Hi,
This is the first hiphop review I've written, so it might be a bit
crap... it's just my opinion, but if you're interested in Cypress Hill
you should read it anyway.
Let me know what you think.

PS: I wrote it for our school's newspaper. You can skip the first
paragraph if you want - it's basically an introduction to Cypress Hill
(if I got any facts wrong, please correct me, cos the article hasn't
been printed yet).


snip----


Cypress Hill IV: Return of the Buddha Monks?

Having always been a fan of Cypress Hill I was especially excited when
their latest album, simply entitled 'Cypress Hill IV', hit the shelves
on 5th October. The rap crew from LA got famous in 1991 for their debut
album 'Cypress Hill', which is still a must-have for any serious hip-hop
head and has to be one of the best west-coast albums ever published. The
Hill is not only known for its quality music, they were also the first
rappers to openly advertise the joys of smoking weed and great uproar
was caused by DJ Muggs when he lit a joint during a live TV show in the
US. However, the smoke seems to have got into their heads and after the
first album, the quality of their music has been decreasing steadily.
Their second album 'Black Sunday' had some great songs on it, but I
found it slightly repetitive and the downfall of Cypress Hill continued
with a terrible third album entitled 'Temple of Boom'. Still hoping for
some miracle to happen I watched the group closely, read every article,
listened to every interview on the radio and even went to their concert
in London this September. Everything sounded very promising with Cypress
Hill DJ and producer Muggs announcing that their new album would be
something completely different with new styles and a more funky flavour
to it - something Cypress Hill was famous for in 1991.

All hyped up by the media I got the album the day it came out and popped
it into my hi-fi: The first song was quite impressive with a cool beat
and tight lyrics (explicit as ever). "Looking Through The Eye Of A Pig"
Hmm, where have we heard that before? Anyway, the rest of the album is
original - if you don't count all songs about smoking spliffs of course
- and the beats go well with B-Real's crazy vocals. Muggs did some
amazing mixing and altogether I think he kept his promise - Cypress Hill
IV shows some major improvements. About 6 or 7 songs on the CD are
disappointing in that they don't offer anything new, but the remaining
10 tracks are very varied - sometimes the speed goes up to 120 bpm which
is unusual for hip-hop and Muggs is very imaginative with the background
instrumentals (check out Lightning Strikes - it features electric
guitars!).

Unfortunately Cypress Hill will never live up to their first album and
'Cypress Hill IV' just doesn't offer a great consistency - there are too
many fillers and too many songs 'to get blunted to'. Another thing I
have to criticise is how the Hill keeps on contradicting itself. There
was a very comprehensive and positive article about the weed-loving rap
crew in "The Independent" a few weeks ago (go figure...) and Muggs
proudly stated, that "Everyone was talking about niggers and bitches...
We offer something different." I almost laughed when I listened to "IV"
which has got either word in the chorus of every second track. On the
song "Can You Handle This" (only released on the "Tequila Sunrise"
single) they diss Wu-Tang for just talking about competition and
rational weapons, while Cypress Hill, on the other hand, is all about
the "Mary Jane shit". Funny that there's a whole song on "IV" dedicated
to the Magnum pistol ("Steel Magnolia")

Verdict:
If you're a fan, you'll like this album, but if you're looking for
quality hip-hop, you should check these out first:

Less aggressive hip-hop:
Jurassic 5 - Jurassic 5
Aceyalone - A Book Of Human Language (hard to get in the UK, but perhaps
the best rap album of 1998)

And if you don't mind bad language:
Gang Starr - Moment of Truth
Black Star (Mos Def & Kweli) - Black Star

Favourite tracks: Checkmate, Prelude Of A Come Up, Tequila Sunrise,
Audio X

Rating: 3 out of 5

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        Have a nice day!  -  Sebastian Stein