge slice of dub; on ‘Street Wars’ and ‘One Last Cigarette’ they go Hollywood - i.e. cinematic.
More reggae-derived songs are ‘Bong Hits’, ‘Once Again’ and the single-peak ‘What's Your Number?’ that makes more sense on the album: the track is the altern-rap musical tribute and a Hip-hop ode to the Clash’s classic ‘Guns of Brixton’ which incorporates a backing track performed by a live band featuring Armstrong. The Bay Area punk guitarist lent his talents to the track after meeting the band through an introduction by their record company’s employee.
Formed in Los Angeles in 1988, the gangsta rappers combined subjects of injustice and politics with heavy advocating of marijuana usage and legalisation. They’ve always sounded so hardcore as if stoned since birth. Their legacy is inventing the rap-rock crossover; having sampled many a rock song, covered few of them and collaborated with variety of people, from Beastie Boys to Ice Cube, Fear Factory…
Cypress Hill here are at their finest. And, the phattest. Also, the farthest.
8/10
SashaS
25-3-2004
Cypress Hill album ‘Till Death Do Us Part’ is released 22 March on Columbia
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