A Word On Hip Hop

white liberal guilt. i am charged with such justly. BUT!

 

I have studied the very aspect of hip hop like the white liberal should and managed to find black bands who liked RUSH (fishbone,king’s x, living colour)

 

 

hell i was al jolsonfor a day.

 

 

i have no vanilllla ice wet dreams but i will jam with b-real SomeTIME!

CYPRESS HILL – HOW THEY COULD JUST SAVE THEMSELVES

CYPRESS HILL – HOW THEY COULD JUST SAVE THEMSELVES

Cypress Hill were born of necessity in the desperate violence that surrounded them. Guns, death and drugs hummed like an ice cream truck while two young men were hustling and fighting — avoiding their poetic talents. B-Real and Sen Dog (birth names in hip hop are like calling John Wayne “Marion”) were LA’s finest Latino-Afro stereotypes in many ways until they decided that their observations in 4:20 chats were going to change the world. Their hostilities and their desire to medicate them with weed became a poetic genre worthy of folk music.

When I saw B-Real in a diner once, he was the one who spoke to me. All he said was:

“I didn’t get a gun to kill cops. You ever had your niece raped by a crackhead and the cops don’t show up for 3 hours and he’s laughing at the cum stain on her stomach?”

I looked at the shaved poet and thanked god he had a good weed source. He got a gun to kill; he bought a bag of herb to keep it unloaded.

Plagued with Cheech and Chong stereotypes, Cypress Hill actually were documentarians worthy of Dylan when it came to their roots. Hooking up with DJ Muggs made them unstoppable and from their inception in 89 the Hill were rivaling PE and NWA for their purity and inventiveness. Their infatuation with herb was a necessity considering the polarity of their violent message. “How I Could Just Kill A Man” would be a great doctor’s note for medical marijuana indeed.

When Cypress Hill were brave enough to bring Rage Against The Machine on the road it proved several cultural points wrong. A socio-cultural agenda based on urban politics that ranged from economic injustice to marijuana reform – the tour was an amalgam of everything that had suppressed the rainbow of people who were enthralled by this nameless noise and fraternal interplay that rivaled jazz fests of the 40s. This was a generational plea for evolution AND retrospect. Cypress Hill were brave enough to let the evolution be their responsibility.

Bong hit breath boys
We watched 2pac too
This is heart wrenching and severe
We saw you as Schooly Cobain
Please maintain the former

Let your herb guide you
This is muse/ic
This is hibernation deferred
The holiness of your intent is eager and misinterpreted
Loops linger and
The moon, the eye of god, winks in time…

-Maurice Doubleday

Blunt lessons in HIGH TIMES paved the way. B-Real’s afro sheltered brain guided us thru the intricacies of hollowing out a Phillies and filling it with the chronic. A brand of weed so potent that Dr. Dre titled his major solo debut the same. Yet, CH were hauling blunts in their flannels up a glock sheath. These were American rude boys in the tradition of Peter Tosh and the like. Sen Dog, a stout Panamanian with lyrical prowess joins B-Real in a wordplay that sounds more like MY DINNER WITH ANDRE than PE. This posse mentality formed a fraternity that captured people. Onstage or on the street, they were un-fuckable.

Sen Dog left briefly to form SX-10. His association w/ RATM inspired him to break from the economic and special constraints that premeditated sampling and form a hard rock band that combined the Doors with Jane’s Addiction. B-Real did not ignore this and soon SX-10 and CH were the hippest Brady Bunch to jam in LA. Recording double albums and re-arranging old tunes w/ the new band, CH reached a plateau similar to Parliament’s association with Funkadelic. Guns and weed remaining their muses, CH entered the millennium with a history and body of work that rivaled their idols and surpassed their peers.

The onset of “live” hip hop goes way back to artists like the Gettovetts and PE’s association with Anthrax. RATM, of course, defined the genre. But, CH, keen motherfuckers that they are — began associating with rock/rap and nearly perfected their sound. With loops from DJ Muggs premeditating rhythmic murder, the sound of a real band behind the greatest duo since Sam and Dave came to life after a gestation that was nearly as beautiful….

To avoid the benefits of what Cypress Hill has done is to avoid cultural evolution. No hip-hop entity has embraced their environs with such finesse in history. With Muggs’ experiments, the further association with live musicians, and the new depth and integrity of their thematic concerns – CH has entered the rap Valhalla that is run by the old school they attended and studied by the new one they birthed….