Thirty years into the game, most rap groups are lucky to get booked at nostalgia festivals wedged between a county fair and a Golden Corral. Cypress Hill are still throwing molotovs through your speakers and headlining tours with Slipknot like it’s a casual Tuesday.
“We didn’t actually know at the time what we were doing,” B-Real says about the early sessions for Back in Black, their latest boom-bap sledgehammer of a record. That’s right, Cypress Hill made a no-nonsense hip-hop album with Detroit producer Black Milk while also recording the psychedelic fever dream Elephants on Acid with DJ Muggs. “It started with just a few songs, but we felt like [Black Milk] hit the tone of what Cypress Hill is… under his production.”
If you’re wondering who’s hungry this time around, it’s Sen Dog. “I thought Sen was coming with such fire that he should lead a lot of these tracks,” B-Real says, calling himself the executive producer in charge of letting the dog off the leash. “I totally have confidence in my abilities and his… but he was flexing hard, so I kindly took the second slot.”
Back in Black lands just as the band’s debut turned 30. “No one expected us to be in it for five years,” B-Real shrugs. “And here we are 30 years later… putting out a new album and a documentary.” (Insane in the Brain, naturally, drops on 4/20 via Showtime. Try to act surprised.)
But don’t let the longevity fool you—this isn’t a victory lap, and B-Real has a few more things to say about the state of the world. On tracks like “Bye Bye,” Cypress Hill takes a torch to America’s favorite pastime: trusting politicians. “They don’t give two fucks about any of us,” B-Real spits. “People stand against each other in the name of these fuckin’ faces… Realistically, we’re all in this together.”
Sound like Chuck D? That’s not an accident. “Being in Prophets of Rage, getting to hang with Chuck D and Morello, that rubbed off,” he admits. “So I brought it back to Cypress. We used to talk more street-oriented shit, but now, as businessmen, as family men, we see what’s going on—and as artists, we gotta talk about it.”
That goes for the weed fight too. “We got it legal in California,” he says, “but we’re being treated unfairly. The taxation’s crazy. The hoops you gotta jump through… It’s a lack of knowledge.” He even name-checks Kentucky, calling it “one of the low-key big producers” and practically begs the state to get its shit together. “They need to come on in,” he grins. “There’s gifted cultivators down there and a robust culture—it just needs to be opened up.”
Despite it all, Cypress Hill keeps evolving. “You can’t just do this shit when it’s time to make an album,” he says. “We’re constantly in the lab. Training like athletes. We don’t sound like the Cypress Hill of ’91, and that’s on purpose.”
Of course, their crossover cred still looms large—especially with the metalheads. “We grew up listening to shit like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden… and we brought that into hip-hop,” he says. “Our album covers, our stage show, the skull logo—all that came from that world. Mosh pits, stage dives… we were punk rock as fuck.”
So it makes sense that The Real Thing—their collab with Pearl Jam—still hits a nerve. “That was a real moment,” B-Real recalls. “We did it remote, sent the track back and forth, and only ever performed it once—on MTV’s Live and Loud. Nirvana was supposed to headline, Pearl Jam was co-headlining, and we were opening. Eddie didn’t show up, so Pearl Jam got scratched, but we still did the song. One time only.”
Let’s be clear: Cypress Hill didn’t just outlive the hype—they burned it down and kept walking. “We’re still giving everybody hell that has to play after us,” B-Real says with a smirk. “That hasn’t changed.”
And neither has the message: open your mind, don’t believe the hype, and spark one while you’re at it. It’s still a long ride—but Cypress Hill is in the driver’s seat.
Watch the interview above and then check out the videos below.
