Three decades ago, B-Real, Sen Dog, and DJ Muggs sparked a trip that left popular culture stoned, stunned, and staggering in anticipation for more. Naming themselves after a local street in Los Angeles, Cypress Hill burst on the scene in 1991 with the release of their self-titled debut album. The singles “How I Could Just Kill a Man” and “The Phuncky Feel One” became underground hits, and the group’s public pro-marijuana stance earned them many fans among the alternative rock community. Cypress Hill followed their debut with Black Sunday in the summer of 1993, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200, garnered three GRAMMY® Award nominations, and went triple platinum in the U.S. As a result, Cypress Hill became the first rap group to have two albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 charts at the same time and are the first Latino-American hip-hop group to achieve platinum and multi-platinum success.
Since the release of Black Sunday, Cypress Hill have put out seven more albums including 2018’s critically acclaimed, Elephants on Acid. Cypress Hill made history once again in 2019 when the group was honored with their very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2021, Cypress Hill released “Champion Sound.” Produced by Black Milk, the single appears on the soundtrack of R.B.I Baseball 21 and is also the featured song for the band’s partnership with Montejo Cerveza.
2021 also saw Cypress Hill celebrate the 30th anniversary of their self-titled debut this year with a SONY reissue on vinyl, 7-inch box set, a reissue across all DSP’s that includes eight unreleased tracks, as well as a graphic novel and their very own STANCE sock. Cypress Hill continue to be busier than ever in 2022.
On March 18, 2002, the band released Back In Black to critical acclaim. In their review of the album, Kerrang declared it “solidifies their status as a collective still expanding upon their legacy.”
On April 20, 2022 Cypress Hill released their “Insane in the Brain” documentary, which is part of Mass Appeal’s “Hip Hop 50” franchise in partnership with Showtime. Upon its release, the New York Times said the documentary was “an often-engaging chronicle of the group”, while Variety declared “the Cypress Hill documentary should put into perspective their pervasive influence and groundbreaking, Latin-tinged hip-hop crossed with booming metallic rock.”
On July 10, 2024, Cypress Hill once again made pop culture history performing a historic show with the London Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall. Initially predicted by an episode of The Simpsons 28 years prior, the collaboration was brought to life in a sold-out, one-night-only event that showcased their revered Black Sunday album with an unforgettable classical crossover. Hailed by several publications as a piece of "hip hop history," Louder Sound noted that the group "sets a whole new standard for crossover."
About The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra (RIPO)
The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School is committed to engaging people of Southern New England as lifelong music listeners, teachers, learners, creators and performers. It is the only professional orchestra in the country to officially designate music education and performance as equal priorities. In addition to the Philharmonic Orchestra’s Classical, Pops, Education concerts and in-school performances, the RI Philharmonic Music School offers music education programs and performance opportunities to people of all ages, incomes and ability levels. Currently the largest comprehensive, non-profit community music school in Rhode Island, the Philharmonic Music School engages approximately 1,100 students statewide on a weekly basis at its music school in East Providence, with an additional 13,000 students through partnerships, residencies, music literacy programs and education concerts.
In December 2006, the RI Philharmonic moved its administrative offices to East Providence and in fall 2008 opened the Carter Center for Music Education & Performance, the first facility of its kind in Rhode Island. The Carter Center has dramatically increased the RI Philharmonic’s ability to provide high quality, comprehensive and accessible music education through its Music School to thousands of students through scholarships and community partnerships. Students come to visit the Carter Center from virtually every community in the state, as well as nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut.
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