Cypress Hill‘s journey from their humble beginnings “from this little spot in East LA” to their worldwide influence on hip hop music proved to be an unpredictable one that the members are glad they embarked upon. Their pioneering combination of West Coast rap, Latin music and rock earned them many “first” accolades, and for the last three decades, the group’s impact on hip hop culture has continued to grow.
The new Showtime documentary Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain provides an in-depth look into the lives of group members DJ Muggs, Eric Bobo, B-Real and Sen Dog, dating back to the rise of the iconic group in the early ’90s.
Founding member Sen Dog, born Senen Reyes, told ABC Audio that the group didn’t foresee the massive success they’d come to achieve.
“At the beginning, we thought we’d have maybe two, three albums. And we thought that girls wouldn’t like it because we were too hardcore underground,” he said. “And we were wrong about all that stuff.”
They were wrong indeed. After the group’s critically acclaimed debut album in 1991, they went on to release nine others, including the Billboard chart-topper Black Sunday, which includes the 1993 Gold RIAA-certified song “Insane in the Brain.”
Regarding the psychedelic track, Sen Dog admitted, “We thought that we had a good song, not a great song.”
Director Estevan Oriol made sure to highlight the group’s advocacy for marijuana, affectionately referred to as “the flower.” Oriol, a longtime friend of the band, told ABC Audio that he felt “a lot” of pressure to tell the group’s story authentically and truthfully.
Oriol said it was “next to impossible” to put 30 years of history into 90 minutes, but he and the crew did just that. (AUDIO IS ABC 1-ON-1)
Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain airs tonight on Showtime, at 8 p.m. ET.
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