Black Sunday - Cypress Hill

'Black Sunday' is the super second album from the American hip-hop group that is Cypress Hill. The album was released in 1993 and consists of a grand total of fourteen tracks; it's a great little album from Cypress Hill and one which comes complete with a high number of top tracks. I'm not exactly a massive fan of hip-hop, I do however have a great appreciation for the genre at times and when I'm in the mood for the music there are a couple of albums that I almost always reach for; 'Black Sunday' is one of those albums. Beginning with 'I Wanna Get High' the music immediately makes its impact, the beat is absolutely infectious and the vocals always are ...

Cypress Hill’s hardcore hip hop sound on their sophmore long player was a style far removed from the NWA-themed verbal battering lamenting the state of the United States policing system. While CH’s own take wasn’t adverse to putting punks in their place, there was something about the incessant rhyme schemes of how many joints you could light in succession and B Real’s semi-surreal mixture of sucking in balloons and then pinching his nose, to create an idiosyncratic pattern of hip hop toked up to its eyeballs while whining like some kind of manic cartoon creation. Black Sunday probably gave a lease of life to those wanting to access music that ...

In 1991, the climate for hip-hop, as it had in alternative music with the advent of Nirvana, was undergoing radical changes. Around this time, when Cypress Hill released their eponymous debut, George Clinton's influence on rap was becoming more apparent, most notably in Dr. Dre's 1992 G-Funk trendsetter THE CHRONIC. This album encapsulated many Parliament and Funkadelic-inspired elements, including the whining synth melodies (prior to this, it was rare to have melody at all in rap), deep funky bass grooves, and instantly catchy but with a decidedly eerie flavor. At a time when too many East Coast MCs were content to rap over James Brown samples and simple ...