Cypress Hill 1st Interviews (week 1) B-Real & Sen Dog 1991 (very rare) Viacom Cable TV #25 SF, CA.

Interview conducted at the Reyes family home on Cypress St., South Gate, California. Nov.1991 Cypress Hill is from South Gate, California. They are the first Latin-American hip hop group to have sold multi-platinum and platinum albums, having sold over 20 million albums worldwide. They are considered to be among the main progenitors of West Coast hip hop and hip hop in the 1990s. The group has been critically acclaimed for their first 5 albums. All of the group members advocate for medical and recreational use of cannabis in the United States. In 2019, Cypress Hill became the first Latin-American hip hop artists to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Senen Reyes (also known as Sen Stiff or Sen Dog) and Ulpiano Sergio Reyes (also known as Mellow Man Ace) are brothers born in Pinar del Río, Cuba. In 1971, their family immigrated to the United States from Cuba. They initially lived in South Gate, California. In 1988, the two brothers teamed up with New York City native Lawrence Muggerud (also known as DJ Muggs, previously in a rap group named 7A3) and Louis Freese (also known as B-Real) to form a hip-hop group named DVX (Devastating Vocal Excellence). The band soon lost Mellow Man Ace to a solo career, and changed their name to Cypress Hill, after a street in South Gate. After recording a demo in 1989, Cypress Hill signed a record deal with Ruffhouse Records. Their self-titled first album was released in August 1991. The lead single was the double A-side "The Phuncky Feel One"/"How I Could Just Kill a Man" which received heavy airplay on urban and college radio. The other two singles released from the album were "Hand on the Pump" and "Latin Lingo", the latter of which combined English and Spanish lyrics. The success of these singles led to the album selling two million copies in the US alone. Cypress Hill contributed the song "Shoot 'Em Up" to the soundtrack of the movie Juice. The group made their first appearance at Lollapalooza on the side stage in 1992. Black Sunday, the group's second album, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 1993, recording the highest Soundscan for a rap group up until that time. Also, with their debut still in the charts, they became the first rap group to have two albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 at the same time. With "Insane in the Brain" becoming a crossover hit, the album went triple platinum in the U.S. and sold about 3.26 million copies. The band headlined the Soul Assassins tour with House of Pain and Funkdoobiest as support, then performed on a college tour with Rage Against the Machine and Seven Year Bitch. In 1993, Cypress Hill also had two tracks on the Judgment Night soundtrack, teaming up with Pearl Jam (without singer Eddie Vedder) on the track "Real Thing" and Sonic Youth on "I Love You Mary Jane". The group later played at Woodstock 94, introducing new member Eric Bobo, son of Willie Bobo and formerly a percussionist with the Beastie Boys. Cypress Hill played at Lollapalooza for two successive years, topping the bill in 1995. They also appeared on the "Homerpalooza" episode of The Simpsons. Prior to Bobo joining the crew, Panchito "Ponch" Gomez sat in as a percussionist when not acting. Their third album III: Temples of Boom was released in 1995, the album was certified Platinum by the RIAA. Cypress Hill also contributed a track "I Wanna Get High" to the High Times sponsored Hempilation album to support NORML. On July 25, 2008, Cypress Hill performed at a benefit concert at the House of Blues Chicago, where a majority of the proceeds went to the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness. In August 2009, a new song by Cypress Hill, titled "Get 'Em Up", was made available on iTunes. The song is featured on the Madden NFL 2010 video game. In November 2009, a new version of the Guns N' Roses classic "Paradise City" performed by Cypress Hill, Slash and Fergie was made available as a bonus track to Slash's single "Sahara" from Slash's solo album Slash. Cypress Hill's eighth studio album Rise Up, features contributions from Everlast, Tom Morello, Daron Malakian, Pitbull, Marc Anthony and Mike Shinoda. The album was released on Priority Records/EMI Entertainment, as the group was signed to the label by new Creative chairman Snoop Dogg on January 15, 2010. The album was released on April 20, 2010. The song also appeared in the trailer of the movie The Green Hornet. On June 5, 2012, Cypress Hill and dubstep artist Rusko released a collaborative EP entitled Cypress X Rusko. Also in 2012, Cypress Hill collaborated with Deadmau5 on his sixth studio album Album Title Goes Here, lending vocals on "Failbait". In August 2017, Cypress Hill's "Ain't going out like that" was featured as a trailer soundtrack for Netflix's Narcos Season 3. On September 28, 2018, Cypress Hill released the album Elephants on Acid, which saw the return of DJ Muggs as main composer and producer. In April 2019 Cypress Hill received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Added 21 Oct 2026