Backstage at Lollapalooza, Cypress Hill's Sen Dog and B-Real roll another and tell HHC about the pressures of fame, being taken for a ride and introduce us to the new album. Meanwhile, over in London, Muggs emerges from the shadows to give us an exclusive peek into his world.
The summer sun is hot. The kind of hot that makes you want to roll back your head, close your eyes and let its rays drench your face. In the distance, we hear the anguished wails, searing guitars and pounding drum-fills of one of many indie bands, known as 'alternative' bands to their stateside audience. We weave through the clusters of fair-skinned adolescents, their bodies adorned with tattoos and oddly-placed piercings. A kid in sagging jeans and a skull cap is hawking 'shrooms and weed. Slowly, we make our way to the main stage of Lollapalooza '95. The site is Sacramento, California, the second to the last of the tour's 28 stops across the US.
We're only here for some of that ol' phunky Cypress Hill shit... Suddenly, opiatic sitar music fills our ears. Amid rising billows of smoke, two onion-domed temples on each end of the stage begin to inflate. Bobo, the latest addition to Cypress' live show, begins to beat out intoxicating rhythms from an array of bongos, timbales and other percussive instruments. Trippy. More so, no doubt, if you've made a purchase from the kid in sagging jeans.
The theatrical display fuels the anticipation of the kids up front. When B-Real and Sen Dog step on-stage to embark upon their joint venture, the crowd literally ignites. Thousands of outstretched arms ebb and flow; scores of pipes and blunts are ceremoniously fired up. A sweet, herbaceous scent wafts through the air.
The duo launch into an uptempo song off the group's forthcoming LP, 'Cypress Hill Three - Temple Of Boom', more akin to original funky Cypress than the darker, moodier vibes of 'Black Sunday'. Dressed unassumingly in a white T-shirt, Adidas training pants and a backwards cap hiding his newly buzzed head, B-Real leads the assault in his nasal stylo, bolstered by Sen's Spanglish accent on hooks and choruses. From there they delve into the songs that launched their careers - 'How I Could Just Kill A Man' and 'Hand On The Pump'. Mad jumping ensues, and everything from sunglasses to blunts and baggies are tossed on stage in tribute.
'I Wanna Get High', 'Hits From the Bong' and 'Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk' are among the group's odes to their best girl, Mary Jane, during which B and Sen solicit tokes from blunted fans. Cypress' standard repertoire also includes nods to their 'Latin Lingo' roots, though the Brown contingent is conspicuously unrepresented here today. Hits like 'Insane In The Brain' are mixed in with untried material from the new project, such as a stark depiction of gang life, 'Throw Your Set In The Air', slated as the first single, and 'Step The Fuck Off', which B ambiguously explains is "...dedicated to a certain rapper who can't think of his own shit, and has to steal ours, and any other biting muthafuckas who ain't got no creativity".
Cypress close the set, fittingly, with 'Ain't Going Out Like That'. B drops his mic to dive head-first into the churning swell of pit-dwellers, who happily support him.
Insane energy. A bit surreal. Cypress-palooza. Courtney Love has a tough act to follow...