Happy 30th Anniversary to Cypress Hill’s third studio album Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom, originally released October 31, 1995.
I have previously written about how Cypress Hill is one of my favorite musical success stories. As a crew of Los Angeles-based hard rocks, they found massive commercial and crossover success without compromising their sound and style in the least. The trio delivered gritty, “gangsta” hip-hop laced with tales of violence and fueled by the enjoyment of good herb.
Comprised of rappers Louis “B-Real” Freese and Senen “Sen Dog” Reyes, as well as producer Lawrence “DJ Muggs” Muggerud, the pair started their career with a pair of multi-platinum albums. Their sophomore release, Black Sunday (1993), became the most successful album of their lengthy career, eventually going four times platinum, and making them a cultural force.
Cypress Hill followed-up Black Sunday with Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom, released 30 years ago. In terms of subject matter, the album provided their fans with the type of material that they were accustomed to. Behind the boards, Muggs decided to alter Cypress Hill’s musical path, shifting the sonic backdrop in a way that charted new territory for the group, but felt at peace with their ethos.
Temples of Boom is a cohesive and complete project. The adjustment to the group’s musical backdrop is integral to the album’s success. Best known for his dark and dusty tracks, Muggs takes things in a grimmer, yet jazzier direction on Temples of Boom. The dark overtones are front and center, as the beats often feel more gothic and surreal, layered with otherworldly vocal samples and foreboding keys and organs.
Two weed-centered tracks bookend the album. Well, they’re the opening track and the “CD only” bonus track (which I didn’t hear until awhile after its release, as I originally purchased the album on tape). “Spark Another Owl” is a perfectly decent way to start the album. It’s a mellow track that shares DNA with “I Wanna Get High,” which opened Black Sunday. Muggs’ production is excellent, as he expertly chops piano notes from Pete Jolly’s “Leaves.” B-Real kicks a single verse about his enjoyment of good green and his role as a pioneer in making weed smoking acceptable on record.
“Everybody Must Get Stoned” is similarly blissed out, with Muggs creating a placid vibe through his usage of keys and spurts of horns. “Funk Freakers” isn’t explicitly about weed, instead featuring B-Real and Sen Dog speaking to the chemical potency of Cypress Hill’s music, and the effect that it has on the listener. “Rhythms upside your brain, can you hang?” B-Real ponders. “Can you maintain? Can you feel the funk flowin' in your veins?”
“Throw Your Set In the Air,” the album’s first single, is a statement of Cypress Hill’s dominance within hip-hop culture. Over eerie, dirge-like keyboards, B-Real likens becoming a fan of the crew to being jumped into a gang, with all three members demanding absolute loyalty and obedience to the group’s music.
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Songs like “Stoned Raiders,” “Make a Move,” and “Killafornia” zero in on Temples of Boom’s theme. The crew have always excelled at recording tracks that centered on seeking bloody retribution against their adversaries. It’s likely the central tenet of their recording history. “Boom Biddy Bye Bye” follows this motif, with B-Real and Sen Dog dispensing violence without remorse, providing contrast to a smooth vibraphone sample.
Cypress Hill also frequently detail the psychological trauma that street life can bring about. “Illusions,” the album’s second single, features some of Muggs’ best production, as he samples multiple portions of Gary Burton’s “Las Vegas Tango,” as well as masterful verses from B-Real depicting a psyche racked with paranoia and self-loathing. He describes cycling through the system, trying to hold on to his sanity, while still seeking fleeting relief through marijuana use and female attention.
Guest appearances on Cypress Hill albums were rare early in their career, which helped make “Killa Hill N***as” stand-out. The Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and U-God join B-Real on the mic for the album’s most rugged track. It’s fitting that RZA appears on the album, as Muggs served as one of the Wu-Tang producer’s influences.
Both Clan members show out on the track, buoyed by piercing synths and hard-hitting drums. RZA mocks “Power-U n****s talking fast like Puerto Ricans,” while U-God delivers a steady flow of rhymes, rapping, “Comma, llama, smash-crashing your armor / Drama, I’m a stealth aircraft bomber.” Sen Dog, assuming the alter-ego of Captain Pingaloca, adds to the sinister atmosphere by delivering belligerent screeds in Espanol throughout the hooks.
Cypress Hill deliver a strong narrative on “Locotes.” The song tells the tale of two LA-born hard rocks, fresh out of prison, who find themselves fleeing from the law after a robbery gone wrong. B-Real and Sen Dog describes a deadly chase through the streets of Los Angeles, as they try to escape the police in a car, on foot, and in a bus, before meeting an unlikely bloody demise.
Cypress Hill uses Temple of Boom to air out some beefs. Most notable is their feud with Ice Cube. The ill will seemed to come out of left field when the album dropped, as Cypress Hill and Cube had previously been close. There was a lot of mutual admiration and overall friendship between the artists, as they’d frequently collaborated artistically. Muggs had produced some of the best songs on Cube’s The Predator (1992). So I would not have had a vicious battle between the two on my proverbial bingo card.
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The genesis of the beef seemed to start with the Friday soundtrack (1995) and the aforementioned “Throw Your Set in the Air.” The details behind what happened can be found on the Beef DVD series from the early ’00s and on YouTube. It essentially involved allegations of stolen choruses and lyrics. Suffice to say, B-Real took serious offense, accusing Cube of biting their ideas and styles, and then recording “No Rest For the Wicked.”
“No Rest…” is pretty vicious, with B-Real laying into Cube pretty thoroughly, derisively calling him “Doughboy,” accusing him of talking about his homeboys behind their backs and labeling him a studio gangsta. It’s not the strongest dis track in Cypress’ arsenal, but it’s fascinating to witness how things between the parties went so sour so quickly. Both sides traded venomous barbs towards each other over the subsequent year, with things getting pretty heated overall. The camps eventually squashed the beef for good in early 1997.
Cypress also frequently targets Reginald C. Dennis and James Bernard, both then editors at The Source magazine. B-Real maintained that the pair took shots at him frequently in the magazine, after he voiced some disagreements about one of their editorial decisions, such as putting R&B group TLC on the cover of the magazine, instead of other hip-hop groups. B-Real dissed them frequently during the album’s closing tracks, including the propulsive “Let It Rain.”
Seeing as hip-hop was about a year or two away from fully embracing the “shiny suit era,” a track like the bare bones “Strictly Hip-Hop” was a breath of fresh air at the time. In 1995, Cypress Hill could see which way the wind was blowing, and used “Strictly Hip-Hop” to lambast rappers appearing on R&B tracks and in commercials, both of which used to be considered taboo. Along with disses towards The Source editors and former Soul Assassins cohorts House of Pain, B-Real champions the group’s ability to go Platinum without compromising their content. “Fucking sell out, n***a, this is hip-hop, not fashion,” he sneers.
Though Temples of Boom was also certified Platinum, it’s not often held in the same regard as Cypress Hill’s previous two releases. As much as I love the production, I will admit that it was less accessible than the soundscapes that the group had become known for. I appreciated the crew taking a step in a different musical direction, as Muggs continued to showcase his creativity as a producer. And B-Real and Muggs consistently gave listeners the type of material that they had come to love.
The album might not have directly appealed to the audience that had come to enjoy the group’s music, but it’s an uncompromised piece of work that demonstrates Cypress Hill’s many abilities. It capped what was an incredible three-album run and continued to solidify their legend.
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